If you want to rank on the first page of a Google search and attract new customers, you first need to make sure your website is not holding you back.
Without a professionally designed website, you could be making it impossible to reach the first page.
Google does not only use algorithms for determining where you should rank, they also have human evaluators to confirm or modify the results if necessary.
The fundamental criteria for the human evaluator is that the website must be optimally designed for a great user experience.
To support this, you will need to focus on the following:
Content – your content must be relevant and current. In the beginning it was easy to get away with weak or irrelevant content stuffed with keywords. Now this is no longer possible and “keyword stuffing” will leave you languishing in the pages seldom seen by the human eye.
Site Speed – Users easily give up on slow websites. Today’s user does not have the patience to wait for your site to load. A recent study by Akamai revealed that
– 52% of smartphone users and
– 47% of desktop users
expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less.
The Aberdeen Group revealed in their study that a 1 second delay in page load time yields
– 11% fewer page views
– 16% decrease in customer satisfaction
– 7% loss in conversions
Bounce Rate – Research has revealed that there is a direct correlation between bounce rates and rankings. Therefore, it is important to review your bounce rate and make an effort to reduce it. a low bounce rate generally means that your website visitors are engaged and going to other pages on your site. A high bounce rate can be caused by factors such as design and usability.
– Design and Layout – Poor content, bad design and layout turns off website visitors.
– Navigation – If your visitors can’t work out where to go to next or where they are in the context of your website, they will probably just exit.
Here is Google’s guide to improving you bounce rate.
Mobile Friendly – A non-mobile friendly site will find a high bounce rate from users on mobile friendly devices. Furthermore, Google’s mobile friendly update in April 2015 was designed to favour mobile friendly pages in the search results on mobile devices. Currently searches on mobile friendly sites exceed searches on desktops. Therefore this is a very important consideration and cannot be ignored if you wish to have a commanding presence on the Internet.
If you want to use the internet to attract more customers and build your business, you need to be found by those searching for your products and services. Your website is the starting point.
Today there are so many elements to consider, that a website, not built by professionals, stands little chance of competing and commanding a presence that will attract customers.
For a free consultation and review of your website, Contact Us – we would love to help you.