4 Simple Ways to Improve Your Google Ranking Without Paid Ads

Thanks to technology we no longer have to rely on just print media, billboards and word-of-mouth to promote our business. We do however have to work with Google because for 90 percent of us, that's where our customers are looking for our services.

You can always 'pay to play' with Google Ads so that you appear on the top of the search page, but you can also structure your online presence so that Google knows that you belong there organically...free of charge!  Here are 4 tips to help you do that.

 

1. Know your customers' needs and habits

What is the nature of your business and who does it cater to? You must know your target audience and their needs inside out! If you have an existing website, regularly check and assess your analytics and the trends and activities of your visitors. To do this properly, set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

What are their fears and desires? Does your website content help them with that? What search terms are they typing into Google? ...It might be time to do some keyword research....Also check out your competitors and how they present, speak, and rank online.

 

2. Have a clean and user-friendly website

Let's face it, unless you come up with a million dollar idea, you’ll find that you have a lot of competitors with similar products and services. Ask yourself - "what makes my business unique?" How are you going to make it stand out in the crowded marketplace? With so  many similar businesses with the same target market as yours, you have to make sure that your website stands out and communicates the fact that you are the go-to source of supply.

 

By the way, if your site was built 5-10 years ago it will look old and out of date...and therefore not the go-to source of supply.

 

Is your site clean, fresh, up-to -date, not too wordy, visually pleasing and informative....?? You might want to ask your peers for feedback if you're not sure...bounce rate effects your Google ranking...you need visitors to engage. Bullet points, a natural flow of information, a call to action, and just enough info pique interest and let Google know what you are about (around 300 words is the general assumption).

Your website also needs to be user friendly...ie: easy to navigate on all devices. You will find your viewer’s device statistics on your Google Analytics dashboard.  For many industries, at least 50% of website viewers are on small devices, and Google uses mobile-first indexing which means it predominantly ranks the mobile of your website first (and yes... 5-10 year old sites are not generally mobile friendly).

 

Take the mobile friendly test here: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly

 

Google's new Page Experience update will also be complete by August 2021...check out our more in depth article on this on our blog. It talks about what you can to for page speed, security, safety, mobile friendliness etc...

 

3. Promote your business on other platforms

Are your potential customers and clients on social media??...or not??  Many people will use Youtube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram as search engines as well as Google...so it is important to have a business page on these platforms if it's where your audience hangs out....and yeh...they're free...so do it because Facebook and LinkedIn business pages will show up in Google searches, so it is possible for your business to show up more than once on a Google search page....which is great!

A Google My Business listing is a must. It's also free, and while it looks like it's primarily a service for local brick and mortar businesses due to it's connection to Google Maps, any business that services a local area can have a listing.....AND a free mini website is part of the package...use it to create some extra digital real estate! (we have strategies for this)

It's also important to create listings on other reputable online directories that are relevant to your industry.

Really important: Make sure you are consistent with your brand details and message across the different platforms!

 

4. Optimise your content

So have you Googled yourself lately?? Use an incognito browser window and try a few different keywords that you think your potential customers would be using. Is your website showing up?

Relevant content is important...yes...on all pages. Know your main keywords, and write great content around those topics. Got lots?...A blog is the best way to create good quality relevant content for the various areas of your business and industry. Don't blog to just blog...that's just spamming the internet...there's too much of that out there already...blog to share your knowledge and help your potential customers to find you.

If you have no idea what to write about, simply check out some of your competitors and industry related websites.