FridayFive: 5 Crucial SEO Factors You Really Should Know

“Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first” — Wendy Piersall

Search Engine Optimisation is now a critical, and essential, part of every businesses online strategy.  Whilst your website may get visitors from offline marketing, social media and online PR, what really matters is getting your website in front of customers, when they are searching – ready to buy.

Because SEO is so prominent, there is a lot of information on how to do it yourself.  Some helpful, some full of myths.

There are some SEO factors that are clearly known, but not so commonly talked about.  Yet they are just as important, if not more so.

Here are 5 crucial SEO factors you might not have considered:

1. How Fast Does Your Website Load? Google have openly stated that the speed your website loads is a determining factor for how well your website ranks in Google.  If you have large pictures, too many fancy animations, or the design is too complex, your website will be penalised.
2. How Long Do Your Visitors Stay? It is said that you have just 4 seconds to grab a new website visitors attention.  Ensure that you have a clear and intriguing headline, and that your visitors are given clear ‘call to action’ information to entice them to read more and spend time on your website.  Google gives much higher ranking to websites where visitors stay longer.
3. Are You Spreading Far And Wide? Many SEO strategies focus on a few ‘keywords’ that are particularly important to the business.  Whilst that is important, a wider net is much more effective.  Video Marketing is particularly efficient for this.  For example, if you sell a 100 different products, you can produce a short video for each product, and have that video show up for searches on each specific product type.  Videos are 54 times more likely to reach Google’s page 1, and they rank within hours, so it’s much quicker and easier than traditional SEO.
4. Did You Consider the Mobile Phone Search Results? Whilst the world is going mobile, most business are missing the boat.  A .mobi website address ranks much higher on mobile phone search results… And visitors want a mobile phone tailored experience.  Most standard business websites are unusable on mobile phones, and yet internet use on mobile phones is set to overtake all PC use within 2 years.  How many frustrated buys have already passed you by?
5. Google Places Matters More To Your Business. Google’s business listings display prominently for local searches.  For example, a search for ‘sheffield plumber’  will show a list of 7 plumbers.  For most small businesses, this is much more important and relevant.  It is possible to gain top position on those results, but only by optimisation your Google Places listing.  One key aspect is to get your customers to leave testimonials and reviews on your Google Places listing.

Typical Search Engine Optimisation strategies require months of page optimisation, content writing, PR, link building – a lot of intensive work, with no guarantees.

A few well placed Promo Videos, an Optimised Google Places listing, and a simple Mobile Phone specific website can all be achieved much more quickly and cost effectively.  And for most small business, they will produce a far great ROI than full scale Search Engine Optimisation.

Blymi Media specialise in helping small and medium business benefit from these new media channels.  Review our services, or call us today on 0114 360 20 60 for a free consultation without obligation.