Once we have developed a beautiful new website for our clients, the majority of our business owners have no clue how to move forward. In the beginning, just having a site going live is a big deal. After they spend a few days celebrating their new site their next question is “now what?”
Most of our clients are more concerned with the overall look and feel of the site and less concerned with how to promote the site. They are busy telling their friends and associates that they finally have a new online presence.At first, business owners spend their time looking for the perfect designer.
Once they are online they have great expectations for success. They were not counting on having to learn all about SEO and are usually completely in the dark about this new phenomenon.
When the site is launched, most of our clients are waiting with bated breath for their target audience to somehow find their new site and purchase their goods and services. It is at this time that we must remind them of their responsibility to promote their website.
Otherwise, they will not experience any measure of success. SEO guidelines to include Google ranking factors must be followed for the best results.
My site is beautiful …why can’t I just relax?
If only it were this easy. I tell my clients “Google rules the world” and it is not too far from the truth. You must learn to manage and promote your site to succeed. This includes having a basic understanding of how search engines determine the value of your website. This is the only way to get a good listing and for folks to find you online today.
Google has no idea who you are and what you do. You will gain prominence through blogging expertise and other SEO techniques such as linking valuable online partners, etc.
Why is adding new content through blogging so important?
Our business clients are already running their businesses and now feel intimidated when we tell them they will have to learn how to publish blog posts regularly. Most clients are not content writers and feel their time is better spent just running their business.
In fact, when we mention the word “blog” most clients feel it is an alien sounding word. Their experience with the word “blog” is to relate this to online bloggers who write about food, clothing styles and travel. Blogging simply means to add trending industry news and views related to your expertise. This relevant content will improve your brand and promote your site.
Building trust with Google and other top search engines through good blogging habits will improve your rank over time. Once you begin promoting your site online, by blogging on a regular basis, you will gain value and become an authority website. This technique does takes two things, time and patience.
These are two things that most of our clients feel they don’t possess. They are busy already with running their businesses and putting this additional pressure on them is an unwanted reality.
The importance of good writing technique:
Soon after the site is launched, our clients come to the realization they must find someone to take on the task of blogging. They first look to delegate this chore to someone in their immediate circle. Maybe a family member or an employee might do this for them.
Some clients even feel they should do this themselves. After all, how hard can it be to sit and write a few words now and then? It will save hiring a professional. They soon discover this is not true and SEO Professionals are worth their weight in gold.
What is so special about hiring a professional?
Writing relevant and consistent blog content is not as easy as it seems. Promoting your website requires not only a talent for writing, but a fair amount of knowledge regarding search engine optimization techniques. It also requires the blogger to understand the software used to develop the website.
It is not a secretarial task and requires knowledge about the Google algorithm which changes often. Hours must be set aside each month to read about new SEO guidelines and how to implement any new change. After a few months of adding a blog or two to their new websites, most of our clients throw in the towel and hire a professional.
There are millions of websites online today, The amount is staggering. Hiring a professional blogger to begin talking about your brand may be the very ticket to success. Professional bloggers are available online and you can find them by searching for these independent contractors.
Professional bloggers are continually learning about new Google guidelines to stay ahead of the competition. They stay on top of attracting new customers to the website by publishing lots of creative content and by staying current with SEO rules and guidelines. Please visit the website of Charmaine Beleele, a top blogger in our industry. Ask if she might be available to take on your blogging project. We highly recommend Charmaine. Check out her new website.
This will encourage the search engines to visit the site over and over again, and they will be forming relationships with their target audience. They also respond to any feedback in an effort to gain regular readership.
What type of content works best to stay one step ahead of the competition?
To receive a high placement in the Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) you must provide organic content made for real people to read. It is not enough to write a small blog article any longer. New SEO guidelines requires larger blog articles for top placement.
The top slots are usually taken up by those that have amazing content , 2,000 words or more. Stay competitive by blogging consistently and often. Professional content writers follow a writing schedule and add new and interesting content at the same approximate time each and every week. Set your calendar each week to work on your writing technique. Blog regularly and blog often for best results.
Organic content and keywords:
All content must be developed by keeping the search engine bots in mind. They are looking for all content to be written in a natural, organic manner. They want fresh ideas and content worth publishing. Keywords are important but adding too many or too few can work against you.
The primary topic and keywords related to the topic should appear in the article but not too many times so we suggest that you avoid trying to force keywords into the article. Use them sparingly and have them show up in a natural manner within the article copy.
The value of having a mobile-friendly platform;
Get ready to re-design your website if it is not responsive and built on a mobile platform. Mobile searches are outpacing desktop searches and it is imperative for you to contact your website designer sooner than later to make this important change. We are all familiar with how mobile use has increased over the last few years.
Over 80 percent of users now look online using a mobile device. As a web designer we have many website owners who have not made this important change. They prefer to keep their older sites because they are used to using them and most of us hate change. Unfortunately, it touches all of us and the only thing in our world that is constant is “change.” We all must bite the bullet and make this change.
All of our new sites are built on a mobile platform. Having a responsive mobile-friendly web design will give you the best chance for success in 2017. Google is focusing almost entirely on mobile technology so to keep from being left behind, contact one of our designers. Call 407-405-4877 to discuss a mobile re-design. We have some cost-effective design packages this year to meet most budgets.
We recommend you update your site look and feel at least every three to four years. Technology changes and our clients must accept and embrace these changes to be competitive.
Building valuable website link resources:
From the very beginning, we were all focused on adding links to our websites. We first added informational links as resources for our visitors to use. Now that the Google algorithm has changed however, the links we add to our site have a higher value and we should add only high-quality links. The best scenario is to ask others to exchange links with you. These are called “reciprocal” links. In other words, you both reciprocate by adding each other’s links to your websites. It is also important to add only valuable links.
Authority websites are the best links:
The best link you can add to your site is called “an authority website.” This is a site which is respected by very knowledgeable people in your industry If the website offers no educational value and is low quality stay away. Search engine view the links you add as either good or bad. Try to locate good websites that will agree to link with you. Avoid the low-quality links.
We hope you all have a happy holiday just ahead and stay safe.
Check back next time for part two of our post entitled: How to promote your website once it is live: SEO Guidelines (part two) …
Jean Holland-Rose
Chief Creative Officer and SEO Professional
Inside Design Orlando
