Almost every business wants to rank first in Google for their product niche – not only is it satisfying to win the Google ranking game, but it’s also often the path to greater revenue.
That ranking game, for many of our clients, feels mysterious and daunting. Many of them have been playing the game based on gut instinct and guesswork for a long time, and are exhausted.
Among frustrated business owners whose search status seems to stagnate, we’ve noticed some common mistakes. Here are some major ones, along with solutions that you can implement with your team.
Pitfall #1: Flimsy Content
If you’ve got a stack of blog posts that no one is reading, ask yourself: who is your audience? What interests and concerns them? And how can my blogs satisfy those interests and concerns?
Strong content covers relevant topics in an accessible way and is the key to boosting your rankings in organic search.
Let’s say your company sells contract management software and you’re writing blogs like, “The Intricacies Of Our Source Code.” Cool. But: is your audience interested in the intricacies of source code? Are they coders? Or are they contractors interested in how the software saves them time and money in daily business?
What is Relevant?
Your customers’ lives, goals, and pain points will determine what is relevant. So, how on earth do you figure that out? It’s actually quite easy: use an SEO tool to find out exactly which questions people in your industry are googling. Google apps (like Search Console, Trends, and Analytics) are free, user-friendly, and invaluable.
Once you know the questions people are asking, you can design content for relevant answers. No guesswork required, no more time spent writing ill-conceived blogs.
You can even revise old blogs to answer the questions you find in these keyword searches. “The Intricacies Of Our Source Code” can become “Saving Time and Money Through Contract Automation.”
What is Accessible?
Making content accessible for your audience means using clear language, helpful layout, and thorough arguments.
These are the same criteria that the search engines are looking for. Search engine A.I. has started to take cues from human readers. So if you’ve written something that’s useful and readable for your audiences, you’re on your way to winning over search engines as well.
To really charm the search engines, make each post at least 300 words long (ideally 600 – 2000 words) and format it with proper headings and subheadings to help users easily navigate the page.
Pitfall #2: Waiting To Be Found
If you don’t toot your own horn a little bit, people may never discover these fabulous resources you’ve created for them.
Once you’ve written content that is excellent and useful and readable, it’s time to let the world know. The more people engage with your site, link to your posts on their own blogs, and share with friends, the quicker you’re going to improve your rank in search engines.
Social Posts
Let your followers know when a new post is up. Share older posts with your network any time that they seem relevant to the online discussion. Don’t be shy! You designed this content to benefit people’s lives, and you never know when a piece will make somebody’s day.
Targeted Ads
Instead of optimizing your web presence and waiting to be found, a targeted ad service will put you in front of people who are likely to appreciate you. So long as you can identify your target audience with precision, ads are money well spent. Ad platforms have made this task increasingly easy and effective.
Newsletters
The ROI for email marketing can be wild. Numerous studies have found it to be around a $38 return for every $1 spent. Newsletters usually go out to contacts whose info you’ve collected first-hand – warm leads, recent visitors to your site, current and former clients. You know they’re interested in what you do, so this is a great space to show off your latest content.
Pitfall #3: Clunky Websites
It takes all of this work just to get people to click on your links and visit your site. Once they finally arrive, don’t give them a reason to turn and leave. This is where site design and User Experience (UX) are essential.
Google takes note of how much time people spend on your site, especially newcomers. So check your website analytics. Are visitors leaving your site without interacting or reading beyond the page they came in on? This issue is commonly known as “bouncing”. If your bounce rate is high, you’ve may have some UX issues to fix. Here are major areas to consider.
Speed
The goal is for the page load to feel instant for your visitors. If it’s 1 second or less, you’re doing great. Once you get past the 3-second range, you’re in dangerous risk of losing people before they even learn what your site has to offer.
Design
Aesthetics are, of course, relative. Still, white space is always your friend when it comes to web design. We generally encourage people to use simple, spacious design – it’s easier for visitors to navigate. And, of course, make sure that newcomers can get to your best content from the landing page in as few steps as possible.
Mobile Optimization
Nearly half of all of the total U.S. commerce market will be conducted with mobile devices this year. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile use, you’re losing sales. When building, refining, and updating your site, assume that your audience is visiting via phones and tablets.
Customer Support
No matter how brilliantly designed and optimized your site is, visitors will always have questions unique to their needs. Responsiveness is key to UX. And these days, customers are very willing to take their business elsewhere if they don’t receive the personalized service they desire. Livechat support converts sales by guiding customers through any unforeseen pain points in the sales process.
Our friends at Ruby happen to do live chat support in a fabulous way.
Steps Toward SEO Success
Optimizing your presence for search engine ranking requires attention to diverse avenues of the internet, but at its core the mission is simple: you’re trying to create valuable products and services for people and you’re trying to let them see how your business might improve their lives.
You might have dabbled with SEO analytics tools already and found it frustrating. This is completely normal – the learning curve at first can feel really tough. But, much like learning a language, with time and experience and immersion, you can get the hang of it.
Of course, some elements of UX require outside support. A web designer can do for your site in one day what might take you several weeks to learn on your own. And when visitors to your website have questions that need to be answered immediately – say, 10pm on a Friday night – Ruby’s live receptionists and chat support are available to keep potential customers engaged.
Josh Orr is part of the team at Ercule, a content and SEO performance agency in Portland, OR.
