Online visibility is a crucial part of getting your business found so that you can start to drive online sales. Once you have created a website, you need to take the right steps to get it listed in the Google search results, otherwise potential customers won’t be able to find you!
The sole purpose of Google’s core algorithm is to provide answers to user’s questions. It’s that simple. This explains why Google shows snippets, carousels, paid ads and local map listings for specific results – to ensure that the user finds the most relevant answer to their question in as little clicks as possible.
In order to develop a bulletproof content and SEO strategy, you need to have an understanding of how Google interprets user intent and how this influences the rankings.
We have been in the game a long time and as well as studying documents released by Google themselves, we have a backlog of experience within the Google realm, so feel we have a generous amount of knowledge when it comes to understanding how Google ranks websites.
User Intent
An issue that is often not taken into account is multiple user intent. Take the term ‘Amazon’; this is a classic example of multiple user intent, as people searching for this may be looking for the brand or the rainforest.
Google should be able to identify from your pages which ‘Amazon’ you are so you are not shown for irrelevant terms, and don’t gain lots of irrelevant traffic that causes high bounce rates.
However, if Google sees that a higher percentage of people are searching for the amazon rainforest than Amazon the brand, they will show results for the former first. This is the case for every instance where there could be multiple user intent for the search term.
Ordering
Contrary to popular belief, the number of links pointing to Amazon’s website is not the reason why it ranks first for this term.
Yes, links still play a key role in ranking signals but it is not the sole reason websites reach the number one position. There are many websites that appear at the top of the search results who have little to no links.
The search results are ordered by user intent, meaning that Google will show the listings of the webpages they deem most relevant to your query with perhaps a few listings further down the page of the other ‘amazon’ so that if they have got it wrong they can learn from what you click.
Links
The days of hundreds of links leading to great rankings are gone.
Even keyword relevance and title tags don’t promise rankings anymore. Whilst all these elements are still important and necessary for the bigger picture, we can see that user intent is one of the most powerful signals as to what ranks at the top of Google.
So, once you launch your business website, what should you do to get it in front of your target audience? Whilst having a website does put things in motion and eventually Google will find your website without your input, there are ways to speed things up and improve the quality of your website at the same time.
Submit Your Sitemap
Google bots will eventually find your website; however, this can take some time. Google bots are in high demand, it is estimated that 550,000 websites are created every day worldwide! You can speed this up by submitting your sitemap to Google directly, giving them a heads up that you have a new website or new pages on your website that need to be crawled.
Firstly, check if Google has actually already listed your website in the search results. You can do this by entering site:mywebsite.com into Google. If pages of your website appear then Google has indexed your website. If no search results are returned, you need to log in to your Google Search Console account and submit your XML sitemap.
Gain backlinks
As mentioned previously, to gain high rankings in the search results, you need to gain high quality links back to your website from authoritative sources. Not only does this improve the SEO of your website, this also directs Google to crawl your website and list it in the search results. By placing links around the web to your website, when Google finds them links, they will follow the link back to your website which they will then list in Google Search.
Depending on your industry, the best places to obtain backlinks is niche-specific directories (of high quality) and providing content to authoritative websites in your industry with a link back to your website in an author bio. Not only will these practises gain you backlinks but also help you spread the word of your business to readers.
It is also good practise to add a link to your website on all of your social media profiles, so any potential customers who find your social profiles have a direct link to your website.
Optimise With Keywords
In order for potential customers to find your website for the products or services you offer, you need to mention relevant keywords on your website. If you sell women’s handbags then you should use the keyword ‘womens handbags’ and similar variations. By doing so, Google will associate your website with these terms and show your website in the search results when these terms are searched. It is important to remember that keywords alone don’t guarantee page 1 rankings, but are effective as part of a SEO strategy.
Optimise Your Meta Tags
As well as ensuring that your on page content is optimised, it is important that your meta tags are optimised too. Your meta tags are the title and description that appear next to your website in the search results. Your title tag and meta description should explain what the page is about and encourage the user to click through to your website. By improving your search listing you will help Google understand the purpose of your page and where they should rank you.
Once you’ve taken all of these steps to improve the quality of your business website, how long quickly will you start to see the results of your efforts?
Compared to paid search advertising, SEO is a long-term solution and doesn’t provide immediate results in the way that paid ads can be set up and running in a day. SEO consists of many different elements that need to be set up, optimised and working together before you see the long-term benefits.
Unfortunately, when businesses run into difficult times and need to reallocate budget to save resources, it is common that marketing is the first to lose budget, which can be a costly mistake.
SEO is a long-term plan and some clients don’t start to see real uplift in traffic and performance until 4-6 months down the line, purely because Google hasn’t picked up on the changes and ranked their website accordingly. Google has an extremely complicated algorithm that consists of over 200 factors which they use to rank websites. However, this delay in seeing progress does make business owners questions whether SEO is worth it and if their budget could be better spent elsewhere.
In short – yes, SEO is worth it. It just takes time! SEO is a big, complex machine with many moving parts that will take time to all work together. We always suggest a combined SEO and PPC campaign to our clients so that whilst you’re waiting to see the long-term results from SEO, you are getting business and traffic from your PPC ads.
The statistics speak for themselves:
- 70% of marketing professionals agree that SEO is more effective than PPC
- 61% of marketing professionals say improving SEO is their top marketing priority
- 60% of all clicks are on the first five organic search results on page 1 of Google
- 57% of marketing professional say on page SEO optimisation is the most effective tactic
SEO is no longer just for large enterprises. It has become one of the best ways for start-ups and small businesses to get their businesses on the map, as well as drive quality traffic and sales straight to their door!
SEO is one of the most valuable marketing avenues for business owners, as user’s search intent is very clear, and SEO overlaps with so many elements of digital marketing that is further cements itself as a strategy that should be core to your overall marketing approach.
Social Media
Social media and SEO are completely intertwined and you should combine your marketing efforts because of this. Social shares are a ranking factor for SEO as well as creating natural backlinks for the SEO content on your site.
Content Marketing
Content is important for every aspect of your marketing strategy. Your PPC campaign requires quality landing pages in order to perform correctly just as your SEO strategy does. Content is key for SEO so working alongside your content department to create great quality can help boost rankings and sales overall.
Conversion Enhancement
SEO can help conversion tactics by providing guidance on not only technical elements but also content suggestions as well as conversion points that will be most effective on each page.
Get in touch with the In Front team to discuss how a successful digital marketing campaign can lead to long lasting results. Alternatively, take a look at our SEO services.