Top 3 Mistakes You’re Making With SEO
Ah SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation for those raising a questioning eyebrow! You may have heard these words being thrown around a lot when it comes to marketing your business online. But what do they mean and why is it important for your business?
Don’t worry, we’ll tell you!
Search Engine Optimisation is all about the correlation between the quality of your website and the amount of traffic you get to your site. When you’re searching for something on a search engine, you often expect the most popular or best brands to come up first on the search results – so why should this be any different for your website?
Well, it shouldn’t. Which is why we’re going to dive into the top three things businesses are doing wrong when it comes to optimising your website to rank high on those web searches!
A word from Alex (owner, Marketing 101);
“I’m often caught telling people that a huge percentage of marketing is bullsh*t, and the rest is a gamble – and I stand by this. It’s why Marketing 101 exists; to help you navigate those murky waters and try a hedge your bets on marketing that is right for your business and industry.
The one exception is SEO. I truly believe SEO is a science and that working on it can only lead to one result – better page rankings on Google (and other search engines – yes some people still use Bing!). SEO takes the longest to provide results, but in my opinion it is the only sure-fire-win in the marketing tool-kit.
Put it this way – Google isn’t going anywhere and, hopefully, neither is your business. Can you think of a better way to spend money that investing in the relationship between the two?”
Mistake No.1 – You’re not on Google Business
Google Business (formerly known as ‘Google My Business’) is a vital way of ensuring that people are seeing your business when they search for it online. As expected, Google is the most used search engine in the UK, so you want your business to be ranking at the top of the page when people are searching for the product/service you offer.
By creating a Google Business profile, you can add up-to-date information about your business including opening hours, contact information and even reviews from satisfied customers (Google really like reviews). Your business profile will look like the image below when people are searching for your business, making you stand out.
When you have Google Business set up correctly, you will have this box on the right hand side of Google show up when your business is searched for.
Mistake no.2 – Your website isn’t up-to-date
Search engines will naturally promote websites that are posting regular, relevant content. They know that your potential customers want to see new, current and updated information as they’re then more likely to make a purchase.
It’s super simple to keep your website up-to-date, whether this is through adding new products regularly or updating the images/copy (text) on your site.
One of the most engaging and easiest ways of keeping your site updated is through the implementation of a blog. You could even disguise the blog as a “news” page where you post business updates – why not give it a try?
Mistake no.3 – Improve your website speed
Website speed is important when it comes to your SEO. Statistics show that website conversion rates drop by approximately 4.42% with each additional second of load time – we want to keep people on your site! (Source – Potent).
It’s pretty simple, the longer users spend on your website then the higher your engagement rate, and therefore the higher you rank on search engines.
You can check your website speed on sites such as PageSpeed Insights.
So there you have a few tips on how to utilise SEO to benefit your business BUT, there are 200+ other factors when it comes to how Google ranks your website. Marketing-101 offers a consultancy service and a full SEO service, so if you think you could do better on Google and would like some more visitors to your website then get in touch on 01273 569108 (or pop us a message here).
Happy marketing!
