Every business owner wants to see their website sitting firmly at the top of Google’s search rankings. You don’t have to be an internet marketing expert to understand why. Achieving that goal could send you hundreds or thousands of new web visits every week – potentially doubling or tripling things like leads, online sales, or walk-in visitors overnight.
That knowledge is what makes organic search engine optimization (a.k.a. SEO) so popular. In fact, you can bet that millions of business owners will try to launch a new search visibility campaign at some point in 2023.
Unfortunately, a lot of what you read online isn’t exactly reliable – in fact, there are plenty of “gurus” making big claims that aren’t backed up by facts. So, just to set the record straight, you probably aren’t going to achieve SEO success in a matter of days or weeks. Looking for hacks are gimmicks is largely a waste of time.
If you’re serious about building a website that stands out on Google, you need to know the truth. We can help you get started by breaking down some of the fundamentals. Here’s what you have to know…
Your Site Needs to be Optimized for the Basics
Google and the other search engines have gotten a lot more discriminating than they used to be when it comes to website quality and credibility. That means you simply must take care of the basics, such as hosting speed, SSL connections, broken links, and duplicated content.
If you’ve got big problems on your site you just aren’t going to rank for search these days.
It’s Important to be Focused and Disciplined
If you’ve not gotten a great deal of search traffic in the past that it’s best to start with narrowly targeted phrases that relate to your business. The bigger you go, the more competitive things will be. Even worse, high-traffic keywords usually don’t correlate to sales intent.
Think about what a customer would research if they were sure they wanted to buy a product or service like the one you offer. That’s a good place to start your SEO campaign.
Start With Small Wins and Then Build
Often, finding lasting SEO success is less about ranking well for a really popular search term as it is generating traffic based on dozens of pages are posts that each generate a trickle of visits. To put this another way, lots of small SEO victories add up to a steady stream of traffic.
Begin by crafting content that fits those finely tuned phrases you already identified. Then, after you are getting search traffic from those, you can move on to bigger steps.
You Can See Results, But it Takes Time
Every website and market are different, but it isn’t unusual for us to work at search engine optimization for 6 to 12 months before clients start seeing the kinds of results that make a difference in the bottom line. You might get traffic to your website before then, but those visits may not be enough to help you increase revenue.
Optimizing your website and content is like planting seeds in a garden. It won’t benefit you right away, but you’ll grow something if you’re willing to wait.
There is Only One Shortcut That Actually Works
Feeling impatient? Don’t give up or turn to the SEO gimmicks you see promoted online by fake experts. Instead, invest small amounts of money into search ads based on those targeted phrases you identified. For a few dollars a day you can put yourself near the top of Google’s listings and get immediate results.
Not only is paid search advertising the only SEO shortcut that actually works, but it’s a good way to test out your sales messaging early on.
Want to Build a Website That Delivers?
The point of small business website is to generate leads or sales. If you aren’t getting any revenue from your web presence then it’s time to make a change. Contact us today to see how we can help!
Keep up to date by following us on Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | X