There’s nothing more frustrating than investing time and money into a website for your brand…only to find it seems to be invisible to your audience. There are a few reasons why your customers might find it challenging to find your site online, and fortunately, they’re all easy to fix.
1. You’re Not Optimized for Mobile Search
You may not even realize how important mobile search has become for brands like yours: More than half of all smartphone users have discovered a company while searching on their phones. But the companies they’re finding through mobile have ensured that their brands are easy to find through mobile search.
What does that mean? You need to adapt your keyword strategy to include semantic terms (more conversational) since many people today use voice search rather than typing in a query. That means that instead of only focusing on keywords like “formal dresses” and “Sacramento dress shop,” you should also use phrases like “where can I buy a prom dress in Sacramento,” since that’s more likely how a searcher would speak what she’s looking for.
Also make sure your website has hours, address, and phone number listed so that when you come up in search, mobile users can see at a glance the key details of your business. You can claim your Google Business listing as well so that the information that Google displays for your business is up to date.
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2. Your Ads are Misleading
Maybe you’ve invested in online ads and are scratching your head as to why it’s costing you money but you’re not seeing a corresponding number of sales. It could be that people are clicking your ad, but they leave once they arrive on your landing page because they didn’t find what they expected to.
It’s important to ensure that the copy you have in your ad specifically describes what people will find on your site. If you advertise that they can save 25%, there shouldn’t be so much fine print that most people give up before they make a purchase. If you advertise one product, the link should take them to the landing page for that item.
It can be helpful to have multiple versions of the same ad running simultaneously so you can measure which gets you the best results in terms of a boost in sales.
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3. Your Keyword Strategy is All Over the Place
Another reason your site may be hard to find is that you don’t have a solid SEO strategy. You can’t simply research relevant keywords and then throw as many as you can onto a page of web copy.
Each page should be optimized with just one keyword found throughout, in the web copy, page title, and meta description. Use location keywords too if yours is a local business, such as “San Francisco dry cleaners.”
Use keywords also on your blog, centering each post around one keyword or phrase so that people searching for content on that subject can find your blog.
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4. You Don’t Have a Content Marketing Strategy
Sales are difficult to come by without a solid marketing plan, particularly on content marketing. Search engines rank sites with active blogs higher in search results, so if you’re not blogging, you aren’t getting found.
The key is to publish content on a regular basis so that people always have something new to discover and search engines like Google continue to find a reason to bump you up search results.
5. There’s Simply Too Much Competition
Depending on what industry you’re in, it may be virtually impossible to rank on the top page of search results without spending tens of thousands on SEO strategy. Not to worry; you can still be found by investing in digital advertising.
Pay-per-click ads on search engines like Google, as well as on social media sites, are usually pretty affordable, and you can target exactly the market you want to find you. This may be a better investment than trying to get to the top position in search results and may deliver a better ROI.
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6. Your Site May be Outdated
It may not be so much that people can’t find your website as that they find it but then quickly leave because the design is so outdated and unappealing that it’s a turnoff. If it’s been a decade or so since you updated your web design, it might be time for an overhaul.
Getting a new design for your business website no longer requires thousands of dollars and a professional designer. There are DIY website design tools that make it incredibly simple and affordable to modify professional design templates to fit your needs. The bonus? They’re usually mobile-friendly, so no matter what size screen someone is viewing your new, fabulous site, it will render correctly.
If you’re not seeing the traffic or sales you think you should for your website, make a few course corrections and see if that changes results.
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