WHY YOUR WEBSITE IS NOT ON THE FIRST PAGE OF GOOGLE
SEO means Search Engine Optimization. It is the “secret ingredient” that propels websites to the first pages of the search engines.
Those that make it, enjoy the free “organic” traffic that comes from being at the top of the list. But how do you get your site there? And once visitors are there, how do you get them to buy? Let’s answer the second question first.
Truth be told, once a visitor arrives, the only things that will make them
How does one overcome this problem?
Content.
It must be relevant, powerful, eye catching, inspiring and address the visitor’s reason for visiting in the first place. People buy products and services to solve problems or find solutions for what ails them. Your website should satisfy that search and offer up exactly what they are looking for. Assuming your website has been properly optimized, this will happen, and then, it is the responsibility of a good copywriter to make your pages sell.
Google, however, constantly changes their algorithm to deliver the most pertinent search results. This inevitably changes the world of SEO leaving webmasters constantly updating websites to comply with what they think Google is looking for. The problem here is that Google does not reveal all when changes are made to their algorithms.
Rather than second-guessing what Google will do next, we take a more simplistic approach to attain top ranking for our clients. We satisfy the needs of the people doing all the searching.
At
514 235-6603
What Your Website Designer May Not Tell You
I’ve written this article to give you a better understanding of how search engine optimization works and how we can get your site to rank high in the search engine results. If you’re looking for “black hat” techniques or some clever software for a do-it-yourself endeavor, you won’t find it here. We don’t use any optimization techniques that go against the terms of service outlined by the search engines and that could conceivably ban your site.
Our approach is to analyze your website design, the coding, the keyword structure of your content, the internal and external linking structure, your current search engine ranking as well as other optimization requirements. We then systematically adjust all these elements properly and to your advantage so that your website scores high and achieves the top rankings on the major search engines.
What is crucial, is that you understand the powerful part that search engines play in the success of your business.
THE COMPETITION
With more than 5 billion google searches executed daily, it is not surprising that search engine traffic (known also as organic traffic or free traffic) can impact the bottom line of your business.
“Search engine users overwhelmingly click on organic results on Google and Bing by a margin of 94 percent to 6 percent. “…Clearly, website optimization is something to seriously consider!
In fact, if your site isn’t optimized for top search engine ranking, you are inadvertently driving huge amounts of traffic to your competition!
Why? Because the internet is the consumer’s first choice for product, price and service comparisons.
For example, picture this: Every single day of the year, hundreds if not thousands of people make the decision to finally purchase a product or service they have been thinking about. In many cases, they have put it off for so long that they feel driven to make that purchase. This is not impulse buying – it is determined buying! They want it and they want it now!
What follows next is a quick search on the internet to narrow down the best site and best offer. (Interestingly, many people assume that because you are on the first page of Google or Yahoo, that you have some sort of endorsement from these search engines.) This, of course, is not true, but your potential customer isn’t there to understand website optimization and the prerequisites of search engines. SHE / HE IS THERE TO MAKE A PURCHASE!
So in the search box, go the keywords that define your shopper’s request and they are quickly transported to the “best” websites that can satisfy their driven desire to make that purchase – today!
So, what is YOUR site ranking in the SERPs (search engine results pages)?
If it isn’t ranked on the first or second page, you are virtually invisible and the sale goes to your very happy competitor.
This scenario is played out day after day with thousands of dollars slipping through your fingers.
The internet has become the key influencer in online and offline sales. Those who do not harness its power are simply taking themselves out of the game!
It doesn’t have to be that way. Within weeks, your web site can be sending you a steady flow of ready-to-buy prospects.
HOW DO YOU GET TOP SEARCH ENGINE RANKING?
The simple answer: Use PPC (pay per click) Advertising.
Although this is an important part of your media mix budget, the question remains:
WHY AM I NOT GETTING FREE SEARCH ENGINE TRAFFIC?
You should be. With search engine optimization, websites get free organic traffic. This means that you can make better use of your advertising budget by allocating dollars to promote your business on the authority sites within your niche.
It is important to know that the competition is fierce for first-page ranking. Thus, it stands to reason that search engine optimization is not one simple technique but a balanced, well thought out plan of action requiring many different elements, testing and a lot of persistence!
Here’s the approach we’ve had tremendous success with over the many years of getting top ranking for our clients as well as for ourselves.
#1: KEYWORD ANALYSIS
We analyze your site and its current ranking. After we get our report, we then work with you to determine the best keywords to use on your site page. These keywords basically define the product or service available at your site and they are the words that people use to do a search.
People type in the keyword that matches the keyword on your site and presumably they are taken to your site. Now at first glance, it looks like this is pretty simple. Just use the most popular keywords that define my site and bingo. Wrong! They go to the list of sites as presented by the search engines. And this requires more than popular keywords.
Specific keyword phrases are what we cherry-pick to move traffic to your site.
#2: CONTENT ANALYSIS
A fundamental truth in the search engine wars is that a search engine’s top priority is to deliver information that is relevant to the search request that a person makes.
If the search engines fail to do this, they are out of business. It is for this reason alone that the content on your website MUST be keyword rich and relevant to your product or service in order to gain credibility with the search engines.
What we do, is assess your content and re-write it to meet search engine requirements. This means that the keyword phrases to be used are strategically placed, properly coded and emphasized to achieve a prominent and balanced density within the body of your sales pages.
Doing this incorrectly, however, can cause some nasty problems. For example: Use a keyword phrase too many times and the search engines consider this “keyword stuffing” and can penalize your site.
Our professionally written pages are written for the consumer while respecting the requirements search engines expect.
#3: SITE NAVIGATION AND INTERNAL LINKING
Navigating a site should be easy for all your visitors. But it should also direct the search engine spiders properly.
We make sure to do both by working closely with you or your web designer in setting up a solid navigation system and creating a linking structure to benefit your most important pages.
#4: META TAGS AND CODING
After a page is properly re-written, we examine the structure of your coding. This is important because the search engines rely on specific algorithms to assess your site. They do this by sending out “spiders” that evaluate your site.
This is a fascinating area in the world of programming and extremely complicated. Suffice it to say that no one knows what these algorithms consist of nor what their criteria are. It is also important to know that search engines are continuously tweaking or changing their algorithms which invariably keeps search engine optimization as an inexact science. Thankfully, we have certain ways to keep up with the major changes and can adjust our optimization techniques accordingly.
For example, Google recently announced that they will boost the ranking of mobile-friendly websites that are visible on all mobile devices like tablets and smart phones. (https://www.google.ca/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/)
See if your website is mobile-friendly.
IS YOUR WEB DESIGNER SABOTAGING YOUR WEB SITE?
Sometimes, the web designer you hire is simply a web designer. Many designers don’t understand the workings of SEO well enough and may inadvertently end up building your site with roadblocks to being found
#5: SITEMAPS
In order to make the search engine spiders index your site properly, it is important to create a site map that uses the “Sitemap Protocol” and list all the URLs on your site. Here’s where you can build a sitemap.
#6: SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION
After your site is properly optimized, we go about submitting it to the major search engines. These would include:
• Google
• Yahoo
• Bing and others
Truth be told, a submission to just the 3 major search engines covers approximately 95% of internet search traffic. (source: hitwise)
#7: SITE MONITORING & REPORTING
After the search engines receive our request for indexing your site we begin to monitor your site’s performance. Typically, it can take up to 8 weeks and possibly longer, to see your site listed. Your pages will begin to show up on some search engines and because many search engines share the same databases, it leads to a domino effect.
At this point, you should start to see a steady daily flow of visitors to your site. Not only will you see it in the reports we send you, but hopefully, you will see it in your bottom line!
You will receive a monthly report that shows you which keywords are ranked and their exact position in the search engines. You will always get the latest information and instantly see the results of the work we do for you!.
If your site doesn’t make the top 20 in good time, we then look for a solution and make the proper adjustments…
#8: EXTERNAL LINK BUILDING & NAVIGATION
A very important part of search engine optimization is the integration of inbound links to your site.
We evaluate hundreds of websites and determine which ones are the most complimentary and compatible with yours.
We also insist on securing links from authority sites in order to add a greater relevance to your site.
There are no shortcuts here and each promising web site owner is contacted one by one to establish a link partnership.
#9: RESULT MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS
There’s nothing more revealing than the real-time statistics that can be gleaned from your visitor traffic. Here is where you see your website’s busiest parts of the week, day and night, 24/7.
You can analyze the keywords that were used to locate your site, which search engines were used, which link partners are working for you, and what blogs or articles are delivering traffic.
You can see which pages are visited first, which of your products are the most popular, how long a visitor stays, where they are located geographically, the entry and exit point of their visit and much more.
With all of this information, the work we do to optimize your website is clearly quantifiable. More importantly, it allows us to pinpoint any weak spots in the development of your site and helps YOU – adjust your on-page inventory and other variables to help increase sales.
The information retrieved from traffic and keyword analysis is priceless and no optimization is complete without it.
If you are in the pre-launch stages of site building, give us a call. We can start immediately to implement the corrective elements necessary to become search-engine-friendly before the main optimization of your new site begins. This alone will save you big bucks in having to rebuild your site later. Don’t sit back and watch your competitors reel in tons of qualified leads and closing sales.
There is nothing like getting a continuous flow of free traffic visiting your online store. The traffic volume potential from Top Search Engine Ranking can be quite impressive! All that’s left is for you to take action now.
Call us today for a FREE ASSESSMENT of where YOU rank.
(514) 235-6603