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Why is my website not on the first page of Google??

A common question asked by clients is,

 “Why am I not on the first page of Google when I type in a keyword for my business?”

The best answer we can offer is, “Why should google place you on their front page?”

The biggest misconception owners have when they buy a website is they will magically appear on Google’s 1st page by simply typing their favourite keywords. This would be the greatest marketing gift to any business owner.

So how can I appear on the first page of google?

It all starts with how your website is developed. There  are only three ways to create a website:

  1. Do it yourself
  2. Ask A Friend
  3. Get a professional company to do it for you.

No matter which way you choose you will need to optimize your website for SEO. This is no simple task and without the basic knowledge of Digital Marketing, Web Design and SEO, you will require the services of a professional, in some cases, a few.

Understanding the google business model.

Google is a search engine and uses algorithms to index your website. Google wants to provide the best results for every search. These algorithms index your site for certain criteria and rank your website accordingly. Whilst Google maybe a search engine, its business model is advertising. They derive their income from paid advertising known as Google Adwords. This is done by auctioning keywords based on demand. The more common the keyword the more expensive the price per click more commonly know as Pay Per Click (PPC).

Your keywords have to be strategically placed within your website or the advert won’t be able to identify the pages you want to rank. So you can appreciate that Google is going to place those websites paying for keywords at the top of their page rather than a website that is not.

Let’s take a look at a summary of the minimum criteria required to rank on the 1st page, which is not guaranteed.

  • Hosting

    • A good hosting package will provide a number of factors like SSD and CDN that will play a key role in the performance of your website.
  • Frameworks

    • Certain frameworks offer different customizations and require a skill for SEO to be implemented.
  • Content

    • High-quality content

The saying goes, “Content is King”, after all that is what the user is looking for. The higher the quality of your content the longer the user will remain on your website. This is measured as bounce rate. Google uses your bounce rate to score your website.

    • Backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites. These are also known as citations and could be other directories or articles that mention your business and place your website link in their article. These need to be quality links. Links from undesirable websites can have a negative impact on your Google score. You can always use a Backlinks Checker to make sure your site is safe.

    • Internal Links

Links to other content in your site will increase the users journey and time spent on your website.

    • Copywritten Content

Many owners submit their own content which falls very short of Google requirements for quality content.  Copy written content is structured to align with your page titles, Keywords, meta descriptions, permalinks (page url) and of course your story or product offering.  Its ultimate goal is conversion.

    • Keyword structure

Keywords are a major part of your website. Unfortunately stuffing keywords into the metatags does not work anymore. Keywords or key word phrases have to be carefully structure into each pages content, images, and titles. Unless you have a custom developer you will require a plugin and in most cases a premium one to achieve 1st page ranking.

    • Social media

Social media is not negotiable in today’s world. Links from social media sites, shares and comments are important for ranking. Your competition will also be ahead of you if you don’t stay relevant.

  • Design

    • There are millions of themes and plugins. If these are coded incorrectly it can cause a number of issues on your website that will affect loading, speed and even downtime.
    • Using images that are not compressed or optimized correctly will slow your website down and force the user to exit your site.
    • UX & UI. User Experience and User Interface are the building blocks of any web design and will ultimately play a major role in the users’ perception of your business.
  • Responsiveness

    • More than 80% of users use mobile. Google now rates your website on mobile before tablet and desktop. Mobile responsiveness is one of the most important configurations in Web Design
  • Speed

    • Nobody likes a slow website. Hosting, design and frameworks are essential in optimizing speed. Google will penalise a slow website.
  • Google Submission

    • Your website needs to be submitted to google or it won’t appear at all. This needs to be done through webmaster tools so once again a skilled designer is required.
  • Traffic

    • High traffic will definitely score well with Google
  • Security

    • Every website requires a SSL Certificate. This is the padlock you see in your browser and informs the user the website is secure. Google penalises websites without an SSL. You can identify this by the website URL: https://www
  • Product

    • The bottom line is, you need to have a product that is in demand. You need a quality product if Google is going to rank your site.

These are just a few of the criteria required to even stand a chance of any Google ranking whatsoever. 

Google places Paid Ads at the top of the page and the balance is those that have applied the above and achieved Google’s approval.  Your ranking is never constant even with paid ads and will change as different websites enter and exit the World Wide Web.

Another question that often pops up is “Why is my website not generating leads”.

Owners tend to think that once their website is online the leads and traffic will automatically follow.

Your website is an extension of your business and like a salesperson cannot sell without feet through the door. You need to provide the feet and the only way that will happen is by marketing.

The is a famous saying in the signage industry “A Business with no sign is a sign of no business”

Digital MarketingYour website with no marketing is like a house in the middle of the wilderness, or like a holiday resort on a remote island. Without advertising, they will struggle to attract clients.

So it is essential to launch your business to gain traction.

When the traffic arrives, you better make sure you can convert!!

The two market-leading platforms are:

GOOGLE ADWORDS

FACEBOOK ADS

What’s the difference?

The main difference is Facebook shows ads to users based on their interests while Google shows ads to users looking for a particular service or product

In our experience, clients opt for Facebook Ads first because of:

  1. Ease of use from their Facebook Pages
  2. More flexibility in budget control
  3. Ability to target specific demographics and areas

Companies with a higher budget tend to move to Google Adwords.

If you looking to generate more traffic try our digital marketing packages here.

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