When someone wants to find your business often the first place they turn is an online search engine like Google. It’s no secret that how you rank in Google impacts how many people find your business, but what features make your website rank well? This week we’re giving you some tips on how to improve your rank in search.
Out with the Old Content
When customers find you, make sure the information is correct and not outdated.
When users visit a website and they see an article from four years ago, they may wonder if the content is still relevant. The search engines do too! Periodically you’re going to want to do spring cleaning, a content audit where you evaluate your content and ask yourself the following questions:
- Are there any changes in your products or services – a new offering or something you no longer do?
- Have you changed your hours or how to get in touch with you?
- Is there content that is no longer relevant or duplicate content?
- Do you have any articles that are still relevant, but have an older date that may make people wonder if it’s still current? Update these articles and give them a new post date.
If you remove content, be sure to redirect it to an existing spot on your site. One way to evaluate your blog posts is to look at Google Analytics to see which articles of the same topic rank the best and redirect the deleted ones to the stronger performing blog.
You don’t have to update your site every day or every week, but you should have some sort of plan to review and update your content on at least an annual basis.
Don’t Just Rank Well, Rank for the Right People
Periodically review your content. Update articles that are older but still relevant with a new date. Delete anything you no longer do or is incorrect.
Creating relevant content and ranking well in search is important, but you want to make sure you’re ranking for your ideal audience. What content ranks well and reaches the people who want your product or service?
What questions are you already answering for your ideal customer? This makes great content.
One of the best places to start is the questions you’re already answering for your customers and prospects. If you’ve told that story or given that info out three or more times, that’s content for your website. Other people interested in your product or service want to know the same things.
You can also do some research by seeing what your competitors are publishing. Another research hack is typing relevant terms into Google. When you type relevant terms, Google lists a number of suggestions. These are common search queries surrounding that same term.
If you answer the questions people are searching for you will rank higher. And, don’t forget to keep your language conversational. Use the words your audience would to describe what you do.
The bottom line is your customers want to find current information about you, and keeping your site streamlined, useful and organized also helps rank you better in search for those customers.
Links in this episode: Fix Outdated Content To Boost Your SEO Results
Does Content Help You In Search?
These 7 Website Mistakes Limit Your Digital Marketing Results
Google E.A.T. And Your Content #TNT
