Being a “good online citizen” and Search Engine Optimization
Today’s increasingly competitive market requires that you do whatever it takes to stand out from the crowd, and your website is an essential tool in this endeavor. Marketing your website effectively has never been more important than it is today and for this reason you cannot just expect that people will find your site; you have to actively help them find it. This article discusses how to ensure your success online with being a “good online citizen” through Google’s eyes and search engine optimization (SEO). Part 1 of this series discussed building your website, how to choose the right digital marketing firm and the importance of content along with tricks with content creation. There are many ways you can ensure your success online and this article will review them so you can implement them in your own business’s marketing plan.
Becoming a “good online citizen” through Google’s Eyes
After you have developed your website it is vital that you effectively market your website online. Becoming a “good online citizen” is important for your online success. The search engines want to provide their users with the best possible results when they search specific keywords/terms. There are hundreds of metrics the search engines use in order to evaluate websites and how they will rank for certain search terms. One of the metrics that many businesses overlook is the concept of the overall user experience. This means things like having a user friendly website (ie. responsive mobile friendly) so that when people visit your website from any device they have a good user experience. This also means having good quality content, relevant information that they will find helpful in learning about your company. There are numerous other “user experience” factors that need to be implemented with your website in order to increase your rankings and conversion.
However, this particular section covers the concept of being a “good online citizen” through the eyes of the search engines. These are all simple concepts many businesses overlook when marketing their businesses.
What is a “good online citizen” through Google’s Eyes?
I have used this term for years and define it as the concept that all things online either help or hurt your search engine rankings. This is true from the complex things like how your website is coded or designed, the size of your images on your website down to the simple things like having contact forms, online reviews and social media. It is important that you do as much as you can do to increase the overall user experience.
Why is this important for your search engine rankings?
It is important because they all follow the goals of creating the best overall user experience. The search engines clearly state that they send their traffic to the most relevant and best user experience possible. This means that the more you do to better the overall experience for the end user the more likely you will rank higher on the search engines. As the business owner it is your job to focus on both the big and small details when it comes to marketing your business – part of this is hiring the right digital marketing firm but also understanding that the only person vested in your success is you – which is why it is vital to focus on all the small details.
Examples to assist you in getting in the mindset of focusing on the big and small details!
1. Is your marketing a two way street? This is a simple but often overlooked concept that will help your online rankings. In order to provide a good user experience, it is important that your website has contact forms, a phone number for people to call, an active social media presence and so on. Google wants to send users to a website where people will be able to resolve whatever their needs are. If your website does not have simple ways to contact your business, you are not solving that problem.
2. Responding to Social Media Comments, Online Reviews. This shows the search engines you are active and an actual business – and that you care about the user experience. Inaction can be a negative for your business and lower your online rankings. It is important that if you receive a review, you reply to it by either thanking the person for the kind review or trying to assist the person who left a negative review. This helps with conversion but as importantly, shows Google that you are there and not just trying to generate traffic for other reasons. It shows that you are active and care about the user experience. They will reward you for things like this.
3. Content Updated? If you have a website but have not updated the content for a long time it is important that you take that step. (Review Part 1 of this article for much more detail on content and content creation) This does not mean that you need to rewrite it all, but adding a blog that is updated monthly, or specials – or even having your social media feed into your website will show that you are taking an active position on your website and it will help you rank higher online.
4. Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP). One important metric many businesses overlook is making sure that your business name, address and phone number are all the same across all sites on the internet. There are numerous services that can assist you with this for a low cost but it is important for your online rankings and builds credibility with the search engines. A business name being listed in one location as “SAMPLE BUSINESS INC” and in another location as just “SAMPLE BUSINESS” without the INC can hurt your online rankings and your map placement on Google.
5. Bad Customer Service? If a potential client or actual client of your business receives poor customer service or has an overall bad experience, they may leave a negative review online. Negative reviews can hurt your online rankings because it is one of the many ways Google and the other search engines weigh the user experience.
6. Website Speed. The search engines factor in how fast your website loads and this can hurt your rankings if your website loads slowly. You can easily check the speed of your website here.
7. Domain Age. If you have a brand new domain, you have a disadvantage versus a website that has been around for years.
8. Content Hard To Find. If your content is hard to find, it will hurt your online rankings.
9. Irrelevant Content. If your content is not relevant to what you are advertising, this will hurt your rankings.
10. Time on Website. If the average user does not spend much time on your website, that means they are not finding what they are looking for and this can hurt your rankings. You can make changes in order to better the overall user experience which can increase the amount of time spent on the website.
There are literally dozens of other metrics involving creating a better overall user experience. It is important for your website marketing that you pay attention to both the major and minor details when it comes to the overall user experience. Being a “good online citizen” means that you are a two way street of information – providing content for your website and also giving users the ability to contact you. It also means that you actively reply to online reviews and social media comments. The best and most effective way to ensure the overall user experience is positive is to constantly try to find ways to make content easier to find, make your business easier to find and make decisions focused on what you think will improve the overall user experience.
Marketing your website with Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) if done properly is one of the most effective marketing avenues you can invest in. From the start though, it is important that you understand SEO results take time and it is not something that will produce immediate results for you. It is a long term strategy and investment. We will cover other more short term and effective strategies below but SEO is a vital component to your long term success. This section gives a general overview of SEO – more detailed information can be found here: Search Engine Optimization
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? SEO is the process of making sure your website appears as high as possible on the search engine result pages (SERPs) whenever anyone searches for any term related to your business. The point of marketing online with SEO is so you get free traffic (minus the fees from digital marketing firms) from search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. There are numerous factors that assist you with ranking your website higher in the search engines.
SEO is a Long Term Strategy! As a business owner it is important you have realistic expectations for how quickly you can get results from SEO. If you have a new domain name, it will take a longer amount of time for the search engines to trust your website and rank it higher. If you previously used an SEO company that used black hat techniques (like mass spam link building, duplicated content etc) it can take much longer to rank high on the search engines. If you have had a domain for a long period of time, you have a much better shot of seeing quick results from SEO.
I just launched a new website but on the same domain as my previous website – does that mean I am starting over with Google? It is common for business owners to think that by launching a new website they will lose SEO rankings but that is not the case. Your online rankings are tied to your domain. As long as your website company does it correctly you should not see any drop in current SEO rankings. This is a very complicated subject but that is the short answer. If you need some guidance on this feel free to contact us because if it is not done properly it will hurt your rankings significantly.
What are the 5 most important factors to succeed in Search Engine Optimization?
It is important to point out there are dozens of important factors when it comes to search engine optimization. There is no way to cover all those details in this article so if you have additional questions you can visit SayWhat Consulting or you can get a free Online Marketing Audit which will cover all the things you are doing right and wrong online. We can also assist you in finding the right digital marketing firm for your needs.
1. Design of your website – The design of your website is vital to your success because numerous SEO factors are tied to it. Some business owners add numerous high quality images and make their website gorgeous but it slows the website down significantly. When you design and build your website it is important you ensure that the website is fast, loads quickly and most importantly works across all platforms. This means the website works exceptionally well when users come from smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. This will help you rank higher in the search engines.
2. Content – It is vital that you have relevant and unique content for your website. I covered this in detail in Part 1 of this article but wanted to mention it again because it is that important. When you write content for your website, you have to ensure it is unique content (not copied from another website) and provides the website visitor information about your business. A common mistake is writing content focused on SEO which leads to heavy keyword use and unnatural sentences. When you write the content for your website, write it for the website visitor – this will increase the relevance of your website and in turn help you rank higher on the search engines.
3. Building Links – Google views a link from another website to your website as an important factor with SEO. It says to the search engines that another website likes your content enough that they are willing to share it with their website visitors. It makes the search engines trust your website more and therefore will end up with your website ranking higher. It is imperative that YOU DO NOT buy links for your website. There are thousands of companies that offer link building campaigns for a few hundred dollars – this will be considered link spamming and Google will penalize your website rankings if you do this. If your previous SEO Company did this it is important you disavow those links through Google immediately. Link Building is a vital part of SEO but also has to be done naturally. If you have a great website and great content – other websites will naturally link to you. There are certain steps you can take to increase your incoming links like guest blogging on other websites, articles written by you being shared across platforms, social media marketing, blogs, videos on certain platforms along with dozens of other proven techniques that work. It is important to note with link building that quality is more important than quantity.
4. Onsite Search Engine Optimization – Onsite SEO means doing everything possible on your actual website in order to increase your rankings online. Onsite SEO is everything that you can control including the keywords on your website, the content including videos, testimonials, the link structure of your website, the speed of your website. The most important onsite SEO items to focus on are: Content, Website Speed, User Friendliness, Keywords, Title Tags, Internal Link Structure, consistent contact information (NAP) and URL structures.
5. What is Offsite SEO? Offsite SEO is anything that happens outside of your website that affects your ranking on search engines. The main part of offsite SEO is link building as mentioned above. However, it includes things like Social Media Marketing, Local Citations (aka NAP – Name, Address, Phone Number), Offline Marketing (Media Advertising and Public Relations), Online Video Marketing and Reputation Management (online Reviews). You control some of the offsite SEO but not everything.
It is important that your focus on search engine optimization has a specific strategy for both onsite and offsite SEO along with the other factors mentioned above and in part 1 of this article. If you hire the right digital marketing firm it will be much easier and more profitable for you – if you hire the wrong firm it can hurt your results for years. With 20+ years of digital marketing experience, SayWhat Consulting can protect your business by interviewing and finding the right digital marketing firm for your needs. We have vast experience, are familiar with all of the common sales tactics and tricks and will get you the bottom line pricing.
Written by David Phillips, CEO and Founder of SayWhat Consulting. With over 20 years of experience, Mr. Phillips has consulted with small, medium and large businesses in marketing, business management, staff training and day-to-day operations. SayWhat assists clients in numerous industries including cosmetic surgeons, plastic surgeons, med spas and attorneys in family law and criminal law. We also assist other industries as well and our primary clients are small and medium sized businesses.