If you have a business, I am sure you heard of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). You need SEO to get your website near the top of searches for specific keywords or phrases. Having strategic keywords embedded on your website helps, but what does it actually take to show up when someone is searching for your particular product or service?

The Statistics

A recently released study tracking over 100 million websites concentrated on the analytics of 1 million sites. Of those, approximately 42,000 actively concentrate on SEO, while the vast majority do not. Here are the results of those 42,000 businesses

• 11.4% increase in traffic in the first six months

• 9.58% in the second six months

• 49.4% in year 2

• 30.7% in year 3

• 13.5% in year 4

So, what does this tell us? Consistent and continual effort must be made in order to gain results. Starting and stopping or only sporadic effort can derail your efforts.

What Does It Take?

Ask a different digital marketing company what is needed for good SEO, and you will get a different answer every time. Unfortunately, some marketing companies may only promote what they are good at, whether content writing, backlinks, or technical SEO. Based on the study above, the top 1% of the businesses studied did each of these steps:

#1 - Establish a Brand

Google loves well-known brands simply because they can worry less about scams or fake businesses when trying to decide who should rank the highest. But how do you create a well-known brand even if you have a small business?

The trick is to diversify your marketing strategy. If you only have a Facebook business page or just an Instagram account, Google may be suspicious of your authenticity and that will affect your searchability. But if you leverage all aspects of marketing, Google is more apt to understand that you are a legitimate business that should be trusted and promoted.

Solution: Get your brand out there. Ensure you have a professional website along with business pages on every social media platform possible. Utilize email marketing and even sprinkle in some paid ads as needed.

#2 - Have a Professional Website with Fast Load Time

Nothing ticks more red flags than a business website that is not professionally laid out and is slow to load. Just like a traditional storefront, your business website is a direct reflection of the care and attention you give to your own customers and clients. You only have a few seconds to make a great first impression. Otherwise, viewers will simply skip on to the next website…and there will be many. Having a website that is slow to load is almost a surefire way to lose viewers.

Google knows this and will rank your site accordingly. So, what are the exact numbers to shoot for according to this study?

Solution: An average website takes just over 3.7 seconds to load on a desktop and 6.3 on a mobile device. Top-ranking sites average 2.2 seconds on a desktop and just under 5 seconds on mobile. Get a website audit and find out what you need to do to reduce that load time.

#3 - Keep Your Content Up-to-Date

Google ranks websites with fresh content over those with old, stagnant content every time. This is true even if the business has a large amount of content in its library. Does this mean you need to come up with new ideas several times a week? Not necessarily. In fact, the highest-ranking businesses recycle their existing content over and over again, adding new relevant information as needed.

Solution: Ensure you have a good base of articles, blogs, and other content, then update them and re-release them often.

#4 - Ride the Wave

Websites that have content on currently trending topics do better than others…period. In fact, Google prefers to see that your website hits have peaks and valleys. This shows that your organic efforts are working a good part of the time, and your hits are not just generated by paid ads.

For example, in my field, AI (Artificial intelligence) is a trending topic. Digital marketers, content creators, and graphic designers are finding these new tools extremely useful, and there is a large amount of searching for AI topics. This is a great subject for new content.

Solution: If you are unsure what is trending in your business, check out Google Trends, a free service that searches for hot topics. It will show you the timeline of popularity of certain topics, the geological location where that topic may be trending, and even some related subjects.

#5 - Expand Your Market (in some cases)

Contrary to other advice you may have received, you may want to expand your market. This concept is known as TAM or Total Addressable Market. You may be under the impression that you should concentrate on one small niche, but know that those companies that appeal to large audiences perform better overall. Simply put: more interest equals more traffic, which can translate to more sales if done correctly.

Can you overreach? Absolutely. You cannot be everything to everyone, and just because you have a large readership does not mean it translates to sales. Some influencers have a huge following but don’t necessarily make sales numbers that correspond with the number of readers.

Solution: Stay targeted in your marketing by identifying your ideal customer and spending your marketing dollars trying to attract that customer. If you have a high-priced service or product, you will need to tighten your reach so you aren’t wasting marketing dollars on those who can’t afford it. On the other hand, don’t limit yourself if you have lower-priced items that may appeal to a mass audience. Think outside the box.

Summary

There are over 300,000 websites launched daily, so the competition to stand out from the rest gets more challenging every day.

Simply launching a website will not ensure that customers or clients will find you. You need to work at it frequently and consistently.

Does this need to cost a fortune? Absolutely not. Many firms (like mine) can train you how to do this yourself if you are on a limited budget or offer reasonable packages if you just don’t have the time. Please reach out for a free consultation and I can provide a complimentary SEO audit to see how your website is performing.

Just starting out? Please reach out, and together, we can build your online presence correctly from the ground up.

5-star Google-rated Charlotte’s Web Design, LLC is a sole proprietor web design and digital marketing firm specializing in custom, professional websites, SEO, branding, logo design, content writing, and graphic design with over 35 years of technology experience currently working with over a hundred small businesses. I specialize in Connecticut and Rhode Island small businesses but offer services to all states.

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