How do you know when your website’s SEO strategy needs an upgrade? We explain how you can find out, and the steps you should DEFINITELY take for better results.
How’s your website doing?
Are enough people visiting your site? Clicking on your links? Buying your products or filling out your contact forms?
If not, how would you know? And - more importantly - what could you do about it?
When it comes to making your website perform and deliver results for your business, the name of the game is SEO: search engine optimization.
It’s the overall strategy of making sure your content ranks as highly as possible when users turn to Google, Bing, or other search engines to find the info they need, whether it’s which hotel they should pick or the best commercial bank in the area.
But even if you have a great SEO strategy right now, and your pages are currently outperforming the competition (and chances are, they’re not), that doesn’t mean you’ll stay on top.
And, of course, if you’re not at the top, but you want to be, then your SEO game needs a boost.
Either way, it’s probably time for an SEO refresh: a glam makeover that puts a shiny polish on your organic rankings and makes your website as competitive as possible.
Here’s the what, why, and how behind a strategic SEO overhaul.
SEO - like football - is constantly evolving. If you don’t keep your strategy up-to-date, you’re going to fall behind your competitors who do - even if your business is superior. (And we know it is.) It’s kinda like having NFL MVP QB Pat Mahomes in an offense where he never gets to pass the ball.
(If you don’t know football, translation: not good.)
There are three general reasons why every organization with any kind of online presence needs to refresh their SEO on a regular basis.
The mysterious algorithm - that complicated formula that determines the ranking and visibility for a website for a particular search engine - changes constantly. Google and Bing, the world’s two largest search engines, make minor updates pretty consistently; it’s estimated that Google tweaks their recipe 500 to 600 times a year.
Most of those changes may not affect you at all. Some might. And the major, sweeping updates Google and Bing issue anywhere from one to three times a year will impact your online presence.
Run afoul of the algorithm, and you could experience:
It has a cascading effect; less traffic will lead to fewer clicks, fewer purchases or other conversions, and less overall business revenue. That’s why we want to stay on the algorithm’s good side.
Clicks make digital marketing click - and you’ll get far more of them if you are in one of the top spots.
According to research, the top spot on a search engine results page (SERP) gets a staggering 39.8% of clicks from searchers. The next spot just gets 18.7%; the third, 10.7%.
The first click matters. Some users take their sweet time doing due diligence, but most don’t - and whoever they see first makes a powerful first impression. It’s like taking the pole position at Talladega; you’re not guaranteed to win, but it sure helps.
Most businesses want to cultivate a loyal following of repeat customers who’ll stick with the brand for the long haul.
The more familiar your potential customers are with you, the more likely they’ll do business with you in the first place - and keep coming back for more.
Every time a user encounters your listing on the SERP after performing a search, they become more familiar, even if they don’t click the first, second, or third time. If you put yourself in front of them long enough, they’re far more likely to eventually give you a look-see.
Plus, being ranked so highly probably means you’re offering something of value to those who search, and customers recognize that. Being near the top makes people think you’re a high-quality brand. After all, you must be; how else could you be so highly ranked?
“Well, how do I know when it’s time to make a change?” you ask. Good question.
You should be keeping an eye on your website’s performance on a monthly basis at the minimum. Monitoring performance will help you notice a few warning signs, such as:
Sometimes these changes are dramatic, especially right after a big update. The earlier you notice these warning signs, the better you’ll be at mitigating any potential damage to your organic position and traffic.
But, you can also find opportunities to improve your ranking and gain an edge over your competitors. It’s not all doom-and-gloom. For example, you could find a well-performing page or piece of content on your rival’s website and come up with ways to improve it and make it even better for your website. It’s called the skyscraper technique, and it works.
How can you determine when it’s time to up your SEO efforts? The best way is to perform a website audit that evaluates everything from how fast your page loads to how friendly your website is to mobile devices, broken links and other errors, pages that need more content, gaps in your content coverage (i.e. what are you not covering that’s relevant to your business?), and which pages are underperforming.
You can also conduct keyword research to identify relevant keywords, pinpoint search trends - like which phrases are becoming more popular - and find high-volume opportunities. This research can help you check whether or not your website is targeted toward the right phrases.
Finally, you can run a competitive analysis that examines your top competitors and their organic results, including keyword rankings, their backlinks, and other performance metrics.
Should you decide you need to refresh your SEO - and believe us, everyone does - then it’s time to make it happen.
So, you’re now (hopefully) convinced that staying on top of your SEO game is important - but how do you keep things fresh?
Here are things you should focus on:
There are more big and small improvements you can make, and it can all seem very overwhelming. Not to mention that upgrading your SEO strategy can take time to not only do, but also show results.
But an SEO refresh is something every website will need at one point or another. It’s inevitable - and it’s worth it.
(And of course, there are nice and talented people who can help you upgrade your SEO so you don’t have to do the hard work yourself.)
Stay ahead of the curve, find ways to gain an organic lead on your competition, and always keep pursuing those top search engine results. SEO is always evolving; make sure you do, too.
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