If your business relies on Google to generate new leads and sales then heres a heads up for you. The landscape is shifting rather quickly and this has been accelerated in the last week by a massive Google update at the very beginning of the year. For those of your enjoying your break and festive season, many would have come back to face the stark reality that their websites rankings have fallen. So brush of those cobwebs, be proactive and follow these ‘must do’s’ if you are going to survive 2016. The next 12 months will see many business (who ignore these tis) fall by the wayside, and be replaced by other businesses that are embracing Google’s new changes.
One of the most important factors that will determine your position on Google in the next 12 months is how content rich your website is. That is, how many pages are on your site and what is the content? Do you have a blog? are you publishing content regularly? Let me explain this in a bit more detail. If your main services page is less than 250 words and was updated more than 6 months ago, then you better start looking at addressing this. Google will want to see all your web pages flowing with new, fresh, and very unique content.
I will add to this that you have to start looking the way you publish content through your blogs. I know that many people will find this all too hard and simply ignore what I’m saying here, but blogging and writing seriously good articles is high on Google’s radar. I know this is a hassle for many people and the thought of actually sitting down and writing blog after blog will be just be too difficult, but we are in a different space now and if you want to be competitive you have to play by a new set of rules. That is, you better go to blog or copy writing school, learn how to write effectively for your business and start the process ASAP.
Alternatively, if this sounds like an absolute nightmare, you could always outsource this. But be very careful who you let loose with your content marketing. Google is awake to this type of inorganic outsourcing and will easily detect content that is not relevant or engaging to your audience. If you are paying someone else to write it for you then you need to get a professional content marketing team that has your industry experience. Posting silly waffle which is not applicable to your business or customer base, to merely tick the box tin the hope of satisfying Google, is deemed spammy and will result in issues.
So for 2016 start working out a plan to incorporate content publishing into your marketing mix. Once you start and get the hang of it, you might find you actually enjoy it. After all, there is probably a hidden writer in all of us somewhere.
Note: if you website doesn’t have the facility for a blog or you cant work out where the blog is on your site speak to us here at SEO Melbourne Expert. If you have a WordPress website we can easily integrate a blog in it for you. If your website is built on some other CMS platform, let us know as we have in house developers that can see if they can integrate a blog. But the most important thing to take away from this is to start this now. try not to wait as the longer you leave it the worse off you will be.
The next thing to be aware of in 2016 when it comes to what Google is looking out for is the emergence of social media and how active or inactive you are in this space. The more you involve your customers through platforms like Facebook and Google +, the better the ranking signals will be to Google and in turn the more you will rank. Social media marketing s now considered an essential part of how Google looks at sites. If you’ve been ignoring this side of your business, thinking that it really doesn’t affect you OR you have nothing really important to say, stop this line of thinking now! At least register your Facebook page for starters and begin with 1 post per week. If you can’t think of anything to say then again, speak with us as we will point you in the right direction.
If your website is more than 2 years old and you haven’t even made 1 update in that time period, then you will start to see your rankings slide during 2016. Google wants to see websites that are constantly being refreshed, updated and tweaked for the best customer experience. Ideally, you MUST go into your Google analytics and learn how it works and adjust your website based on the results. Small tweaks and fine tuning your site to ensure a better customer experience is what Google wants. If this seems out of your reach I urge you to get in touch with us as we can quickly get into you analytics, and make recommendations for improvements that day. If you find that you were on page 1 of Google for years and you are now of page 2 or 3 and can’t seem to budge you may find that these small on page refinements will help push your rankings.
Lastly I want all businesses to know that Google in 2016 is going to punish websites severely that engage in dodgy or unethical link building practices. As a business owner you probably want SEO guarantees or cheap monthly packages or even a pay on performance SEO deal. Well, I’m here to tell you that these are all scams and in 2016 Google will clamp down heavily on any business that even goes near these types of companies offering these deals. All you have to do is search for the words ‘SEO Melbourne’ and it’s smack bang right in front of you. There are companies there offering guarantees and all these add ons. I promise you one thing that if you go down this path then the consequences for your website will be dire. These companies use really shoddy links and very outdated SEO techniques. Be warned 2016 is the year of extremely compliant SEO. Make sure you get the very best back links possible for effective SEO rankings.
Be aware of SEO scams in 2016 as you will pay a heavy price
These are just our thoughts for 2016 when it comes to what Google is expecting. As one of Melbourne’s oldest SEO agencies we are always looking to the next algorithmic change so that our clients are protected. If you are not feeling the love with your current SEO providor and feel as though you are being ignored….please give us a call and we will show you how SEO is supposed to be done.
A 5 minute call could be your best marketing move for 2016.