What is the best way optimise your website for Google?

So you’ve launched your website. It looks good, reads well, and works as it should. But you’re still not getting the sort of leads you want from the search engines, why?

The answer could lie at Google’s door. Google is one of the best known web services for a reason – they take their job as content aggregators very seriously. 

You’ve probably heard the phrases ‘Google’ and ‘algorithm’ used in the same sentence before. But what does that mean, and how could understanding this phrase improve your search rankings? Let’s find out. 

In this article:

1. Google’s algorithm in a nutshell
2. Examples of Google’s recent algorithm changes
3. What happens if I ignore Google’s algorithm?
4. How website analysis prevents Google punishments

How to optimise for Google’s algorithm in a nutshell

When we talk about Google’s algorithm, we’re not talking about the actual mathematic sequences that the company uses. It’s more high level than that.

Over the past few years, Google has rolled out lots of user-focussed algorithm changes to create user experience that works for, you guessed it, the user. 

To keep up to speed, your website needs to be:

• Accessible 
• Fast and reliable,
• Relevant to the search term
• Useful

Find out more about Google’s algorithm in this article by Neil Patel.

Examples of Google’s recent algorithm changes:

• BERT update (2019) 
• Mobile-Friendly Update “Mobilegeddon” (2018)
• The Quality Update “Phantom Update” (2015)

Over the past number of years Google has been rolling out more algorithm updates to better user experience. From mobile first priority, to bounce rate algorithms and there has never been a more important time to optimise your website for Google.

What happens if I ignore Google’s algorithm changes?

Google actively promotes sites that work alongside their algorithm changes and demotes ones that don’t. 

If your site doesn’t change with the times, your site could fall down the search rankings, which could mean less traffic to your site and potentially less business.  

We have seen non-mobile friendly websites suffer up to a 50% drop in traffic. These huge drops in traffic can have lasting effects on businesses. If your business relies on your website to generate leads, then a 50% reduction in traffic can be devastating. 

Bounce and exit rates

If your site doesn’t give your users the information that they want, they’ll leave. If lots of them do this, it’s known as having a high bounce rate or exit rate. 

Sites with a high bounce rate are pushed down the Google search rankings as they’re seen to give a bad user experience. 

We’ll use tools like Google Analytics to see what pages have the highest bounce rate, and figure out why your users are leaving them. Then, we’ll work on optimising your website for Google to keep your customers engaged. 

Here are just a few of the things we can do to improve your bounce rate: 

• Create relevant, readable content for your target audience
• Remove irrelevant pop-ups
• Improve your calls-to-action
  

To find out more, see this article by Search Engine Journal.

{{pop-up-component}}

‍

Marketing channels

Online marketing, like traditional marketing, is all about knowing the customer. Whether you’re using PPC, SEO, social media, direct mail or any combination of these, you can’t do anything without knowing who you’re pitching too. 

That’s why we use Google Analytics to breakdown your marketing channels and traffic sources. We can tell you who ratio of your users are coming from what parts of the web. Then, we’ll create a strategy to get you noticed. 

Organic search

Your SEO channels are a vital resource for your long-term marketing strategy. Organic traffic is known as ‘natural’ traffic and it includes anything you haven’t directly paid for. It can come from all corners of the internet, including:

• Search engines
• Backlinks
• Social media
• Shares from other users
  

We know that improving organic traffic is no easy feat. That’s why we’ll analyse all of your site’s traffic sources using tools like Neil Patel’s audit tool to figure out where your organic traffic is coming from, and how you can better optimise your website for Google.

Paid search

Another reason you need to optimise your website for Google is Pay Per Click, sometimes known as paid search or PPC, is any traffic that you directly pay for. It usually means adverts in the top section of a Google search results page, but can also include banner ads and window ads. 

A good PPC campaign is about more than getting site views. It’s also about where your users land on your site, and how long they stay. 

If your users don’t stay on the page, then you’ve spent money for nothing. That’s why we look at your landing pages and your keywords, to provide the right content to your users.

Social Media

Social media is a fantastic, cost-effective, way of getting traffic to your website. A good social media presence is about way more than just a picture of a cat on Instagram, or an off-the-cuff case study on Facebook. 

Need to improve your social media presence? Once again, Google Analytics can help. We can segment your data to highlight how your users engage with your social media channels. 

Some companies work better on one channel than they do on another. Our job is find out which social channels are the right ones for you, and what sort of content you should be posting. 

Still need help?

Got a problem with optimising your website for Google? Let us analyse your website for you. 

We’ll get our heads together with your key stakeholders to come up with the best solution to your problem. Then, we’ll help you fix it. 

Get in touch today to find out more.