(Inspired by Barry Schwartz’s post on Search Engine Land)
Your website is one one of the most essential parts of your business. It’s where potential clients go to learn about your company, see what kind of services you provide, determine how trustworthy you appear, and ultimately decide if you are a good fit for their needs. You’ve invested a lot into your website, and that is crucial to attracting clients.
But did you know that even if you have a well-built website that reflects your business, Google can prevent it from showing up? If your website isn’t getting enough visits, Google may stop it from appearing on search results, blocking your potential clients from knowing that you are out there. Let’s look at why Google is doing this, and some steps that you can take to get more traffic and get Google to show your site.
How Does Google Decide To Show Your Site?
When you first launch your website, Google will perform a “crawl” to scan your site, and read all about what you do. Crawls allow Google to understand more about your site, and determine what kind of searches your site will appear on. Once your site has been crawled, Google will add your site to its memory, or index, and remember it when someone searches for things related to your business. Check out our article on how Google is like a librarian to learn more about how Google determines search results.
Why Indexing Isn’t Enough To Get Your Site Seen
Even if Google is able to read your site and understand what your business does, it may still decide against showing it if not enough people are visiting it. Google might decide that your content isn’t relevant enough, and decide to show a more popular competitor’s site instead. This can have a significant negative effect on your company’s visibility, but there are things that you can do to fix it.
How To Get Your Low-performing Site To Show Up Better
If your site is being hidden by Google, it isn’t because your site’s content is bad, it could just be not properly optimized to appeal to both your target market and to search engines. Here are a few ways that this can be changed:
1. Make Your Site Easier For Visitors To Read
Potential clients and other viewers are more likely to want to stay on a site that is visually appealing and attractive. Your content should look clean and not cluttered, and easy on the eyes for your readers. Text should be large enough to read well, but not take up too much space on the screen. Your color scheme should also match and complement your text well. Check out some great web design examples!
Your site also needs to function well for your readers. The menus should make sense and be easy to navigate, and content should load fast. These optimizations help keep viewers engaged on your site, and want to learn more about your business.
2. Make Your Site Easier For Google To Read
Even if your content is perfect for people to read, search engines may need some extra help understanding it. These search engine optimization (SEO) fixes include using a proper heading structure, writing content with keywords that will appear in searches, and structuring your site in a way that is specifically organized for Google and other search engines. These fixes help the search engine to get an even better understanding of what your site is about, and help it appear in search results in the most relevant way.
3. Keep Creating Quality Content
The content on your site isn’t necessarily bad, you just might need more of it. You can expand on your site’s content by building out on other topics related to the ones that you are trying to appear, or rank for. By casting a wide net of topics you can attract a variety of different viewers to your site, and then by using internal links (another key SEO tool) you can guide them to even more useful content, increasing their time on your site and their awareness of your services. This will increase the trust that Google has in your site, and will encourage it to show your site in searches.
Ready To Get Your Site Seen? Wes Web Is Here To Help
At Wes Web, we partner with businesses in many different industries to help them increase their site’s visibility, and ultimately get more sales. Whether you are looking for search engine optimization, growing your social media presence, or redesigning your website’s appearance, we work with your business to develop a strategy that is custom to you, and will grow your business the way you want. You work hard for your business, and your website should too. Learn more about us, or contact us today to get started with a free consultation call!