…unless you have everything else in place ready for it. It’s like selling tickets for a concert without making sure you have an musician lined up, or a speaker system to play it on. People will check it out hearing there is a concert, but walk away fast realizing there is nothing there they came looking for! Having very poorly designed websites has the exact same effect. By design I am not limiting it to how it looks, however that does play a role. By design I am also talking about the content, how it functions, and how it converts visitors into leads, and leads into customers. Here is a list of important things to think about before you worry about how to be #1 in search engines, If these things are in place, it will make getting top results easier, and keep the visitors from walking right back out on the first page.
- Keywords only help so much.
You can use the Google Keyword tool to figure how many people are searching for your specific key words, but you also need to convince people you’re an expert in the field of the key word your being found for. This is done with your blog where you help educate people. - Creating content people want to share.
Having content is one thing, making it worth sharing is another thing! While it is easy to take existing content that’s available and just re-write it to be your own, you need to give people a reason to share it. Ask yourself these questions; is my content informative, unique, helpful or funny? Think of your market, and make sure your content fits the industry, and is good enough to be shared. - Stop trying to serve everyone.
Make your content specific to your ideal customer. The idea is to draw in the ideal customer, so you’re doing more of the work you love and be able to pass on the work you don’t want. Do you see McDonald’s advertising romantic dinners for two? Or BMW looking for students on a tight budget? Sure you might find the odd couple who think going out to McDonald’s is a date (Hey, if you’re a new parent you will take what you can get), or a student who can afford the BMW, but they don’t spend their time marketing to them because they are not the ideal customer. - Google is all about organic.
Can things be done to your site to improve your SEO? YES! Can work on getting backlinks to your site to improve SEO? YES! But be careful, there is a fine line between doing this in an organic healthy way, and pushing too hard, or cheating the system. Google really owes you nothing, you do not pay them for anything, and so if they change the rules, or give your site a bad ranking, there is not much you can do about it, so playing by their rules is probably the best option. - Google is not the only way to be found.
If you’re lacking in website traffic, spend some time figuring out where your potential customers are and try to draw them in from there. For your business it may be Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter or another one of the many platforms out there. If they are in Facebook you need to figure out what pages your customers like, like and follow those pages, interact with them, share, like, comment and be a part of the conversation. Your potential customers will see you there and if they like what you’re doing, they will make their way to your page and possibly follow you. - Always finish with a call to Action.
Every blog post or article you write should have one thing to do next! Depending on your marketing plan that may be something simple like giving them a reason to share the blog, or sign up for your email list, or BUY NOW!
Remember that the better your content, the more interactive people are with it, and the more it’s shared, the better your search engine results become! Also ask yourself, are you more likely to buy form a company because they were on the top of Google, or because you saw a friend share the companies information?
