If you are starting out on a new venture, chances are you won’t have a website or digital platform from which to help propel your business forward. With everyone using the internet for research of all types, especially mobile that makes up over 50% of global searches. There is now a longer and longer checklist that your company website needs to comply with to give it a chance of finding the public.
All new website owners struggle on and consistently ask why they aren’t being shown in Google. Without being harsh, the answer is because they don’t exist yet. Google’s way of being aware of what is ‘on the internet’ by periodically indexing the web at varying depths. Obviously with a guestimate amount of almost half a billion websites currently searchable online, it becomes clear that Google can’t index the whole of the internet every second of everyday. So whenever you make changes to your website, the benefits of that will see delayed results.
Joining this with our knowledge of how a website is judged in order for Google to rank it’s relevance, you won’t be surprised to find that for SEO (the bit you don’t pay directly for) is a much longer undertaking but is a core part of your online strategy. Ranking factors for Google, as is handy to know, include domain age (not in favour of a new business), keywords in URL, fresh content, keywords in content, site speed, links, social signals etc. With so many criteria it isn’t as simple as it may at first contact seem to create a well ranking website. Beyond the ranking factors, the much more technical side of SEO can be considered the other 50% of your ranking, these elements will require technical knowledge that takes a lot of time to understand and specialise in.
One of the specialists, from this SEO marketing agency, has listed a few aspects that beginners can do for their website to help increase their knowledge and lower their costs by covering what they can do before needing to bring in the specialists.
GoogleMyBusiness Listing.
Easy to sort out and having a huge sway on your local search results, crucial if you are providing a service eg. restaurant, builder, hairdresser etc. as it will increase the likelihood of your website appearing in searches for that services combined with locations. Eg. (Service + Location) – Italian Restaurant Bristol.
Take the time to fill out as much as the information as possible including opening times, even if you’re an online business, and do your best to encourage those who have used your service, or may have helped inspire you to start your new venture, to leave reviews.
Social Linking.
You don’t have to be all over social media or employee a Gen z (look it up) to have your social game at the highest level. Put links from your website to your social media pages, if you haven’t got any social pages then make them. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram. Be consistent through-out with branding and know which type of content works best on which platform. Take the time to ensure the content you publish is useful and relative to your website and encourages people to click through, even if it’s to read your latest blog post.
Blog.
Content, especially fresh content, is one of the largest ranking factors. It is also something that you can keep track of yourself and continually update. Although there are aspects of this where technical knowledge can really improve the content you have written by optimising the keywords, the expertise and knowledge of the topic and what your customers will be talking about is known by you. Write content around this that answers their questions or furthers their knowledge. At a later date your SEO expert will be able to jump in and optimise all previous posts (If still relevant) that will also see them be found as fresh content again. Win win.
Share Your Knowledge.
The basis behind gaining links for your site and spreading your knowledge, there isn’t anything technical to it at the starting point. It is purely approaching other websites or brands in a similar niche and seeing if they’d be interested in sharing your news and information or having you create a special piece of content just for them. If a link comes from it then great, if not, it is still a good piece of digital PR.
