There’s some good news and some bad news revolving the launch of Google Panda’s 4.2 update that occurred last weekend, and I’m afraid the latter is really going to make some of my readers angry. So let’s get that out of the way first.
The latest Google Panda update is speculated to be a “refresh”, meaning that the search engine giant is simply checking to see who’s been naughty or nice since the last major update in May of 2014. This means that if you were breaking some of the rules back then but you’ve since repented and got your act together, then any penalties that you’ve been carrying are likely to finally be dropped.
But wait, that’s good news, right?
Yes and no. While this refresh has been expected by Google for a number of weeks now, the initial change in search queries is far lower than anything seen in the past. Less than 3% of all search queries have been affected so far and Google has announced that this update will roll out slowly in the months to come so they can better analyze the results.
And that, my friends, is why this is very bad news indeed.
When an update is released over several months, it is almost impossible to gauge the targeted changes. Since Google has been working valiantly to make Penguin updates refresh in real time, this makes it incredibly difficult to provide insights on the top search engine’s focus. So consider the days of deep analysis within hours of a Panda or Penguin update a thing of the past.
On the other hand…and I cannot stress this enough…this is an extremely good move by Google from a pure SEO standpoint. By masking their intentions and making it much harder for someone like me to tell you what ranking shortcuts are being penalized the most, it essentially forces domain owners to do one of two things- deliver a great customer experience or go out of business.
So if you’re the type who has always built your online reputation by providing solid content, frequent updates and plenty of quality information about your niche, then consider this Panda Update another win for Team White Hat. We won’t really know “how” we won for a few months now but hey- a win is a win no matter how you look at it.
One final tidbit- the last Google Panda update was aimed at helping smaller, very high quality sites to get some well-deserved boost in the rankings, so this current refresh should do more of the same. So be sure to let me know how your site climbs/drops over the next few weeks and I’ll be sure to give an update as soon as we know more.
If you’re like most business owners in the digital age, then you probably measure you’re website’s effectiveness by the number of customers that it delivers to your doorstep. The more daily foot traffic that mentions seeing you online, the more time you invest on creating a great web-based user experience. And that’s great IF your website is creating fresh leads on a regular basis.
On the other hand, the #1 reason why business owners neglect their online presence is because they are not receiving an influx of customers from it, and then they illogically assume that it is because people are not looking online for that type of product/service. We all know that’s inaccurate though since people use their smartphones for everything these days. Just look around you…people are likely visiting your competitor’s websites while they’re inside your store shopping.
If you’re not sure if you’re one of our local Spartanburg faithful that’s neglecting their website presence, then here are five things you should be doing routinely-
Posting Fresh Content
Every time you post new content to your website, it’s like sending a distress beacon to Google that says, “Hey, look at me…I care about my customers.” And in turn, the search engines will begin to visit your website more often to ensure that your readers can always access the most recent content from the search engines. The beautiful thing is that fresh content doesn’t have to be elaborate articles either- it can be new product descriptions or new services/items, video and photographs, or even updates to existing pages.
Changing Your Homepage
Likewise, changing up your homepage even a little bit can have profound effects on your customers. That’s why all the big businesses switch up their homepage graphics frequently; it keeps the site feeling new and fresh without changing the actual navigation. So even if it’s just adding some new photos to your slider or adding a few banners, these changes really do matter in the grand scheme of things.
Social Media Updates
Whenever a consumer visits you on social media, the very first thing they do is look at the last thing posted by your company. And if the date is several months old, then that tells them that you’re not very interested in communicating with them. The crazy part is that you can post anything on social media to keep those engagement levels high- it can be anything from store branding to photographs to news content and local information.
Using Outdated Contact Forms
If a customer has to look at your website for more than three seconds to find your email address, phone number, store location or hours of operation, then you are seriously neglecting your website. In fact, this is the number one reason why consumers leave a website shortly after visiting it for the first time; they simply do not have the patience to hunt down information that you should display on every page. So if you’re guilty of this, fix it immediately.
Offering Very Little Core Content
Likewise, there is absolutely no excuse for not having great descriptions of what your business does, what products/services are available and why consumers should trust in you. This is the core of any great website, yet all of us come across horrible domains every single day that can’t answer even basic questions. Since this type of content also highly influences how well your website ranks, it is absolutely critical for your long term success.
When it comes to writing SEO content for the search engines, Google and the other search providers have spoken loud and clear on the subject for over a decade now. Forget about the keywords. Stop aiming for certain word counts. Just deliver high-quality content and you will be rewarded with better rankings.
So that brings us to the big question- what is high quality content in the eyes of the search engines?
Learn to Quickly Grab People’s Attention
If you follow by blog regularly, then you know that I was on vacation in Panama City Beach last week. On our last night there, I was sitting on a beach chair just a few feet from the Gulf of Mexico, watching the tide roll in and thinking how much the eight hour drive home was going to stink the following morning. But then out of nowhere, I hear this blood-curdling scream coming from the upper floors of the resort, and I think I was on my feet and sprinting across the deep sand before my mind even processed what was happening.
Did that grab your attention and make you want to know what happened?
Of course it did; that’s what great content does for our readers. Blogging and SEO content are not about the words on the page at all or the lesson you’re trying to teach; it’s about giving your readers something to cling onto and enjoy. That’s why I start almost every single one of my blog posts with a personal story- that lets you get to know me a little bit and understand how I see the world around me.
So I suppose you want to know what happened at the beach the other night- don’t worry, I wasn’t going to leave you hanging. A guy jumped off of the top floor of the resort I was staying at and literally nose-dived straight towards the beach beneath him. And all I can think of is that he’s definitely dead (or about to be), but maybe I can run fast enough to catch him if I ran harder than I ever had before in my entire life.
But then the craziest thing happened. A small hang gliding parachute opened up and this lunatic glided down to the sand and landed about 30 yards away. It turned out that he was a base jumper and did stuff like that almost every night the winds were minimal, and a group of us stood around him like we were talking to Steven Tyler or Dwayne Johnson. I must have told the guy a half-dozen times that he was certifiably crazy, and he just smiled as he packed up his chute and asked all of us to watch out for security guards.
Make your Web Content Authoritative
In case you haven’t heard yet, Google launched another core algorithm update on June 17th that appears to highly favor news sites that frequently post fresh content on trending topics. And since a lot of my readers tend to come here to learn about the latest happenings with the search engines, I didn’t write an entire blog post about it because I couldn’t say anything that is not already posted on other websites.
Why does that matter?
Think about it for a moment. Let’s say you do a search for “How to Base Jump from the Top of a Hotel?” You’ll see a few awesome videos there and then several news reports that discuss people cheating death, but there’s nothing anywhere to be found about how these world-class thrill junkies actually prepare for base jumping or manage to walk away unscathed. And the reason why is simple- it’s against the law, so the people doing this on a regular basis are not about to talk about it online.
Here’s one of a group base-jumping off the Freedom Tower in New York City-
So as we work our way through the search results, every article is exactly the same-
It opens with the core facts/details
It shows a few photos or video
It mentions that these people are insane
It says that this is a highly illegal activity
What you don’t see, however, is an answer to our questions- how do these guys do it? How often do they jump? What goes into the planning for such an incredible act? And to be a true authority, these types of questions have to be answered for your readers. If you’re only willing to give enough time to deliver what everybody else out there is writing though, then you get a search result like the one above- lots of content but nothing that really stands out to the search engines.
That means the site with the #1 ranking today for that search could be at #37 tomorrow, while someone unranked could jump to #3. It’s a pure guessing game when there’s no authoritive content to seize the top spot. So when you write for your audience, always make sure that you’re giving them more than the average blogger out there. That’s what makes you stand out.
Forget About Keywords and SEO
You’ve probably heard me say fairly often that I am the top SEO expert in the Carolinas, yet I tell each of my clients that 80-90% of all modern SEO comes from delivering great content. That may sound a little confusing at first, but it means that things like keywords, meta descriptions and backlinks are nowhere near as important as they were in the past.
Instead, Google is going to look at your content and search for the “people factors”, which are things like how many visitors you have each day, how many pages they visit, which links they click on and how long your visitors manage to stick around. So as long as you get your keyword in the title and once or twice within the blog itself, then you are literally a SEO rock star in 2015 if the content is getting attention from people.
And since your job is to impress people, your blogs should also be packed with people-friendly things like bullet points, topic-related photos, video elements and other things to make your content just a little bit more interesting.
The reason why is that most of your visitors are looking for something very specific in their searches, and they’re only going to dedicate an average of 3-5 seconds per website to determine if they’ve found some good info or not. So when they see that a page is nicely formatted with lots of visual elements, they are much more likely to keep reading. That’s all you really need to know about modern SEO.
Focus on Relationships, Not Sales
One final point on writing great SEO content is to keep the focus away from sales the vast majority of the time. That’s because when the search engines see a bunch of internal links that point to pages with very little content (like your contact us or sales pages), it gives the search provider an additional measurement on the quality of your content. After all, if you insert the same link on every single blog post yet very few people seem to click it, then it’s telling Google that you’re not linking to important pages.
So only try to sell in your blogs when there is a clear reason for the consumer to buy…or at least take a closer look.
The same can be said about affiliate ads, but for a completely different reason. Nothing frustrates your readers more than seeing a page packed with ads, and many people will hit that backspace button almost instantly since they associate lots of ads with bad content. That means even if your writing is superb, you can still end up with fairly high bounce rates.
With that said, you will notice that I have one AdSense banner just below the categories to the right of this page. It is likely showing you a re-targeting ad from another site that you’ve visited recently, and Google pays me just over two dollars per click to have it there. Since this site receives between 5,000 and 10,000 visitors per month, it may seem smart to have it everywhere on my site…but that’s simply bad business no matter how you look at it.
Why?
Even if I had an awesome month and cleared $500 from that single ad, that pales in comparison to what I could gain with one big corporate client reaching out to me. So I’m not going to risk offending anyone by trying to over-monetize a very minor part of my income, and I could probably do a lot better with a lead capture or a giveaway in place of where that ad sits now. So be sure to make your content about building actual relationships and let your products sell themselves by the increased visibility.
Let’s pretend for a moment that I am your ideal customer.
And when I say ideal, I’m not talking about someone that wants to speak to your sales staff or register for a product demonstration. I mean that I’m THE customer; the one whale of a client you’ve been hoping to land for years that will change the entire scope of your business and its bottom line.
So I’m your ideal customer…only I don’t know it yet because I haven’t found your website. At this very moment, I am sitting here staring at my Google Search screen and thinking about how to find you. Am I feeling lucky?
Now, you’ve probably read on some of the authority sites like Moz, HubSpot and Search Engine Land that the design elements of your website really don’t matter that much in the grand scheme of things. After all, search optimization is all about things like content, backlinks and social signals, right?
Well, let’s play this out anyway just for fun. Say that I am the Michael Jordan of your industry.
If I find your website, make a purchase and tell the masses about it, then those sweatshops over in third-world countries are going to have to make children work triple-overtime just to keep up with all the frenzied demand (sorry Nike, but you still suck for exploiting kids).
Maybe that was a bad example, but you get where I’m going with this.
So I do my quick little Google Search, stumble across your website and decide to take a look around. Let me ask you a question though; what are the first three things that I’ll see?
And just so you know, it’s not the logo or your tag line.
This was actually a trick question though, so don’t feel bad if you already got it wrong. The first three things I will see are-
How fast your homepage loads. If it loads slowly, I’m hitting the backspace button.
Your main banner image (or lack of one). If it’s ugly, I’m leaving.
A link to what I want to buy. If I don’t see it right away, then I’m gone like the wind.
Now, I probably should have explained our game of pretend just a little bit better. Because when I said that I am your ideal customer, I really didn’t mean me personally.
Instead, I meant that I am pretending to be your ideal customer since I understand their buying process from decades of web design, online marketing and search optimization experience. That lets me know exactly how he or she will react when they’re looking at your website.
And with that knowledge, I can tell you that great web design is everything in the world of online marketing. In fact, it is even one of Google’s biggest signals to your website’s overall quality- it’s called your bounce rate.
Have you ever wondered why your website’s bounce rates are so high? It’s not really a secret- people just don’t have the patience to look around on the Internet anymore.
Take my mom, for example- the woman will drive to eight different grocery stores and call a dozen more if her supermarket stops carrying one of her favorite brands, plus she will ask every single stock person, manager and bag boy she sees. Trust me; it is embarrassing to shop with my mother when Ingles doesn’t have any Pinwheel cookies on the shelves.
If she’s looking for that exact same item on a website; she looks for maybe fifteen seconds maximum…then she gets in her Chrysler to go look in the next town over. And I am afraid that my mom is a pretty average consumer. Your customers do the exact same thing every minute of the day.
So, let me ask you again- does web design really matter for search results? The answer is a resounding yes.
Here are just a few of the factors that make or break your website-
Fast loading times. If I can see the page loading, then it’s too slow
A great top banner photo (or multiple photos if you use a slider)
A crystal clear navigation. Anything I want to know should be 1 click away
A healthy mix of links- some people click text links, others only click photos
If I see a popup, I’m running like mad. People have grown to HATE popups
Numerous trust elements (about us, testimonials, photos, videos, etc.)
A nice layout with enough text for me to know what’s going on
Proper formatting. People really like paragraphs, commas and periods
At least one convincing call to action, and multiple means of contact
An address and phone number to your store. A Google Map gets bonus points
Just to be clear here, most of the things I just named have nothing to do with search engine optimization. Google really doesn’t care if these things are there or not, as long as your visitors are sticking around and visiting multiple pages. So great web design really can’t help you a whole lot- but the opposite is like posting one of those radioactive materials signs on your homepage. People simply will not stick around to see what happens.
So here’s what I need for you to do.
Open a new tab in your browser and pull up your business website. And once it’s loaded, I want you to look back at that list of bullet points one more time and make sure that you’re absolutely nailing every aspect of your core website design elements. Because if even one of them is an issue, then you are literally chasing away potential customers without even realizing it.
Again, please do not confuse web design with search optimization- they are two completely different things. SEO is by far the more important factor for you to achieve solid rankings and gain visibility. But then again, without a good looking website it’s not going to help you.
Just a few days ago, I found an unbelievable steal on a 2014 Chrysler 300 for my parents. They had been looking for a newer sedan for quite some time now and they absolutely fell in love with the 300’s tough-looking stance and superior luxury. So when I saw that a sexy black 2014 model with 40,000 miles was just reduced to $19,000 in Charlotte, I convinced them to make the hour and a half drive north to claim it as their own.
We did end up buying the vehicle and it is an amazing sporty sedan, but at the same time it also set off a series of events that left me a little puzzled. For example-
The receptionist struggled to email me additional information that the company forgot to post online.
The “Internet Manager” at the dealership had no idea how to add details to the company’s online ads.
The General Manager believed that stock content from the auto manufacturers would rank better in the search engines.
This dealership’s website was not responsive…despite paying over $20k a month for “website optimization.”
The sales representative could not perform a basic Google search to find the vehicle’s factory warranty information.
The dealership printed out 20+ page binders on every used vehicle on the lot…which amounted to more reading material than the average small-town library has.
Now, this was a major dealership in Charlotte that sells 100+ new and used vehicles per month. And while most of their leads originate through their website, it was almost like they were fighting against technology every step of the way. It took every bit of patience I had to refrain from pulling the sales manager aside and asking for a straight commission job on the spot.
So let me get straight to the point.
If you have the mindset like the car dealership I just mentioned, you are literally going out of your way to ignore your customers. Because like it or not, they are searching the internet daily for things to buy and they are only going to wait on you to catch up to modern times for so long. Eventually they will discover a better solution and forget about you entirely- and it makes absolutely no difference how great your products or services are.
And just to be perfectly clear, I’m not just talking about optimizing your website- this is about technology in general. For example-
If you’re not answering emails and social media messages quickly, then you’re telling your customers that they are not important.
If your website does not answer a consumer’s most important questions, then you’re saying that you don’t care if they buy from you or not.
If you have not bothered to focus on your local presence online, then you’re saying that smartphone users should go shop somewhere else.
If your website does not offer a unique value proposition, then you’re telling the world that there is nothing special about you at all.
I could go on and on here…but hopefully you get my point. Your decision to not fully optimize your online presence and embrace technology says a whole lot more about your company than you realize, and your potential customers are definitely taking notice. So stop ignoring the people that you’re working so hard to find in the first place- it’s time to get your priorities straight and make your website stand out.
