One thing that we're probably asked the most about is how to get a website to rank higher. For any business owner, they've invested in their website and the higher the rankings they get, the more traffic they get and then this translates into sales or leads. This question makes sense to ask.
Let's go over what to do to rank higher and get more sales.
Sometimes, websites are designed poorly or there are some technical things that were just plain set up wrong by inexperienced Webmasters. You get what you pay for, so if you didn't pay very much to get your website professionally designed, then some basic things could have been missed or just set up the wrong way. With just a few tweaks of your existing website, you could see higher ranking and more traffic. It's definitely worth taking a look at since there could be a cheap fix.
We offer two things to help:
Start there and see if there's a quick fix to increase your rankings. Also, remember that if you change something today, it's not like taking a quiz in school - you may not see the results right away (get a score). It might take a few days or a week or more.
Also find out if your website works well with the latest browsers. Maybe you're stuck with Internet Explorer (IE) 8 and someone using Chrome or IE 11 sees your website and it doesn't look good at all.
Are you harnessing the traffic you're already getting? More traffic isn't always the answer. Maybe you can double your leads with your existing traffic. This helps two ways because you not only do more with the traffic you're already getting but when you do get more traffic, you get more leads from those website visitors as well
I'd actually encourage doing this first because you can use your existing website as a benchmark. Make the changes I suggest below with your website as it is now and then see if you get more conversions (leads / sales). If you change too many things at once, you might not know which change made the difference.
Once you've found out how to get more conversions with your existing traffic and once you've made sure your website doesn't have an technical problems, write!
A blog can be called anything like "Company News" or "What's New" or whatever but a blog is a tool. It's a way for you (or someone at your company or organization) to be able to quickly login and add new content without having to worry about where it goes on the website because it'll end up in the right place automatically.
If you don't have a blog, you need one. If you know that adding content is easy and not a huge chore, you're going to do it more often.
Why is adding content important? We'll I've been blogging about there here for years. In short, Google likes good, new content. Don't write fluff (obvious facts to hit some kind of word target) but write meaningful content that's "share worthy" content - content people would want to share. It should be THAT good. Have an intriguing title that's compelling (instill emotion/fear, etc.) and use photos and videos as well as link to other sources. Check spelling, grammar and punctuation, too. A really good blog post might take an hour to create. They might start taking less time the more and more you do it.
Here's the kicker though... when you post great content on your website, it's there forever. You do the work once and it keeps working for you over and over again. I don't understand why business owners wouldn't want to do this. There's often not much work you do that keeps working for you - it's usually done once and it's over with. Invest in your website by posting awesome content - like this blog post, for instance!
Make your article scannable. This means fairly short paragraphs with heading text, bulleted lists and bold text. Make it easy to read.
What will help you write good content will be checking to see what you're already ranking for as well as doing good keyword research.
First, go for the low hanging fruit. This is keywords that you already are ranking pretty good for. Write more about those topics or beef up articles/pages that you already have on your website.
Second, research keywords. This means write about what people are typing in to search engines so that you rank for those searches. I've blogged about this quite a bit, too. It's a must.
Don't just focus on one keyword. Maybe you're checking your rankings with one keyword - one that you think is the best one. You might be putting your efforts into the wrong thing. If you rank #1 for that one keyword, maybe you'll get 5,000 more visitors a month. Getting there might take a long time and a lot of work. But what if you instead put that same amount of work (and less time) into 20 other keywords that might get you 10,000 more visitors a month? Wouldn't that make more sense?
I kind of touched on this already but go into existing content and make it better. Add more to it - like more text, images, videos, etc. Change page titles and meta tags to match the keywords you're ranking for in order to get higher rankings.
Rinse, lather, repeat. Go back and write more content, check stats, do keyword research, optimize and then do it again and again and again.
If your website isn't showing up well and optimized for mobile devices, then consider doing a redesign of your website using responsive design. Maybe your design just looks old and outdated. A redesign will help freshen things up and strengthen your branding or help you get more conversions.
Getting more traffic and conversions doesn't come from just doing one thing. You have to come at it from many angles. Your website is in the center of that but you can also use social media and offline methods, too. Don't put all your eggs in one basket - test and find out what works. It's worth the investment.
I encourage you to do the website evaluation to see how your existing website is doing. You can also give us a call (608-277-7849) or contact us on our form to find out all that we can do to help you and your business rank higher and get more sales.
-Tony
