While 90% of online surfers select sites from the first page of Google a critical aim of companies is to reach page one. Each part of a site’s creation determines how Google will index it, and where your company will fall in the search listings among other competitors. Below are a few areas that affect, or affected by the performance of your site.
Website Aesthetics
The aesthetic appeal of the site, such as the color scheme and imagery, alongside the content and media, must be enticing, clear, simple to use, and consistent across all of a company’s online platforms.
Inconsistencies in content and branding between a social media listing and a website, for example, make it difficult for consumers to remember and trust a business – in turn, destroying the prospect of increasing brand awareness.
The image of a website largely depends on the industry it’s in. For instance, this HVAC digital marketing guide is tailored to help heating and air-con businesses convey their message and make conversions online. Whereas a business selling beauty products, for example, would need to appeal to a clientele much different to HVACs.
Quality Content
To index a website, Google will scan for relevant keywords, quality content, videos, images, and metadata. Content such as this must be regularly updated to be looked upon fondly by search engines to determine where the site sits in the listings.
Professional marketers use site analytics to decipher a site’s performance by analyzing what parts of the site visitors like and dislike to gauge areas that need improvement.
Paid Advertising
While Google can take a few months to index your website on Google, in this period, businesses may choose to invest in PPC (Pay per click) adverts to target a specific area that searches for keywords or phrases relevant to their business.
However, PPC is not a quick-fix, for poor sites that are struggling to make their way up the organic listings. The effectiveness of a PPC campaign is largely dependent on a site’s ranking and performance.
For example, a website that isn’t, by Google’s standards, mobile-optimized and hasn’t had new content for a few years, will struggle to have their PPC listing seen at the top of Google above the organic listings. The adverts may very well be pushed down to the bottom of the page.
Plus, if the site takes too long to load, it is difficult to use and understand; it causes the bounce rate to increase. Meaning, regardless of whether a customer has clicked on a PPC advert through to your website, if the site itself isn’t what they expected, they shall leave and look elsewhere.
A website is the central and first most crucial marketing tool businesses need to get right. Companies have trouble trying to navigate digital marketing and wonder whether there’s a trick to mastering an excellent online presence that causes people to engage with their company, and buy from them.
But there are no tricks; great websites are curated by dedicated professionals who go by the name of marketeers. Who works tirelessly to create a presence for businesses that moves and resonates with their customers, enough to influence them to place a purchase with a business. An incredible website – should be the central hub of every company’s online presence.
