Having an online presence with website design is one thing, being able to rank for Google search of your local business is another.
The challenge of most of the business is the ability to optimize their site and be visible in the local pack.
As a business not being able to be discovered on a quick Google search, result to miss of the potential visitors who are prospects that can be potential clients.
Going for having a site, isn’t enough you’ll need to optimize in order to be visible on search engine platforms.
The most common questions asked by clients of either their site would be able to be monetized. This highly depends on the traffic that the site is receiving and being able to convert them to be potential clients.
The most common result as a local business ranking high on a search engine on your niche market search query is the high traffic. With high traffic, prospects can be converted to be customers increasing on your sales and call to action.
Being found on the third page of a search engine result, you may not get as much traffic as being on the first page.
The reality is that the very first result gets more traffic, but the numbers drop as you progress.
So, If you?re not seeing a lot of traffic from Google, you?re not alone.
In this post, we share some of the methods we have tried over time to rank for some of the competitive keywords and have proven to rank us on the first page of Google.
Point to remember, optimizing your site to rank high on a search engine such as Google doesn?t happen overnight, but it would require quality time.
Let?s jump in,
1. Ensure your site is mobile friendly
In the recent year, Google rolled out an update to its algorithmic, to demote websites that aren?t mobile-friendly.
On the upper hand, mobile-friendly websites had an average of a 12% increase in visibility on Google mobile.
The most contentious question now would be, do you need to build a dedicated mobile website?
Mobile friendliness doesn?t mean having a separate mobile site or avoiding interstitials.
If you want your site to be truly mobile friendly, you have to understand what mobile friendliness is all about.
It means focusing your entire user experience on mobile users.
The fact to take note is, a responsive design will offer a consistent user experience to your visitors across all devices.
Having a site that isn?t mobile-friendly compared to your competitor?s site basically means, you?ll lose out as they will rank better than you.
There are a few elements of mobile-friendliness that are super important to focus on.
Use responsive design
This is different from creating a separate mobile site for your business. Responsive design allows mobile and desktop users to browse the same site.
Basically, it means that your site will adapt to different types of devices.
With responsive design, mobile and desktop users will have similar experiences on the same site even though the site itself might look a little different.
As the number of different screen sizes is growing, so should your site be prepared for all of them.
Responsive design helps you please both your mobile and desktop users.
Ideally, your site should be so responsive that it resizes for all kinds of screens.
Use mobile-specific keywords
Mobile users often use quite different search terms than desktop users.
In other words, mobile keywords and desktop keywords are different.
If you?re only focusing on desktop keywords, you?re neglecting the majority of your audience.
Instead, you need to spend some time on mobile keyword research.
For example, mobile keywords are often shorter, and they usually contain location-based phrases like ?near me.?
Mobile users also have different motives. They usually visit or call businesses shortly after they perform a search.
Run a Mobile SEO test
I recommend testing your site with a mobile SEO checker. It does the hard work for you and lets you know what you need to improve.
Conveniently, Google has a checker does that and makes sure your site is mobile friendly.
Enter your URL, hit ?Run Test,? and the tool will analyze just how mobile friendly your page really is.
Overall, mobile friendliness isn?t optional anymore. It?s a must-have for any site.
3. Organically include your location in the URL structure
In the Google algorithm in ranking your business and understanding local pages is on the URL structure.
The local searches result tend to rank high for domains that include location names in the URL.
So if someone is in Nairobi and searches for tourist attractions, Google will favour domains that include Nairobi in the URL (e.g., nairobitour.com).
This also applies if a website has part of a city name in its URL. For example, Naiscene.com includes a shortened form of Nairobi.
This would only happen at the local level. If someone in New York searches for tourist attractions, they?re not going to see anything about Nairobi.
This should inform you why many small businesses include their city name (or shortened form of it) in their URL.
4. Do a competitive keyword check
One of the convenient keyword techniques is in checking on the competitive keywords.
If you have a competitor who?s ranking on page one, it?s easy, find out what keywords they?re ranking for and then use those keywords.
It is possible that most of your traffic will come from searches that are driven by specific types of keywords.
Consider keywords that are unique to your niche and your location. You don?t have to spend hours doing extensive keyword research, here is how to get started.
The first step is to head over to SpyFu.com and enter a competitor?s URL into the text box.
You can verify the organic rankings by doing a Google search for each keyword.
Another technique is to write an in-depth blog post (or piece of content). The idea is to build the content around one or two of the keywords your competitors are using.
It sounds simple, but there?s a lot to it.
Creating an appealing piece of content, would means spending time researching, creating, and refining the content.
In doing keyword research, you could also use these keywords to find new keywords for your site.
You could use the AdWords account and enter the Keyword Planner tool to do this, go to Tools > Keyword Planner.
Once there, click ?Search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category.?
Then type in your competitors? keywords and click the blue ?Get Ideas? button at the bottom.
The Keyword Planner gives you related keywords under the ?Keyword ideas? tab.
These might be keywords that your competitors haven?t thought of. You can then take those keywords and rank for them so people will find you instead of your competitors.
