So you’ve published your first website! Congratulations! Whether or not you designed it built yourself or you got someone to do it for you, this is nonetheless an exciting time for you! Finally, all your big decisions are made and you've put in all the hard work and your business is off the ground! You’ve updated your SEO and requested to be added to Google so now, all you have to do is wait for the clients to roll in.
But the clients don’t roll in. It’s been weeks since you created your website and not only are people not contacting you, when you Google your own website, you can’t find it, and if you can, you’re on the 6th page! What now?
Well, that’s the tricky part. Back in the day, all you had to do was get business cards, add yourself to the Yellow Pages and a lot of your business was rendered through word-of-mouth. And although that is still a very valid and essential part of getting your business recognized, there are so many other factors to think about if you want to take your business to the next level. An online presence is very important, whether people realize it or not. For example: I spoke to a business-owner who does home improvements and renovations. He has a guy who goes door-to-door informing people that they may want to think about updating their fence or that their retaining wall is in bad shape and could definitely use an overhaul. This is a great way to do business. It’s obvious what needs to get done – both the salesman and the homeowner can see that, and a lot of people just can’t seem to find the time to sit down and scroll through hundreds of available contractors to determine which is the best one (which is why word-of-mouth is so important – for the businesses that are not one a million, people tend to ask their peers and neighbors for who they would use rather than look for qualified experts, due to, basically, lack of time). That day, the salesman got 9 people who were interested. He brought the numbers home to his boss and his boss then sat down and called these people explaining how his business works and managed to book 5 estimates for the following day. Four of them he could not get a hold of. He left a message and left the ball in their court. But, I can bet you, at least 2 of those 4 people that hadn’t responded may have responded if they’d had somewhere to go to get a look at the type and quality of work that this man was offering. That’s when a website comes in handy – as sort of a portfolio.
The thing is, like I said, there are so many businesses out there right now. I can guarantee you that if you Google ANY business right now, regardless of what it is, there are at least 2 full pages of people or companies who are doing the same thing. For instance, the line of work I am in – designing and writing for websites is a HUGE market, hundreds of thousands of people are doing the same thing – and even though I have a “special niche” (working for small, start-businesses who I then train to maintain their website to save on costs), I am still a tiny fish in a HUGE pond. Also, my business is largely based online. I could knock door to door, but that wouldn’t be very efficient for my business (although finding websites that need work and contacting them is a good way to go), so in order for me to increase my online presence, I thought I needed a website, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Instagram…blah, blah, blah. And although those things definitely help, it’s not about that.
Here’s why. It’s not about HOW much you have in terms of online presence, it’s the QUALITY.
Google is complicated. I will say that. I am not technologically inclined; I still don’t understand how the internet works in terms of satellites and RAMs and whatever. But I do know that Google is not a person. You can’t Google, “How to become a hockey player” and get one answer. You’ll get hundreds and hundreds of opinions, hundreds of ideas. And where do these opinions and ideas come from? Blogs. And how are they found? Keywords.
Let me explain. Blogs are annoying. People who do not like to write do not like to write blogs. They are time consuming and difficult to maintain. I, myself, have only recently decided to start a blog for my business because I now understand the importance of them. It’s easy to go into your website platform and insert all the keywords you think people will use to search for businesses like yours. And you can add yourself to Google. You can even get all those fancy apps like AdWords and Google Analytics to try to create more traction. But if you’re not present, you won’t gain traction.
In attempting to gain more traction on my site and trying to find out a simpler way to figure it out for clients who were even less technically inclined than I was, I found this article. It is literally called: “How do I get on the first page of Google?” And wouldn’t you know it, this article was, in fact, on the first page of Google. And it probably isn’t because this specific page and this specific author has been searched so many times that it is now on Google, it’s because he typed the sentence everyone will type: “How do I get on the first page of Google?” Having those keywords in the title, as well as in other areas of his first paragraph, he encrypted keywords that Google would be able to find. And as I read, the more I understood.
This is what he says:
“You can’t. Now before, you get all angry with me for the click-baity title." (the term click-bait refers to people who use keywords and phrases that people use on their SEOs as a way to get people to see their websites rather than putting the keywords and phrases that actually pertain to their website – like those “going out of business” stores that always seem to be going out of business!), "let me explain […] because you’re asking the wrong question. The real question is how can you get on the first page of Google for specific keywords? […] so how do you get yourself on the front page of Google? Write.”
He goes on to explain that the more present you are, the more presence you’ll have (like what I did there?). Although using proper keywords in your SEO will definitely help you optimize your search criteria, writing about your business will get more prospective clients interested. The more words you have regarding your business, the more presence you will have online and in search engines. Careful, though, he explains. Don’t write just to write and don’t make your writing slathered in the key words you used in your SEO. “Make sure that what you write delivers value to your prospective (or existing) customers, not Google. Google can tell when you’re writing just for the sake of writing,”says Tomaz Zaman. Ultimately, when people search - let’s say Cake Pops Ottawa - and your article comes up, they will probably stop to read it, and you don’t want something with no substance and no value. Knowledge is power and if you seem to know what you’re talking about, they will probably keep looking through your site.
The thing is, for a lot of businesses like mine there isn’t much to add to a website on a daily basis. The only things I can really update are my packages, any promotions I may have, and perhaps a testimonial here and there. Hence, the almighty blog. Create a blog that is attached to your site. Write weekly articles that pertain to your business without telling people how to do it. Make it intriguing. Make it fun to read. Make sure you get all your facts straight before publishing. And make sure that, every now and then, you use some of the important words (for me they would be writing, designing, websites, newsletters…) without sounding like you’re a robot full of keywords and phrases.
This is what the article states:
“Because your site will be constantly updating, Google’s crawler will notice, thus return more often and your chances of ranking higher will increase. Provided you are writing about topics relevant to your visitors. If you do then your keyword density will automatically be high enough to boost your rankings.”
So the moral of the story is to write. Write quality and write often. The more you write, the more you update your site, and the more Google will like you. Just be sure to also include important keywords that make it easier to find you in your SEO and still keep on with your word-of-mouth advertising. And if you’re not a writer and the last thing you want or have time to do is write about your business, there are plenty of people out there who can do that for a nominal fee!
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