Making The Most Of Your Online Presence

In a nutshell, this means you need to make Google your friend, not your enemy. Revisit our previous blog to find out what you can do to achieve higher Google rankings for your business. 

 

Before you start, it’s a good idea to find out where you stand on Google right now. The easiest way to do this is to go incognito (to hide your saved search preferences and results) and type in some of the keywords relating to your business, including geographical ones, and see whereabouts your listings show up. 

 

Then, do the same for some of your competitors and compare how your site ranks against theirs. What could you do differently to gain a competitive edge on Google? 

The question to ask here is: how do your target audience find what they’re looking for online? Google Search Console is a handy tool that will help you work this out. It provides a wealth of information, including the top keywords and phrases that people are typing into Google to find your website, and which pages are getting the most and least hits. 

 

If you decide your keywords need some work, try using keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMRush and WordStream to come up with some fresh ideas. 

 

AnswerThePublic.com is also useful, as it generates a list of questions that people interested in your products or services might ask. 

Whilst investing in Pay Per Click campaigns can certainly work, most click-throughs to local businesses still come from organic search results. However, the companies paying for sponsored Google listings are doing it for a reason. If you can work out their secret, you might be able to target your own SEO more effectively without spending a single penny. 

 

Start by visiting your competitors’ websites and checking out the keywords they’re using in their metadata. To do this, right click on any page within the site and click ‘View Page Source.’ A long stream of data will appear, with the metadata usually located near the top. The search terms you’ll see here are often the same ones they’re paying Google to promote. We’re not saying you should steal them verbatim, but if something’s working for the competition, it’ll probably work for your business, too. 

The moral of the story here is simple: make sure your website is optimised for use on mobile devices and check that page loading speeds are up to scratch. Google Search Console will help you test and improve your site’s mobile usability and identify any issues with speed. 

In fact, many people don’t get beyond the first 3 results, which are known as the Local Pack. These are the ones displayed in a map below the first set of sponsored listings (if any), like this Local Pack for the ‘Hairdresser Twickenham’ search term: 

Both these statistics nail down how important it is for local businesses to focus on search engine optimisation. However, even if you’re doing everything right, you might still struggle to get into the top 5, let alone the Local Pack, if competition is tough. If you find yourself in this position, it’s worth considering paid-for SEO techniques such as Google Ads, social media advertising, display advertising or remarketing. Just do your research carefully first. 

After all that hard work, it’s a bit galling that the average bounce rate sits between 26% and 70% across different industry sectors. So it’s up to you to make that all-important first impression when searchers land on your website. That means investing in an attractive, professionally designed website that looks great, is fast and easy to use, and accurately reflects your business type and branding. 

 

If this isn’t the case at the moment, why not ask it'seeze Web Design Twickenham to help? We can work with you to design an eye-catching, fully-optimised website that does your business brand justice – and helps get the results you want from Google.