If you are not getting the traffic to your website that you would like then here are a couple of tips to help you work out what is going wrong. I will be referring to Google as the search engine, but that is because it is the most widely used search engine (eclipsing all the others). Google’s whole aim is to provide expert, authoritative, and trustworthy answers to searcher’s questions. Keep that in mind, because all of your rankings depend upon it. Let’s delve into the areas to check.
Is your website fast?
Speed counts when it comes to websites. If your website doesn’t open quickly then the people searching may press the back button and go find another website to get their answer. We all understand it, no-one is patient anymore. And Google understands this also and more importantly they track it. They know your page speed, they know the number of times people bounce out of your page; and will not put you at the top of the search result pages, because they don’t believe that you will be an efficient answer to the search question.
As far as speed goes, you want your page to open within 5 seconds, and preferably under 2-3 seconds. The best way to check it is to enter your website page at https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights. Focus on the First Contentful Paint metric but note that some of the other metrics will also be coming into play in Google in May 2021.
Are you showing in the searches?
My challenge to you is to come up with 3 phrases that your ideal client would use to search for your business … in their words … not yours. Make sure they do not contain your company name or brand (you should always be on the first page with those). Then go into Google and search for those phrases and find what position your business is on the page (or which page you show on, if not the first). The reality is that most people pick businesses off the first page, so if you are not on that page, you need some search engine optimization assistance.
Are you actually tracking your traffic?
When I ask some customers what their traffic is to their website they really don’t know as they are not tracking it, all they know is that no-one is ringing them. There are 3 steps in the sales funnel to get prospects to convert into sales via your website:
- get your website showing up in the search results (and lots of them),
- get people to click on your website link,
- get people to look around your website and be convinced to then do your call to action (e.g. phone me or email me),
- and then finally you nurture them through a sales process to a conversion.
But if you are not tracking the metrics on your website, then you really don’t know at what stage you are losing those prospects. To track your website traffic you need to set up your Google Analytics account. Not only does it help with traffic numbers, but Google Analytics will also show you bounce rates. You can do this at https://analytics.google.com, although it is a little involved and at the end it will provide some code that will need to be added to your website.
Of course, if you would like assistance with some of these steps, and so much more that I do with search engine optimisation, just reach out to me at helpme@autom8now.com.au.
About Nici Bickley
Nici Bickley is an SEO Expert with over 20 years in the software technology industry. She brings her corporate leadership, teaching and customer service experience into play by ensuring that search engine optimization is approached as a strategy, complex software is explained simply and that small business owners get the results they need. Nici provides tips on her Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube channels for small business owners (just search for autom8now). You can find her services on https://www.autom8now.com.au or email at helpme@autom8now.com.au.