Visibility plays a significant part in online success. A website is not of much use if it’s not being seen. With the competition in the marketplace, conducting SEO in-house or as a business owner by yourself can be challenging. Here is where you probably need the support of an Australian SEO agency.
Websites today need to be enticing, full of engaging content with internal links helping to guide visitors through a sales funnel.
The biggest challenge posed is getting yourself noticed and ahead of the competition.
This article will touch on multiple factors that, if optimised and used correctly, will help get you noticed and increase your bottom line. Also, we are including simple registration links for you to use to start the process if you are not currently working with an SEO agency.
Making your Website Visible Using SEO
Google now processes a whopping nine billion daily searches in 2022. An increase of around 2.5 billion per day from 2019 levels, so attaining the first page of Google for search terms has become increasingly challenging, let alone a top three ranking.
Here is some Google Stats for 2022:
Source: Earthweb.com
So let’s look at factors that will help you shoot up the rankings and stay there.
Google Search Console Registration
Google Search Console, formerly called ‘Webmaster Tools’, is a free Google service that enters your website and your sitemap to get indexed and start appearing on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Sufficed to say, this is your primary starting point if you have a new website.
However, that is not all of its uses to you; it provides the following:
- See who is linking with your website
- It helps clear any indexing issues Google may have with your site
- It shows you what searches are trending in your industry
- Informs Google of when you have updated content
So overall, it is a great tool to help your online visibility.
Speed Up your Website
Google takes load-up speeds seriously, and the statistics below show the percentage of people you can lose to your competition by loading only a second slower.
An Australian SEO agency will tackle the following aspects to get your page speed up:
- Eliminating render-blocking resources and lower HTTPS requests to the site.
- Optimise your images and videos by re-sizing them to Google-friendly file sizes. Doing this means they can be read faster and use less cellular data for mobile searches, which now dominate laptop and desktop searches.
- Check your hosting services and, if necessary, make changes.
Optimising Load Speed for Mobile
Source: Statista.com
Looking at the growth in mobile searches above, it sufficed to say Google favours sites that load quickly on mobiles and rank them higher.
We can’t stress enough how important these metrics are to you as a website owner who can’t figure out why there is a lack of traffic to the site.
Smartphone users are notoriously impatient with slow-loading sites. Many people are on the go, maybe heading to work, searching at lunch, where every minute counts.
Plus, as you can attest, you have plenty of competition just a click away. An SEO agency will look to hide certain features and images with CSS.
As you will notice, with many websites, the desktop versions are different from mobile versions. Sometimes, certain aspects are not needed for mobile use and can slow them down or affect readability.
A cluttered mobile page can be penalised because it affects ‘user experience (UX)’, which is an equally important ranking factor for Google.
So we now move onto:
Google’s PageSpeed Insights
Here’s a quick link where you can look at your web page’s speed performances.
Using PageSpeed Insights, you can analyse these and get several suggestions from Google to help speed them up.
Register With Google Business Profile
This is also a must regardless of whether you want to do this yourself or outsource to an agency.
Google Business Profile, formerly known as ‘Google My Business’, is a perfect tool to help with online visibility. If you undergo an SEO campaign where on-site optimisation is part of the package, the agency would expect you to be registered.
Registering will help you with local visibility as it lets Google see where you are and what you do, becoming more relevant for searches in your area. Local SEO is one of the areas in digital marketing which is on everyone’s lips after we have seen behavioural patterns and trends change during and after the pandemic.
For example, run a car repair shop in Canberra. Someone typing in ‘Car repairs near me’ will likely see you a lot higher in the SERPs than you would think quickly once you have this setup.
Keep Google Business Profile Information Up-to-date
If you are already registered or are just about to embark on doing so, have accurate uniformed information throughout your web pages, content, and About Us and Contact Us pages.
Another reason you could be having visibility issues because things might have changed, and you’ve forgotten to update them here.
Ensure your opening times and days are accurate, and any new images or changes are updated.
Don’t Forget Reviews
Many business owners don’t fully understand how critical online reviews are to assist in selling your products or services.
Many hope that someone will leave a review, and many forget. If you have happy customers that show repeat business, then ensure you have their contact details and email and ask them for a review.
Doing so allows you to push any new items or services you now have. As most of us do, we look towards websites that have 4.5 to five stars next to them and read reviews from people.
As the old saying goes, ‘everyone can’t be wrong’. By attaining that rating, you will increase your click-through rate exponentially.
If this is something you haven’t tended to do in the past, it’s another string to your bow to get your visibility up.
The challenging side to this is receiving bad feedback, but how else would you know unless you are told? Make sure you answer your reviews professionally and take on board their opinion. When you get negative feedback, never shy away from it.
It will help your trustworthiness; sometimes, people can see someone having a bad day and sympathise with you. Still, as far as the bigger picture is concerned, it’s now a must to get social feedback on your site.
SUMMARY
The competition is rife with 9 billion daily searches and numerous new websites to index globally. If you are not showing up for many of your keywords and phrases, following the points in this article can give you an unexpected ranking boost. Also, registering doesn’t take long, and it isn’t complex. Search locally for an Australian SEO agency near you and outsource their help to bring you to the next level. Good luck.
