That article lead to a series of debates and ‘the Google argument’ arose frequently. The term digital is often linked, in the minds of many marketers, customers and Web users, with Google – as in, “digital is the future, traditional is the past.” So, with that in mind, “how important is it to be on the first page of Google?”

It’s impossible to argue against the power of Google. The numbers themselves are just amazing. In the US alone there were over 2 million searches for “white and gold dress” in just one day! (Haven’t heard about the dress that nearly broke the Internet? Check it out here). Google now processes over 40,000 search queries every second on average (visualize them here), which translates to over 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. Seriously, wow!

Google is certainly massive and, like traditional media, it is here to stay. People talk about a decline, and perhaps there will be, but until there is a different way to quickly and efficiently search the Web, Google is likely to stay number one. I’m aware of ‘in app searches’ and how this challenges Google in the long term, and how they’ve recently lost contracts with Mozilla and Apple to be the default search engine, but I think it will be long time before any other mechanism closes in on the power of Google in digital.

When considering Google rankings, it helps to take a look at Page 1 search results. Choosing the city and business type at random, I’ve done a search for “Plumbers Charlotte.” The results page is home to a range of paid adverts, located at the top and down the right hand column, one organic result and the ‘local 7 pack’ of map related listings. Each listing situated above the fold is monetized, with the exception of the single organic result. Below the fold, there are 9 organic results, including Yelp, Yellow Pages and Angie’s List. 6 of the organic results are Charlotte-based plumbing businesses. Page 2 has 8 plumbing businesses listed in the organic results.

Google suggests that there is, on average, just over 1,000 searches for Charlotte Plumbing. This number is relatively high, making it worth ranking for. However, it is important to remember that dedicating a large percentage of your marketing budget to Google AdWords and search engine optimization tactics is a very risky strategy. These days, it is both difficult and expensive to land on the first page of Google’s search results, as well as difficult to achieve. Research has shown that click through rates drop off rapidly after the first page of search results (they fall from an average of 36.4% for the first spot to 2.2% for the 10th result). On Page 2, click through rates are even lower.

Meanwhile, there are many other ways to generate traffic online, from social media to blog posts, referrals, local search engines, Internet Yellow Pages and review sites like Angie’s List and Yelp. Another great method is to have your traditional media, such as newspaper and radio ads, reference your website.

Yes, Google is big. It’s (perhaps) growing. It’s important. That said, it is certainly not the be all and end all for most businesses and it pays to think outside the “Google Search” box.

Image Credit: SEO by India7 Network, via Flickr, CC License

Not developing a digital marketing plan for growing your business on the web is a rookie mistake that, unfortunately, is seen quite often. Great search engine optimization, which includes keyword research, optimization, valuable content and more, requires a solid plan. Getting your ideas in line is key to launching a successful campaign, and building credibility and brand authority.

Not Blogging

Blogging boasts many great benefits, including improving your website’s SEO! In addition to offering fresh, interesting content to site visitors, optimizing blog posts with relevant keywords adds pages for Google to index, increasing your chances of ranking in the search engine results pages. Not blogging is an SEO, and a business, don’t.

Not Considering Local Search Trends

Many of the searches conducted by large search engines like Google and Bing focus on a specific area, such as Toronto or the Cayman Islands. If your business is targeting a narrow market, this knowledge is key to attracting customers and clients located in your area. Instead of focusing on national, or even global, search trends, narrow it down. You won’t be sorry.

Not Maintaining It

Good SEO requires maintenance. Google consistently releases new updates, meaning results are always shifting, algorithms are being updated regularly and ranking factors are changing. Keeping tabs on which step in your plan is next is a great way to analyze your progress and stay on top of the competition and emerging websites. Set it and forget it? I think not.

Forgetting Your Users

As important as ranking in the search engines is, it’s important to remember who your website is for: the users. Current and potential business, your website must adhere to SEO best practices and offer unique, valuable content, provide information in a clear, concise and trustworthy manner, be easy to navigate and engage the audience visually.

Not planning ahead, not blogging, not considering local search trends, not maintaining and forgetting the user experience are 5 more SEO don’ts that must be avoided. Interested in learning more? Check out our posts covering the important aspects of on-page SEO and the importance of SEO to small businesses for more information.

Image Credit: How to SEO WordPress Site by SEOPlanter, CC License

Don’t Steal Content

Plagiarized, or duplicate, content is a big no-no in the world of the Web. While taking small sections from other sources and citing them properly is permitted, think twice before you copy and paste information that belongs to others. Google, which values unique, valuable content, will figure it out.

Don’t Stuff Keywords

A well-known black hat trick, keyword stuffing is the practice of adding extra keywords (in some cases, many extra keywords) to page content in order to try and improve rankings on search engine results pages, or SERPs. Outdated and considered poor etiquette, you’re much better off not.

Don’t Use Link Schemes

A technique that used to be all the rage, Google has been cracking down on websites with unnatural link schemes via updates like Penguin 2.0. This includes using article directories, blog comments, link farms, hidden links and similar tactics to build backlinks to your website that, unfortunately, won’t be recognized as legitimate.

Don’t Rely on Content Spinning

Spinning content, or rewriting existing articles so that they appear different to search engines, is an SEO don’t due to the increasing focus on originality. Many of the for-hire writing services turn out inferior work at a low cost and, while you may not be flagged for duplicate content, readers gain no value from this. Repurposing content, if necessary, is a much better bet.

Don’t Spam Users with Ads

At the risk of sounding repetitive, a key part of SEO these days is, to put it simply, creating websites based around offering real content to real users. Google is getting better at detecting this, meaning sites that are overrun with advertisements are less likely to rank properly. Part of search engine optimization is offering a great user experience.

When it comes to SEO, stuffing keywords, stealing information, building unnatural links, spinning content and going overboard on ads are 5 key don’ts. Learn more about the relationship between businesses and search engine optimization here and here and stay tuned for Part 2 for 5 more tips!

Image Credit: SEO Punishment by Sean MacEntee, CC license

Keywords

Web content needs the proper distribution of keywords in order to best leverage the power of Google and other large search engines, such as Bing. Copywriters must distribute researched keywords throughout the content naturally. Variations, such as long-tail keywords, are important as well. Avoid keyword stuffing, which is the denounced habit of inserting too many, often irrelevant, keywords into web copy in an attempt to manipulate a site’s search results ranking.

Title Tags

Well established in the SEO world, the title tag remains a critical ranking factor in 2014. The “clickable” search result, it must be both keyword-optimized and enticing enough to encourage users to venture in. Ideally less than 65 characters, title tags should also include the name and location of the company in question.

Page URLs

The ideal Uniform Resource Locator, or page URL, is readable, includes relevant keywords and is a maximum of 100 characters in length. Words should be separated by dashes and, if location is an important factor, it should be included. An optimized URL gets your small business one step closer to being found online.

Headings

Another crucial factor, every web page should have a single heading tag, or H1. What Google uses to interpret what a page is all about, it should dictate the main topic simply and clearly. In terms of placement, it should come first, followed by subsequent subheadings if applicable (H2, H3 and so on). Keep it short and snappy and if you can include a keyword, that’s even better.

Alt Image Tags

One of the lesser-known elements of on-page SEO, alt image tags are the tags attached to (surprise!) images on your web pages. An alternative information source for those who prefer image-disabled browsing, they are a detailed description of the image. Keywords should be incorporated when possible – don’t force it. Simplify the process by choosing photos that work with the subject matter.

When it comes to on-page SEO in 2014, title tags, heading tags, keywords in content, optimized URLs and alt image tags are key factors to consider. These elements play an important role in ensuring that Google and other search engines understand and index your website, boosting organic search rankings and, in turn, traffic. Learn more about the benefits of SEO for small businesses here.

Image Credit: infocux Technologies

The simpler and cleaner a page layout your website has, the more seamlessly it can be accessed and indexed by search crawlers. Stick to short URLs where possible and avoid separating words within them with underscores (“_”) in favour of hyphens (“-”) or no formatting at all (Google will still be able to detect the individual words). Every single page should have some form of link back to the homepage, and should also link to as many other pages within the site as possible where it makes sense per the content (but don’t force it). Put simply, the more robust your internal link structure, the easier it is for search crawlers to get around and make a judgement as to the subject matter of your website.

Individual Product/Service Pages

If your website features a moderate to large number of products and/or services being offered, it’s ideal to have individual, fully-descriptive pages for each one of them. Though this can be a time-consuming task both writing and development-wise, it pays dividends in terms of Google exposure because it means that every page is optimized for at least one keyword associated with the product/service in question. As an example, let’s say you’re a real estate agent who advertises homes for sale on your website: If you feature all of the available properties in one scrolling page without offering an option to click through on each one of them to “find out more”, Google will lump all of them (and their associated keywords) together and make your website less likely to be found for a broader number of important terms.

Plugins

Plugin issues fall more on the development side of SEO diagnostics, but they’re prevalent enough to warrant checking for them if you use plugins on your site. Old plugins, whether aesthetic, functional or otherwise, feature outdated lines of code that can confuse search engines and cause ranking penalizations if you don’t update them frequently. Additionally, you’re running the risk of giving hackers a figurative “unlocked door” into your site since most plugins don’t automatically update themselves.

Some of the most successful blogs on the web are akin to a cult of personality: People will keep coming back because the author writes in a way that connects with them personally through consistent use of ethos and/or pathos as literary devices. Depending on the blog topic at hand, different tones of voice may be called for, but the concept of personalization remains the same. For example, if you’re writing about something “light” in tone (eg. pop culture, food, comedy), it might behoove you to inject some humour into your posts to keep things interesting. On the other hand, if the topic in question is more sombre (eg. philanthropy, health, activism), you’d perhaps do better to write with genuine passion and call upon personal anecdotes that can provoke emotion if possible. Whichever route you choose, the point is that it’s important to stand out out from generically-written cookie-cutter blogs.

Genuinely Engage Your Audience

In 2014, think of each blog post as an interactive discussion forum as opposed to an article. Its no longer acceptable for up-and-coming bloggers to write a post, make it live, then simply leave it to the commenters to address and dissect: YOU, the author, should respond directly to peoples’ comments, queries and criticisms to show that you’re genuinely committed to your work. Not only does this help foster trust with your reading audience, but ultimately helps your blog’s search rankings by ensuring that the post in question is fresh and constantly updated for reindexing. Don’t feign interest just for the sake of engaging, either: People will know.

Promote & Engage With Fellow Bloggers

Traffic to the blogosphere thrives on the promotion of content between fellow bloggers, amongst other things (social shares, google searches etc.). Due to the sheer amount of new blogs that pop up daily, its more important than ever to prominently and consistently promote other blogs to show both readers and search crawlers that yours is already part of a strong, established online community. Such cross-promotion acts as an indicator of credibility to potential readers, thus giving them a pretty convincing reason to share it with their friends.

Image Credit: Sheknows

At first it may seem obvious: “Why would I pay someone else to write my content when I’m the one who knows my business best?”. The answer to this question is more complicated than you may expect: In order for your site to be ranked favourably by Google and appeal to the widest possible audience, your content must be both engaging and strategically written with keyword phrases relevant to your business and location.

What does this mean? Essentially, there’s a style in which you can write your text that will give your site a higher likelihood of being indexed by Google. Known as “on-page optimization” in search engine circles, this method relies on the strategic dispersal of keywords that are related to your field of work, both in the body text and the various “tags” that lead people to your site. If you write your content passively in the style that you would write anything else, you may not only be missing opportunities to get discovered on the search engines, but could be unknowingly provoking Google penalizations. Here are the fundamentals of on-page optimization:

Title Tags

A title tag is the blue clickable hyperlink that represents your website on a search results page, and is arguably the most important piece of real estate in terms of attracting traffic. Whichever keywords you use in your title tags help search engines determine what your site is about, and are cross-referenced with your body text to ensure that they’re relevant to the site’s overall subject matter. Google tends to truncate any title tags longer than 65-70 characters, so it’s important to use the real estate wisely with properly researched keywords.

Meta Descriptions

A meta description is the blurb of text that appears below the title tag on a search results page, essentially acting as a free advertisement for your site. You have approximately 160 characters to describe the content of the page you want the searcher to click on, and if you choose to leave the field blank, Google will automatically populate it with text from within the body of the page. Since Google doesn’t index text within meta descriptions, you have a bit more freedom to write in an unrestricted way.

Keyword Density (Within Body Text)

This is where things get slightly tricky. Google imposes strict penalties on any site that they feel is trying to game the system, with one of the most classic offending tactics in their eyes being “keyword stuffing” (overusing a keyword repetitively). If you create your content yourself, you run the risk of unwittingly using a keyword too many times, even if you’re writing naturally. You also must write each page in a way that is relevant to its corresponding title tag, so if you happen to accidentally go off topic in the body text, this can also result in penalization.

Outsourcing your website’s content writing is a wise decision that goes hand in hand with the design process. If you’re at all skeptical of your ability to adhere to the rules of search engine optimization, it might be a good idea to seek outside help.

SEM is very similar to SEO, the key difference being that you’re paying the search engines directly to get your website seen as opposed to optimizing the site yourself so that it’s likely to happen naturally. It’s worth mentioning that SEM is how Google makes the vast majority of its profits. Put simply, you choose a set of keywords that Google thinks you’re likely to get found for (given budget and location), then they gives you a rough estimate of how much your credit card will be charged every time someone clicks through to your site.

Like anything in life, there are pros and cons to SEM, particularly on a local level. Pro: you’re getting hyper-focused data from the world’s largest search engine; Con: the smaller and more specific your desired market, the less likely Google is to know how to target it. Take the island of Bermuda, for example. As one of our target markets, we’re constantly perplexed at the lack of search marketing attention paid to this location. As it stands, the only type of Bermuda businesses currently getting indexed on Google Places are restaurants and hotels, with other fields being unable to set up a listing. Basically, if you run a small business in what Google deems to be an obscure location that falls outside of those two fields, you might not be able to leverage the full benefits of SEM.

Another thing working in SEM’s favour is Google’s recent decision to encrypt all of their keyword data for organic searches, meaning they’ll soon be taking away free access to specific statistics, i.e. our ability to see how many people are searching for given keywords on a month-to-month basis. With this development, any small business owner who currently uses the Google AdWords keyword tool to sniff around as to what his/her potential customers might be searching for will now have to either choose a different strategy or bite the bullet and start paying for local SEM.

If you plan to start an SEM campaign for your local business, there are a few things to consider. First and foremost: it’s complicated. Despite Google giving you a trove of data and search marketing tools to tinker with, there’s still a trial and error period where you’ll have to test which ads/keyword combinations work, and which don’t. Without the proper guidance, you’re likely to end up wasting money initially. Secondly, just like with SEO, SEM requires an ongoing time commitment that many business owners are unable to commit to, and don’t feel comfortable delegating to one of their employees for lack of experience. If you understand the importance of web traffic but are unable to commit your time to increasing it, it might be time to enlist professional services to make use of this fantastic tool.

1. It Gets You Found 

Simply put, SEO is a great way to get your business found on the world wide Web. Your website is often your first point of contact with users but, if no one knows you exist, it’s difficult for them to find you in the first place. Why wouldn’t you want to rank high in the search results? Simply being visible on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines gets your name out there, contributes positively to traffic and lead generation, and attracts potential business of all kinds.

2. It Offers a Measurable Return on Investment

Proper SEO is an investment. It may seem costly and complicated right off the bat, and it doesn’t happen overnight, but the ROI is more than worth it. The higher your company appears in the search results, the more likely users are to click on the link that takes them to your website. The higher the number of visitors, the higher the number of conversions – which means more business for you. Good things come to those who wait.

3. On-Page is Great Advertising

Title tags and meta descriptions are the blurbs that accompany your website link in search engine results. Can’t picture it in your head? Type Yabsta Digital, or another company name, into Google and hit enter. The title tag is situated directly above the link itself and reads “Yabsta Digital: Digital Solutions, Web Marketing & Design.” The meta description below reads “Yabsta is a full digital marketing agency offering needs-based web presence solutions for individuals, businesses and organizations of any size.” SEO allows you to strategically craft this information to not only advertise what your business offers but also include relevant, important keywords. This lets users know what you’re all about before they click and, even if they don’t, they might remember you next time.

4. It Builds Trust and Authority

Take a second to think about the links that appear in the pages of search results. While it stands to reason that there are thousands of great companies online for any given industry, the ones that appear in the first few pages of results are viewed as more authoritative, credible and trustworthy. Not only that but, done right, the title tags and meta descriptions mentioned in number 3 communicate your brand and marketing concept directly to users searching for products, services and information related to your industry niche. Not convinced? According to Search Engine Watch, when it comes to the average search, the top position in Google gets 33% of all search traffic, with the first page of results getting 92% of all traffic. That right there is reason enough to embark on the SEO journey.

So if you’ve been wondering why SEO is beneficial, the proof’s in the pudding. A crucial component of online marketing, it allows Google to understand and work with your business. Search engine optimization offers an incredible ROI, which includes driving traffic, advertising your goods to potential customers and boosting your brand via measures of trust and authority. With Google seeing over 100 billion searches per month, 12 billion of which are local, you simply can’t afford to ignore it.

Image Credits: Hi 5 Web Designs & Website Garage

If you’re a business owner whose website has lost traffic as a result of these algorithm updates, you’re likely not concerned with the technicalities behind the drop, and more with how to fix it ASAP, however, understanding the basic inner workings of SEO is key to mapping out a recovery strategy. Here are some tips to help get you back on track:

Understand The Difference Between On-Page & Off-Page SEO

This may sound obvious to those already aware, but you’d be surprised at how many small business owners with websites don’t even know what SEO stands for (it’s Search Engine Optimization, by the way). The two main types of SEO are on-page and off-page. In a nutshell, on-page SEO refers to changes made physically on your site (eg. writing new copy, assigning meta tags), whereas off-page refers to how many other websites, social media platforms and blogs are linking back to your site as an indicator of quality content. To be clear, Penguin 1.0 and 2.0 affected peoples’ off-page SEO significantly more than their on-page (if at all) because the algorithms’ main purpose was to punish websites who engaged in black hat back linking techniques. By running an on-page SEO checklist for your own website, you can officially rule out the issue being an internal problem and focus on what’s really keeping you down.

Be Prepared To Write & Reach Out

With the Penguin updates, Google has essentially backed business owners into and corner and forced them to reevaluate their existing traffic-driving strategies. If you were buying links pre-penguin, that’s now a no-no, so you should be prepared to dedicate resources to things like blogging, social media and link exchanges with reputable websites. The new SEO revolves around content, content, content, and it’s your responsibility to produce and market the kind of content that is both interesting to your target audience and relevant to your business. Run a sports shop? Write a weekly blog about the latest equipment or industry trends and encourage your readership to comment on it. Own a restaurant and want more customers? Start a Facebook page, regularly update it with your daily/weekly specials and encouraging people to click through to your website for a deeper look at the menu. Want to expand your link portfolio in an honest, white-hat way? Reach out to other local businesses and encourage them to do a link exchange with you (it’s win-win). Always be thinking of new ways to write intriguing copy and reach out to your clients and/or potential customers.