Your website is nothing without your visitors. At the end of the day, there are several reasons why you may be lacking website hits, whether it is your keywords, your format or even your content. If you want to find out the core reason why your site is suffering then this guide will help you to find out everything you need to know.
You’re Not Focusing On The Right Keywords
The main focus of your SEO strategy should be keyword research. At the end of the day, keywords help a search engine to know what your content is about so that it can then be indexed. If you are targeting incorrect keywords then you will not rank very well and this means that you won’t be as visible to your audience. This will lead to less organic traffic to your site. Other reasons why your keywords may not be performing well include the fact that you are too niche for your keywords or that you are in a highly competitive industry. If you know that your site is underperforming then this could be down to the fact that your pages have a very high bounce rate or low level of organic visibility. Focusing your content around the wrong keywords can result in low-quality traffic going to your site and this means that you will find it difficult to convert your sales and your leads. Ideally, you should be aiming for long-tail keywords that have very low competition as this will help you to add to your copy naturally. Taking into account your niche and your target audience will help you out a lot here as well.
Content Is King
If you don’t have enough content on your site then this could be greatly impacting your search engine ranking. You may also find that you have less to offer anyone who visits your site when compared to your competition. Now, a lot of people think that they have to write hundreds of pages of copy in order to come out on top. Quality is more important than quantity, so make sure that you are writing content that answers whatever question your users are looking for. Search engines have a very good algorithm that knows if you are spamming when it comes to your content marketing. Whenever you write and research the copy for your site, you have to think about what stage your buyers are at and if they are doing product research. You also need to know if they are ready to make their purchase or not so you can then cater to their needs accordingly. By doing this, you can be sure to give them the experience they are looking for.
Expert, Trustworthy & Authoritative
Google wants your site to be an authoritative source, so they take steps to reward sites that can support this narrative. When reviewing your site and your content, you should look out for a few things. You should make sure that your site’s structure is accessible and that there is an About Us page. It’s also important to make sure that there are several ways that someone can contact you if they need to. Ensuring that you have a privacy policy and also a terms of service is important too. If you can follow this then you will soon find that it is easier for you to get the result you are going for and that you are able to give your users a better experience.
Write For People And Not Bots
Remember, it is imperative that you write your copy for humans rather than for bots. Everyone focuses so much on website optimisation, and this is great, but you have to make sure that you do not lose sight of your audience. If you want to help yourself then it is a good idea for you to write in a conversational style. You also need to use visuals that help to catch the eye, and that break down any big paragraphs into smaller chunks. This will make it much easier for people to digest the content you are putting out there. Breaking up your content with bullet points and even numbered lists is a very good way for you to help keep your users engaged too. Generally, it’s important to audit your content so you can make sure that it is up to date. Removing any old content that might not be relevant is also important, as this will help you to ensure that you are not being left behind your competition.
Your Competition
The next thing you need to do is look at your competition. The best way for you to find out what your competitors are doing would be for you to carry out a competitor analysis. When you do this, you can then develop a robust and effective strategy that will help you to drive traffic. Your analysis should ideally include competitors who rank for the keywords you are trying to target. By doing this, you can find out what your competitors are doing and how they are performing.
Promotion Is Imperative
You may have a lot of great content on your site, but this isn’t much good if people don’t know about it. You need to develop a strategy that helps you to push your content because if you don’t then you may find that you struggle to gain traffic. A good rule of thumb would be for you to spend around 20% of your budget on creating your content and then 80% on pushing it. Content promotion is the key to getting solid website traffic. The main thing that you need to make sure that you do here is promote it wherever your audience is. It may be that you promote it on a social media platform such as Twitter or Facebook, or that you choose more niche networks that are specific to your industry. Either way, what works for you and your target audience will differ so it’s important to know where you stand and for you to also take note of what’s working. If you can do this then you will be able to make the most out of your customer journey.
Technical Problems
Google always take the time to set out the best practices and rules for websites to follow. As a website owner, you should try your best to follow the rules so you can get the result you’re looking for out of the current algorithm. The two major algorithms that you need to look out for include Penguin and Panda. If you do not follow these updates, then you may find that your site is penalised and that you are marked down. This is the last thing you need if you are already struggling to get website traffic. At the end of the day, Google also chooses to update their algorithm as the year goes on, so the best thing you can do is reference them regularly. If you do happen to be hit with an update then you will know about it soon enough. You will see a drop in your traffic within the space of 24 hours, so you’ll need to act on this in the shortest possible time. If you need help with Google index, or how the algorithms work then remember, Penguin focuses on links and Panda focuses on content.
Mobile Optimisation
Remember that a lot of search activity is conducted on a mobile device. As a result, you have to ensure that you fully optimise your site for mobile users. Google’s index system is now fully mobile-first, which means that you need to make sure that you are catering for this. When it comes to mobile, you have to make sure that you replace any links with touch buttons and that you also ensure that your website pages can be read without having to zoom or pinch. It is also a good idea for you to format and edit the content so that it is in very digestible pieces. You can do this by adding bullets, images and more. Focusing on small paragraphs is also a very good thing for you to be doing.
Poor SEO
A lot of sites do not have any kind of plan when it comes to SEO. If you do not have any kind of SEO activity then your site probably won’t be visible in the search engines and this can put any ranking efforts you do make down to pure luck. If you want to do something about this then hiring an SEO agency is one of the best things you can do. If you try and go at it alone and if you try and focus on doing everything yourself then this can lead to mistakes being made, which is the last thing that you want when you are trying so hard to increase your ranking. If you want to help yourself then hire an SEO agency that is experienced in your niche, or industry.
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