We hear this question all the time.
Whether it’s a new business owner or a longtime business owner who has had a website for years, at some point they realize their business isn’t showing up like they want it to online.
There are a lot of reasons this may be happening and tons of ways to address the issue. We’ll cover some of the most common areas where businesses can do better.
First, go fix a cup of coffee or tea. This one is lengthy, but it’ll be worth your time!
10 Tips for Ranking Better on Google
1. Optimize your Google Business Profile (GBP).
If you have a local business, hopefully, you read our last email and you’ve already followed those tips to claim your listing and to optimize it once it’s under your control. Remember: Your Google Business Profile is the 21st century version of your Yellow Pages listing. Make sure it has all of the information about your business, that it’s correct, and that you’re reminding customers to leave reviews.
2. Remember to List EVERYTHING
If you offer services, make sure you list them as Categories in your GBP and make sure you have content about that service on your website. In the past, Google allowed business owners to list services separately, but nowadays, they want you to find any and all categories that apply to your business and list those instead.
3. Have a Website
There are a lot of businesses that rely on Google and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) to represent their business online. If you’re absolutely on a shoestring budget and that’s all you can afford, at least it’s a start. But in the end, you get what you pay for. Having a website — especially one that is search engine optimized — will allow your business to show up for all the things you want to rank for on Google. There is no guarantee of where you’ll rank, but it’s guaranteed that if you don’t have a website, your website won’t come up if someone is searching for a product or service that you offer!
4. Have Plenty of Content on Your Website
Some business owners have a one-page site. It’s understandable to want to save money — especially if you’re a new business and you’re on a shoestring budget — but as soon as you are able, it’s good to add plenty of content about your business and the products and services you offer. The more info you have on your site, the more content is available for search engines to make a match between your website and the person doing a search for a business like yours. If you just have a one-page site, make sure you have a solid structure set up for referrals and that you’re making sure to keep your Google Business Profile as fine-tuned as possible!
Every now and then, we’ll hear from a business owner who is upset because their business isn’t ranking for a particular search term. The first thing we do is check to see if there is anything with that search term that exists on their site. If not, we will offer to create that content for them so they can begin showing up for that term. In some case, you might need multiple variations of the same product just to rank for the different ways people might be searching for it.
5. Use an SEO Plugin
When a business requests our SEO services, after performing an audit of their current online presence, one of the first things we do is install and configure RankMath SEO Pro on their website. This plugin allows for in-depth optimizations that are otherwise not easily achieved. This includes Local Schema and other types of schema that communicate information about your business to search engines in a more thorough and search engine-friendly way.
Another popular option is Yoast SEO. (Note: We used to use Yoast SEO on all sites, but over the last couple of years we’ve moved to RankMath SEO Pro because their features are far more comprehensive and we’re able to install it on client sites without needing an extra license for each site. That’s a win all the way around!)
6. Use Google Analytics and/or Google Tag Manager
You can spend all day doing SEO, but you won’t be able to track your progress if you aren’t using Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager. Integrating one of these tools with your site is key if you want to know things like: how many visitors are coming to the site, what kinds of devices are they using, what search terms got them there, what pages did they visit while they were there, where do they live, etc.
You can connect either of these services to your website either by embedding a tag in the site’s header code, or by using a plugin like Google Site Kit. Either way, you’ll need to have the account before you can connect it. If you don’t already have one, you can set one up. If you need help, reply to this email and let us know. We’re glad to help you.
7. Optimize Your Website
Having a website is key, but optimizing it is the next necessary step. Any website should at a minimum have very basic Search Engine Optimization from the moment it’s launched. This includes: using a correct and consistent name for your business in the site’s settings and homepage and including a thorough amount of information about you and/or your business. It should also include some form of a listing of products and services you offer. Your site should also have a sitemap that keeps Google and other search engines informed of exactly what they’ll find on your site.
However, there is so much more to on-site SEO. Examples include ensuring your site’s SEO titles and meta descriptions are targeting the keywords for which you want to rank, adding content to your site to target specific keywords or search phrases if you don’t already have this content, and ensuring your business’s name and contact information is correct and consistent across all profiles. For local businesses, Local Schema is super important! This is special meta data you provide in your website that includes information similar to a Google Business Profile, but that communicates to Google and other search engines that this is the same business and everything on the site should be evaluated for all of those “business near me” searches that people perform.
8. Be Mobile Responsive
Way back in 2013, Google started evaluating website rankings to give priority to sites that were mobile responsive. Online traffic was already trending to about half of all web traffic happening on mobile devices. Nowadays, well over half of all web traffic is happening on mobile phones, and for most small local businesses, that number is even higher, between 60-70%. (For businesses like restaurants, retail, and service-oriented businesses, mobile visitors range between 75-80% of traffic!) All of the sites we build at Seaport Webworks are mobile responsive, but surprisingly, we do still come across sites from time to time that are not easy to use on mobile phones. Even some otherwise mobile friendly sites fall short if they are using PDFs to convey important information. (We’re looking at you, restaurant owners! Those PDF menus are NOT mobile friendly!)
9. Be Fast Loading
Google likes sites that load quickly — especially because of all of that mobile traffic we talked about in the last point. Sometimes there’s a fine line between having a site that accurately reflects your brand and having a site that loads quickly. Sometimes it’s worth it, for instance, to have a little video playing in the background of the hero section of your home page — especially if it’s meant to entice customers to partake in whatever it is that you’re selling.
There are always ways to optimize site speed, though. One is to make sure you’re not uploading PNG files for all of the images on your site. Canva users are frequently guilty of this because Canva defaults to png for downloads, so if you make a graphic there and download it, unless you tell it otherwise, it’s going to give you a PNG file. PNG files are great for logos and graphics with simple vector art and/or text, but if it’s any kind of photograph or something that uses a lot of different colors, a PNG file is going to seriously slow down the loading of your pages.
A great format to use for clarity and fast loading speeds is WEBP. This format is growing in popularity even though a lot of image editing software doesn’t have options for creating WEBP images. Fortunately, there are converters online that make it easy to convert images from PNG or JPG to WEBP.
10. Have a Solid Call-to-Action (CTA)
On your Google Business Profile, you can link to your website, but you can also have a CTA button.
For instance, a bed and breakfast might have a CTA that says Book Now that links directly to the page on their website where someone can search for a room and make a reservation.
A restaurant can have its CTA button be Order Online to take people to their Toasttab or DoorDash ordering page. You get the picture.
You also want a strong CTA on your website since that will give you something that can engage people as soon as they land on your site. More engagement on your site will lead to Google seeing your website as more useful to end users and thus will lead to higher rankings in search results.
BONUS TIP: Get Backlinks as You Are Able — but don’t stress about it
Whenever possible, try to get other sites to link to yours. We’re not talking about low quality spammy sites. We’re talking about real, legitimate sites. Here are some suggestions:
- Try to make sure your business is listed in reputable local directories or industry-specific directories.
- Make sure your social media accounts link back to your website.
- If you know any bloggers or vloggers who cover your industry, reach out to see if they’d be interested in reviewing your business and linking to your site.
Don’t stress if you don’t have a ton of backlinks—quality over quantity is what matters. And definitely avoid paying for backlink services. It’s the real, genuine links from relevant sources that signal to search engines like Google that others find your business valuable, and that just adds another layer of social proof.
Need Help?
If improving your Google ranking feels overwhelming or you’re short on time, we’re here to assist. Let us help you boost your online presence. Just send us an email at [email protected]!
