Top 10 common business website mistakes – with practical solutions. Part 4

4. Getting found on Google.

Don’t lose your business website down the back of the internet’s sofa.

There’s plenty of misinformation around how your website gets found in search engine listings – many of it deliberately put about by search engine practitioners who want to keep the discipline opaque and hard to understand.  Some of our favourites are:

– Paying someone in India $50 a month will guarantee “page 1 rankings”
– Being on Twitter helps you rank better
– Having video on your website gives you an advantage in search

All of them utter nonsense.

The simple rule of thumb to apply when someone tells you something helps a search ranking is:

‘how difficult is it to fake?’

The harder a signal that search algorithms use is to fake, the more they trust what they find.

– Repeating a keyword twenty times on a page – easy to fake, and is not going to help.

– Having a number of highly authoritative news websites linking to yours, because of your unique product – difficult to fake, and it’ll help a lot.

So, here’s the solution to getting good visibility in search engines:
1. Know what your audience actually searches for, in relation to your business – not what you or industry insiders call your products, but what your customers do.

2. Structure and write your website to take your potential customer through their journey from first contact to enquiry or purchase.

3. Don’t think “SEO”, think “PR” – use your industry expertise, opinions and contacts to get your business talked about online.

4. Recognise that Google is always thinking of ways to make more money from search – AdWords, Google Shopping, soon probably paid placement in the “local pack” results on Google Maps and Places. If your website can convert visitors to enquiry or purchase effectively, we can get these paid advertising routes to deliver positive return on investment.

Summary

Don’t make the mistakes most businesses do when it comes to search.  Instead, talk to a specialist (that’s us!) who can demystify how search relates to your business, how to prioritise your efforts and budget, and how to play Google’s game better than the competition.