Is your business showing up on Google? Try clearing your browsing history and searching for your business name; do you show up? How about when you search for key terms related to your business? Many factors will affect how your business ranks in the search results, including your proximity to the searcher, the competitiveness of your industry, and the strength of your web presence. If you’re not ranking as high as you’d like to be, it’s time to revamp your search marketing strategy.
For any business owner, ensuring that potential customers can find your business on Google Search is absolutely essential. It is well-established how few users look past the first page of Google search results, and even the first ten results on page one see a major drop-off in click-through rate between the first and tenth positions: A result in position #1 earns a CTR over ten times higher than a ranking at position #10. If you want your business to compete, you need to make sure your audience can find you quickly and easily.
This article will break down the most important steps to take to get your business found on Google.
Website
In order for your business to be found on Google, you need to have a website. Your business website is often the first impression customers and clients have of you. Whether you own a law practice or a local café, your business website needs to reflect your brand and provide information users are looking for.
It should be modern-looking and aligned with your brand colors, logo, and other identifying visual language. It should be organized and easy to navigate, with a main menu directing users to your pillar web pages. Your website also needs to be optimized in order to appear in the results for searches relevant to your business. This means you need high-quality content on your website.
Content
One of the most important search engine ranking factors is the consistent production of high-quality content on your website. What does “high quality” mean in terms of content? It will look different depending on the type of business you have.
Examples of content on your website might be your webpages explaining the different services you offer, or the process of how you work. You can also publish blogs on popular, timely topics related to your business or frequently asked questions in your industry. High quality content not only contains the keywords and search terms you want to rank for, but also offers value to your audience.
SEO
When it comes to SEO, it’s important to have a strategy. To build your strategy, you’ll need to do some research. What keywords are your customers using to search for your services or products? What kind of search volume do those keywords generate? How well do you rank for those terms currently? How competitive are those keywords? Are there keywords your competitors rank for that you do not? Are there opportunities for you to outrank the competition for specific long-tail keywords that might generate fewer but more intent-driven visitors to your site?
On-page SEO – This includes your content, keyword density, heading tags, internal and external links, and other on-page factors that influence your site’s search engine optimization. Make sure to include the focus keyword for each page in that page’s SEO title, meta description, H2-tags, and naturally throughout the body of the page. Also consider your information organization; structured information like a table of contents, bulleted lists, and question and answer formatting are helpful.
Technical SEO – This includes factors like mobile-friendliness, site speed, image size, and other things that influence how your site functions for the user.
Backlinks from other authoritative sites to your website build your domain authority and thereby help boost your ranking power. Schema markup is a way of telling Google more explicitly what kinds of content appear on your page, which can help it rank on SERPS.
Google Business Profile
Your Google Business profile is your key to some of the most coveted real estate on the Google search results page: the local listings, also known as Google Maps. It is extremely important to ensure that your Google Business Profile is complete, accurate, and up to date.
If you haven’t yet claimed your business listing on Google, do so right away. Be sure to verify the listing with Google via a PIN they will send in the mail. Then, start optimizing the listing with detailed information and photos. Include relevant keywords in your business description, and photos that give a clear image of your business location, inside and out. And reply to customer reviews and messages in a timely manner.
Like most SEO activities, this is not a one-time task; you will need to collect new customer reviews and post updates to your profile on an ongoing basis to continue to rank.
Business Listings
Google isn’t the only place you should have a business listing. It is also important to have your business listed on places like Yelp and other directories specific to your business.
Business directory listings or “citations” improve search engine rankings and strengthen your online presence, making it easier for customers and clients to find your business. They also provide backlinks that improve your SEO.
When search engines recognize your business’s presence across multiple reputable platforms, they consider it as a trusted and authoritative source of information, which leads to higher trust and relevance scores. Optimize your presence in business directories by including images where possible, keeping information up-to-date, and displaying (and responding to) customer reviews.
Social Media
Having a social media presence doesn’t just help you engage with your customers directly, it can also help your business show up in the Google search results.
Just like your business citations, your social media profiles should be consistent and up to date where your name, phone number, address, URL, business hours, and other information is displayed.
If you want to rank on page-one of Google, the right SEO partner can help you get there. Contact us to learn more about how we can help your business get found on Google today.