How to Improve Your Google Search Ranking in 5 Simple Steps

How to Improve Your Google Search Ranking in 5 Simple Steps

by | Dec 4, 2020 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Business Intelligence & Analytics, Insights, Marketing Planning & Execution

How to Improve Your Google Search Ranking in 5 Simple Steps

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Search engine optimization is an essential aspect of helping your business grow. On average, the first five results on Google receive 67 percent of clicks, so it’s tough to get website traffic when you’re sitting way back on page five. You want your site to be one of the first results a potential customer sees when they perform a search looking for a solution to their problem. Here are five ways to improve your Google search ranking and boost your business growth.

How to Improve Your Google Search Ranking

1. Utilize Tools to Track Your Site Activity

Google has helpful tools that will provide you with insight into how your site is performing. Google Search Console and Google Analytics (don’t miss the brand new GA4) collect your website activity to give you data you can use to improve your SEO. You want to know how many visitors you are bringing in, who they are, and how they engage with your site to determine how to attract more of those visitors and get them to stick around and convert.

There are other tools available that will help you track your site’s progress against your competitors. Find the ones that will work best for you and keep an eye on your site’s performance. We recommend Uber Suggest and SEMRush (both have free tools). If you notice that your site is not performing as well as you’d like, you can use these tools to start troubleshooting possible SEO problems.

2. Check Your Site’s Structure

There are certain links you should look for in your website’s structure. Double-check that all pages on your website are in HTTPS. Search engines prefer HTTPS pages over HTTP for security reasons, and if you are still using the latter, it could cause you to fall out of Google’s good graces.

You’ll also need to find and fix any crawl errors — you can use some of the tools we mentioned above to help identify these. Crawl errors occur when a search engine’s bot cannot access a page. Ensure that all of the links on your site lead to actual pages and make sure to have a customized 404 page that will still send visitors where you want them to go if they stumble onto a bad link.

Once you have ensured that all of the pages on your site are active and available, you can create a sitemap. A sitemap is essentially a list of the pages on your site. You can submit it to Google to improve your search engine ranking.

3. Create Good Content

While there are ways to improve your SEO without changing your content, a surefire method is creating high quality content. Create content for actual humans with a search engine in mind, not the other way around. 

You should know what your audience is looking for so you can answer the questions they are asking. Are they looking for a certain product or service? Do they need assistance with an issue? Whatever it is they are looking to find, you want to provide it for them — just like we wrote this article for you. 

Content naturally will become out of date as time passes. Stay on top of your content to increase your site’s traffic. Search engines prefer accurate and timely information, and they could pass up your site in favor of one with more current content.

Along with updating information, you should also remove anything that does not add value. Perform a content audit and get rid of any irrelevant content that you find. You want your audience to enjoy visiting and interacting with your site, and part of that is ensuring that your content is worthwhile. Google is incredibly smart and learns what your site is about so it can recommend it to others. If you have irrelevant content that could prevent Google from figuring out what topic your company is an expert in, they won’t recommend you.

4. Utilize Keywords & Incorporate Them Into Your Page Titles and Descriptions

Keywords are an essential part of SEO. When searching for specific terms, engines will match sites with those same keywords. With the right keywords, you can make sure that users find your site as a straightforward and clear solution to the problem  they are searching to solve.

Identify your key terms. These are your most searched keywords, and their use can help your site rank highly. Additionally, you want to find your long-tail keywords. They deliver a higher conversion rate, but they can be more challenging to work into your site’s content as they are not searched as often.

An effective way to look at where you can improve your keywords is by creating a keyword map. It can help you find where you need to add, optimize, or change content to fit more keywords.

5. Check Your Site’s Performance

There are a few different aspects of performance you should check to make sure your website is functioning properly and meeting Google’s standards. 

  • Ensure that Google Search Console has indexed your site (you should already have this tool from back in step 1). If not, it will not show up as a result at all, meaning no amount of SEO improvement will help because Google doesn’t recognize you. You can also check for site duplicates. If more than one version of your site is indexed, your data can become split across them.
  • Check your site’s speed. Pages that do not load within a few seconds are usually abandoned, and Google will track when users leave your site quickly. Keep visitors on your site by ensuring it has a fast loading speed.
  • Make sure that your site is mobile-friendly. Nowadays, Google factors in how your site looks and feels on mobile when considering site ranking. Even if they did not, you want visitors to be able to access your site on different devices.
  • Review your Google Analytics data often. Monitoring your goal completions, traffic, and more popular pages will help you understand what kind of content is performing well and what you should adjust, remove, or add.

Final Thoughts

Search engine optimization is an important part of driving traffic to your business’s website. The higher you rank, the more visitors will be able to find you With these five tips, you can easily improve your Google search ranking, enhance your SEO, and bring in more customers. 

Data is one of the key components to optimizing your website for Google, and there are an infinite number of dashboards, programs, and tools to help you sift through and interpret data. With the right strategies and tools, you can transform into actionable insights that serve as your marketing roadmap. Download our Business Intelligence eBook to learn more about this process and how it can help you grow your business.

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About Dexter Burgess

Marketing Manager Dexter Burgess takes the lead on implementing new tactics and promoting change through data-driven strategies. Dex works hard at client relations through consistent communication and positive feedback, never settling until the customer is understood and happy.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

Emerging Stronger In The New Normal – Nov. 12th Regional Training Workshop

Emerging Stronger In The New Normal – Nov. 12th Regional Training Workshop

by | Nov 4, 2020 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Events, Insights

Emerging Stronger In The New Normal – Nov. 12th Regional Training Workshop

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The end of the year is quickly approaching, and given the uncertainties of 2020 that will undoubtedly bleed well into 2021, there is no time like the present to prepare for what’s ahead. In the spirit of celebrating our supportive business community, Master Networks is hosting a Regional Training Workshop and Networking Social (in person or Zoom — your choice!) to get you on the right track.

The in-person or online event will take place Thursday, November 12th from 1:00 – 4:30 PM EST and will include interactive training by special guest speakers, including &Marketing’s Managing Director, Rajat Kapur. Raj will cover a variety of topics dedicated to helping you emerge stronger in the coming year, including:

  • Changing Customer Experience
  • Resetting Strategy
  • Improving Employee Relationships
  • Adjusting Disrupted Supply Chains

This complimentary event will be interactive, so come prepared to ask questions about what your business should do next. We hope you’ll join us!

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE EVENT AND REGISTER
About the Authors

Rajat “Raj” Kapur is the founder and Managing Director of &Marketing. He strives to provide growing businesses of all sizes unparalleled marketing strategy and execution services. Raj brings two decades of professional experience in marketing, sales, and strategy development experience spanning B2B and B2C Fortune 50, mid-sized, and startups.

About &Marketing

In today’s fast paced world, many growing businesses are struggling to modernize their marketing approaches because either they don’t have the expertise or the bandwidth to do it themselves.

&Marketing provides seasoned marketing strategy professionals and a nimble execution team to help our clients achieve their goals. Our unique partnership model allows us to augment our client’s existing teams or outsource the entire marketing function in an affordable, flexible, and transparent way.

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Why You Need to Respond to Every Customer Review

Why You Need to Respond to Every Customer Review

by | Oct 23, 2020 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Insights

Why You Need to Respond to Every Customer Review

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Congratulations! If you are reading this, you have taken the first step in executing a strategy to grow your customer reviews. You start receiving emails for your Google My Business (GMB) account that customers are raving about your work. That’s great! Though you may want to take a moment to celebrate, don’t forget the most important step:

RESPOND TO THE REVIEW!

The importance and benefits of responding to customer reviews are endless, so let’s just focus on a few key reasons you need to respond to every customer review.

Why You Need To Respond to Every Customer Review

1. Encourage Customer Loyalty

You have a happy customer who has taken the time out of their own day to rave about your business. Show them how much you value them and encourage them to return – this drives customer loyalty and builds your base.

The review response can be short and simple, but you do need to respond and preferably within 24-48hrs

Bonus Tip: Refer to the customer by name in the response

2. Influence Future Customers

When perspective clients read reviews, they are looking for an outside opinion of your business and to see how you interact with customers. Seeing that you are interactive and appreciate your customers provides additional social validation. When you respond to every customer review, you show them that you are the business they want.

Think of your customer reviews as free radio advertisements – you want them to highlight you in the best way possible!

3. Directly Affect 15.44% of SEO Results

In Moz’s 2018 yearly study on Local SEO factors, they stated that Google has confirmed reviews are the 3rd highest contributor to your local SEO results, contributing 15.44% to your local search ranking. This is not only the number of reviews, but the quality and action each review has. 

This means Google is watching to see if other customers are “liking” this review, whether or not you are you responding to it, what keywords are mentioned, and so on.

4. Indirectly Affect 9.56% of SEO Results

Another contributor to your local search rankings is the Behavioral Signals Google tracks. A large piece of that is your click-through-rate, which can be positively affected when your reviews drive customers to your site to learn more. 

Don’t let negative reviews push customers away. Have your positive reviews pull them in to learn more!

5. Flips Negative Customers

So many businesses avoid asking for reviews because they are scared of receiving a negative one – which is quite possibly the worst excuse. You are a thriving business because you have tons of happy customers.

Even if you do have one upset person, it is not to be feared! Instead, view this as an opportunity to learn about how to improve and show other customers how you handle difficult situations.

Responding in a professional and timely manner to a negative review can have a positive influence on others by showing that you value your customer’s feedback and are a professional business person.

Additionally, studies found that 33% of customers who posted a negative review but received a response within 48hrs submitted a follow-up positive review!

Reviews are a necessity for any business to thrive in 2020 and beyond, but they can be overwhelming. You have a business to run, personal life to live, you don’t need another item added to your to-do list, which is why we’re here!

We want to help your business succeed by driving results without the work for you.

To learn more about how responding to customer reviews can help you grow your business, fill out the form below.

About the Author

Chelsea Craig, founder of Rhino Reviews, works with businesses to protect their online reputation by growing and leveraging their online customer reviews. They offer the only fully managed review generation and reputation management program on the market. Every client receives a unique strategy based on their current reputation, where they wish to go, and headwinds they might encounter. They work to improve both the external (Google, Yelp, FB, etc) as well as internal (Glassdoor, Indeed) reputation and take businesses from a reactive to a proactive position.

Chelsea has worked with over 80 businesses in all industries, including luxury construction, digital, energy, property management, healthcare, retail, hospitality, and education, to help build or repair their online reputation. She is both Google and Reputation Management certified and is a coach for Mike Volkin’s Masterclass, teaching how to leverage testimonials to accelerate your business growth. She has also had the opportunity to be a guest on a variety of shows discussing industry changes, small business strategy, and how to build your reputation in the digital space.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?

We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.

Do Reviews Affect Local SEO?

Do Reviews Affect Local SEO?

by | Oct 7, 2020 | Business Intelligence & Analytics, Insights

Do Reviews Affect Local SEO?

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Do reviews help drive traffic to your site and increase local SEO results? A simple and important question. The short answer: Yes, they do.

For a longer explanation how, keep reading…

As a local business, you are always looking for ways to reach customers in their moment of need and win their business (and money).

Whether you place a funny sign outside your shop, offer free events at night, or give away puppies – you are ultimately looking for a way to increase foot traffic in your store – and the internet is no different.
People know reviews help influence customers when they are looking at your listening but that is a very small piece of the overall picture and how they help your business.

According to Moz’s 2020 Local SEO Industry Report, “Across the board, marketers agree that reviews impact Google’s local rankings.” They go on to explain that “reviews shape reputation, impact conversions, and drive both customer service and sales.”

As a business looking to not only survive, but THRIVE in 2020 reviews are “a force that cannot be ignored when crafting a modern local strategy.” Besides the obvious advantages a positive image/reputation provides, there are legitimate and trackable effects that reviews have on your business as well.

1. Reviews increase CTR on your website, which in turn helps increase your SEO rankings

In a study performed by Yotpo they compared a local businesses’ online presence over a controlled period of time.

The first time period the business averaged around 5,500 organic pageviews/month. The second period of time the business averaged around 8,000 organic page views a month!
The only difference they made?

Adding Customer reviews onto the business Google Listing.

2. Customer Reviews Increase Page Rankings through social validation

The internet is saturated and it can be difficult for a small business to stand out and claim space online. One way to dominate your local SEO results though is by growing your customer reviews.

As Leverage Marketing explains, “Online customer reviews can be a strong signal to search engines that communicates trustworthiness and authority. In an era in which competition has gotten tougher for small businesses on the web, managing online reviews is a way to differentiate your business and raise your visibility in the search results”

3. Keywords in your Customer Reviews Drive SEO

We all know to monitor our keywords on our website to help drive traffic, but did you know that the keywords in your customer reviews affect your Local SEO results?

No, you cannot control what your customers write in their reviews – but you can control if you comment and thank them! And when you’re responding to those reviews, you can control the keywords that YOU use.

4. Google rewards for Social Validation

Google places more value in what your customers are saying than what you say. Just as we listen to other people’s opinions, so does Google.

For example, if you have a headline on your main page that reads “Best Roofer in PA” that’s great. But Google probably isn’t going to show you first when someone searches for roofers. But, imagine you have 5 customer reviews that say you are “the best roofer in PA”— now that is influence.

Google scrolls those reviews for keywords and puts more weight on them when determining your ranking for SEO results.

So, do reviews affect local SEO?

What does this all really mean?

Every year Google and other sites place more emphasis on customer reviews. Advertising and marketing is changing and it looks like the new strategy of social validation is here to stay.

Growing your reviews doesn’t have to be hard and does not mean extra work for you. Our team is here to help you with positive reviews that affect your local SEO!

About the Author

Chelsea Craig, founder of Rhino Reviews, works with businesses to protect their online reputation by growing and leveraging their online customer reviews. They offer the only fully managed review generation and reputation management program on the market. Every client receives a unique strategy based on their current reputation, where they wish to go, and headwinds they might encounter. They work to improve both the external (Google, Yelp, FB, etc) as well as internal (Glassdoor, Indeed) reputation and take businesses from a reactive to a proactive position.

Chelsea has worked with over 80 businesses in all industries, including luxury construction, digital, energy, property management, healthcare, retail, hospitality, and education, to help build or repair their online reputation. She is both Google and Reputation Management certified and is a coach for Mike Volkin’s Masterclass, teaching how to leverage testimonials to accelerate your business growth. She has also had the opportunity to be a guest on a variety of shows discussing industry changes, small business strategy, and how to build your reputation in the digital space.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

2 Big Reasons Not to Pay an Agency Based on Percentage Spend

2 Big Reasons Not to Pay an Agency Based on Percentage Spend

by | Oct 5, 2020 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Insights

2 Big Reasons Not to Pay an Agency Based on Percentage Spend

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Agencies use all kinds of methods to determine how much to charge your business for managing your paid advertising. One of these methods is to take a certain percentage of what you’re spending on those ads, like a commission. There are lots of reasons why this approach doesn’t pan out well for growing businesses like yours, but let’s break two of the biggest reasons down together.

Why You Should Stop Paying Your Ad Agency Based on Percentage Spend

Reason #1: The Car Salesmen 

Picture this: you walk into a car dealership. You know exactly what you want and how much you’re willing to spend on that perfect little mini-van you’ve been dreaming about for years. Okay, maybe not a dream minivan. But you’re ready to buy and you’re excited!

Wait! You’ve got that one nerve-wracking hurdle to get past before you put those keys in that ignition and sign on the dotted line.

The car salesmen.

But why? Why is he the obstacle and not the trusted guide?

We know why. There is an inherent conflict of interest. He wants to make money, and the more money YOU SPEND, the more HE MAKES. Put the kindest, most honest salesperson in that position, and they are still going to benefit from talking you into spending more money on that car.

The same applies when you are paying your ad agency based on the percentage of spend. It confuses the motivations and the intentions. Is the agency suggesting you increase spend because it’s the best move for you, or because it’s the best move for them?

Reason #2: Everything is Not Created Equal

Consider the following:

Search Keyword Daily budget Potential cost per click Number of keywords or variances
rehab $300 $50 <20
blouses $300 $1.60 >300

At the time this blog was written, a company showing an ad for the search “rehab” can easily pay up to $50 for each click. They will more than likely need a pretty hefty budget to gain valuable conversions. However, their account structure may be incredibly simple and easy to manage, as they only offer one service. There isn’t a lot of variety to what they’re offering. In this case, a high budget does not necessarily mean a cumbersome account to manage.

On the other hand, a company selling blouses online with the exact same daily budget may require 4 times the work. There are endless combinations of sizes, colors, and styles, which may make the account more complex, therefore requiring more frequent account management.

So why would an agency charge them the same fees for managing their accounts?

Simple. They shouldn’t.

What Should You Be Paying Your Ad Agency? 

If your ad agency is asking you to pay by the percentage of ad spend, maybe it’s time to put some other options on the table.

As you move forward, keep the following things in mind.

You should be fairly paying your agency for their expertise in the area, the work they’ll be putting into improving account performance, and the returns they get for your company. Once you’ve considered these critical factors, navigating a fair agreement is just around the corner!

If you’re interested in knowing more about &Marketing’s approach to paid advertising as an outsourced marketing department, fill out the form below.

&Marketing leverages the power of Business Intelligence to gain insights on paid search performance and help our clients make informed decisions. To learn more about our BI and analytics process, download our eBook

About the Author

Marketing Director Sydney Thomas helps clients create, implement, and optimize campaigns in their Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising accounts. While ensuring that clients are getting the most out of their pay-per-click accounts, she also supports creating websites to improve SEO and supports paid social network advertising on Facebook and LinkedIn.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.