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Why isn’t my website showing up on the first page of Google? What’s wrong?

Posted November 15, 2013  |  By Lydia Chiu, Partner  |  Filed under: SEO

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You’ve spent a lot of time and money getting a website launched, but unfortunately unlike baseball fields, if you build it, they won’t necessarily come. What do you need to do to get better results? Let's take a look.

1. Be realistic and specfic

Hundreds of millions of sites are indexed on Google and the number is growing, fast. What this means is that if you are searching for broad, generic terms, you are likely to get millions of results. If you search for "web development" there are over 2 billion results! How would a company like ours be able to compete against 2 billion other pages and against companies who likely have larger resources and budgets than our own? Even if we add "Orange County" to our search, there are still over 100 million results. However, if we get even more specific and add "ExpressionEngine" to the search, the number of results comes all the way down to 26,000 and it becomes much easier to stand out from the crowd. More importantly, people looking for ExpressionEngine development is a great lead for our business, because it aligns with our areas of expertise. Being realistic and specific with your keyword strategy makes sense both for search engine results and business goals.

2. Content is king

The folks at Google are smart. Although the changes in their ranking algorithms may seem arbitrary, they most definitely are not. They have one goal, and that is to provide the most relevant results for your search. In other words, they are trying to mimic what an actual human would do. What are humans interested in? Content. Interesting content, not pages filled with keyword babble. Let's say you're searching for an interior designer in Orange County. You get these sites in your results: Site 1: "We are an Orange County interior designer, and design interiors throughout the area focusing on Orange County. Our services include interior design in Irvine, Interior Design in Newport Beach, Corona Del Mar interior design." Site 2: "John Doe & Associates is an award-winning design firm located in Corona del Mar, California. The firm specializes in designs for new custom homes, remodeling and renovations and has completed residential projects ranging in size from 2,700 square feet up to 11,000 square feet. "

Content converts readers into buyers. 42% of consumers look to blogs for information about potential purchases; 52% say blogs have impacted their purchase decisions; and 57% of marketers have acquired new customers with their blogs.
- Leaderswest Digital Marketing Journal

Which site are you going to be more interested in? Even though the first may fool some search algorithms for a while, the search engines are constantly developing ways to weed out over-optimized text. The only way to build long-lasting, relevant search engine results is through good content.

3. Think about the big picture

Google rankings, while important, are only one component of your online marketing strategy. Ultimately, why are you concerned with Google Rankings? You want to build your business. Your online marketing plan is much more than keyword strategy. If you're looking to build your business, it's also important to consider:

• how to convert the traffic you get into leads
• how to qualify those leads
• how to use social media effectively for your kind of business
• how to build email campaigns to nurture leads
• and how to analyze and track your results to make strategic decisions

Let us give you peace of mind of knowing that your website foundation is solid and that you have the right tools in place in order to take full advantage of your website’s potential. We're here to help.

Contact us for your free website assessment and to learn about our Online Marketing packages. To say thank you, we'll give you an iPad mini if you sign up for one of our Online Marketing packages by the end of the year. Learn more!

Our Online Marketing packages start at $1500/month with a minimum commitment of one year.