A website is a pre-requisite for doing business nowadays – every business has one. It probably cost a few thousand pounds and, if you used a reasonable website designer, it probably looks great. And you are probably really proud of it.
But the point of a website is to get customers and 80% of small business websites are not fulfilling this basic functionality. 95% of businesses have a website and only 20% of them are actually doing what they should be doing. So, what are the 20% doing to make their website work for them?
Here is some guidance on how you can make your website really work for you. We have not touched on paid PPC or paid advertising, only the things that you can do for free.
Make sure your site can be edited by you.
Your site needs to be on a content management system that allows you to add pages, edit pages and basically add content such as a blog. Many sites use WordPress as a basis for their website, which is great, but make sure you know how to use it.
Make sure your site can be found by Google
Always ask website designers “is my site discoverable by Google?” – some unscrupulous website designers will only do this if you pay for their SEO services. With WordPress sites this is simple a box to tick.
Make sure that your site is currently included in Google’s index by doing a quick site: search. On Google, type site: followed by your website’s homepage URL For example, a search for the string “site:accsysltd.co.uk” returns these results, which confirms that our site is on Google.
If your site isn’t on Google you need to get it listed – sign up for Google Search Console to get started.
Add content to your site
Your site will not get any traffic unless you drive it to it. Think of your website like a circus that has just set up on the village green. Some people may find the circus by driving past the green, but most won’t. So, what do they do? They plaster posters, banners and leaflets all over the village to make sure you are all aware of the circus.
Google is your village, and you need to plaster your banners all over it. The best, and most cost-effective, way is content. Google is a content search engine, and your site is not going to register unless you add content to it.
What content could I add? Here are tips on what content you could include to add weight to your website:
- Customer Case Studies – or customer success stories. These add weight to your website for Google but also for visitors to your site. Plus, you can use case studies as social media posts, so this is win win. Do at least one case study a month.
- A Blog – blogging is all about sharing your expertise or interesting content with readers. And the most important reader of your website is Google. Post a blog once a week for maximum effect.
- Guides and Factsheets – these establish your expertise in a given area and are a great way to demonstrate your knowledge.
- Video – videos speak a thousand words and since Google own YouTube, these are a great way to boost your SEO
Add keywords for key sentences to your site
When someone searches for your website Google is looking to match their search criteria to your website, and if your website has these words then Google will list it as relevant.
So, your keywords – the terms you believe your customers are using to search for you are included in your website in the following areas:
- Page Titles – the title of each page on the website
- Headings- the headings of various pages
- Content – the content of each page
- Images – add key words to images
For example, one of our key phrases is ‘Accountants in Maidstone.’This is included in our page content with the phrase “We are Accountants in Maidstone that….” this is a sentence that makes sense to a human reader, but also indexes well for Google.
Our home page title is “Accountants in Maidstone: Accsys Accountants Limited”.
Get a Google My Business page
Set up a Google My Business page for your business. This will literally put you on the map…the Google map that is.
Once your business is verified, then add as much detail as you can to make your business more visible. Finally, ask your happy customers to submit Google reviews for you.
Turn a Google review into a case study
Every time you receive a Google review, turn it into a case study to further add weight to your site.
Conclusion
Getting your website set up to be Google friendly is not some big mystery, despite what some may lead you to believe. Some basic things can get your site higher up on the search listings without the need for you to sign up for expensive SEO services.
