Are you feeling frustrated in your efforts to rank higher in Google Search Results? Getting traffic to your website is a challenge when you’re listed on the 5th page of Google. As a SMB owner looking to increase your brand awareness, this might seem like a major obstacle. Aducate Digital is here to help!
The goal of a digital presence is to get more phone calls and more customers or clients to your business. Optimizing your online presence will serve you well.
How Does Google Rank Websites?
First, let’s get an idea of how Google’s search engine works. To rank websites, Google uses web crawlers that scan and index pages on your website. Every page on your site gets rated according to Google’s opinion. The crawlers are looking for two things: the web page authority and the usefulness to the end-user.
The easier you make it for Google’s web crawlers to scan your site, the higher you rank.
The next aspect to understand is that this process takes time. It takes approximately 3 to 6 months for any noticeable change in your page rank. This process also requires an active approach. The only way for that change to happen is for you to take an active approach in the improvement.
Factors that Affect Your Google Search Results
Strategies you use on and off your website help your page rank. These strategies are what we refer to as Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. This is the process of making incremental improvements to your website. The goal of SEO is to increase visibility when people search for your services. Here are 4 factors that can help your ranking.
Prominence
How visible is your business across the internet? This goes back to the web page authority aspect the web crawlers’ check. Improve your online presence by ensuring your business information is consistent everywhere. This includes your social media profile information and the content on your website. If you’re featured in articles from reputable sites, ask them to include a link to your website.
5-Star Reviews
Are your services valuable to your audience? High reviews builds trust with potential customers. And, it shows Google’s web crawlers your business has authority and is useful. This is an easy one: ask for reviews from your clients!
Website Content
Is the content on your website accurate and useful? Think about the information your customers and potential customers would find useful. Then, write content on your website about those topics.
Directory Listing
Is your business listed in other places besides your website? Directory listings are the modern version of the old Yellow Pages. People don’t go to these sites to do searches, but these citation sites can show up high in local search results. Appearing on these sites will tell Google’s web crawlers your business is valid.
There are 100’s of these directory listings, and you don’t need to be on each one. Focus on Yellow Pages, Yahoo!, Bing, BBB, and Google My Business.
The Quickest Path Forward
Setting up your Google My Business profile or GMB is the fast way for people to find you in Google search results. GMB is an easy-to-use tool for businesses to manage their online presence. It’s a cost-effective (free!) and an easy to maintain marketing tool for your toolbox. Check out this blog to learn how to set up your GMB profile.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
SEO is an incremental process that shines when you keep it top of mind. Improve your search ranking further by creating content based on your web data.
Look at the analytics found on your website builder. This data will tell you what search terms people used to find your website. It will also show you what content on your site is most useful.
Aducate Digital excels in interpreting your web data. We provide insights and recommendations to help you push the SEO needle forward. If you’re interested in learning more about this service, send us an email. We’re happy to help.
