As a web developer for StructureM for the past 9 years and building websites for 10 years before that, I’ve seen many SEO and website trends come and go. Times have changed, and keep changing. What worked to rank on Google 10 years ago won’t work today…and that’s not a bad thing.
The web has gotten more sophisticated, devices have gotten smarter, and search engines have marched right along with these changes. It’s easy for a business owner to be left scratching their heads wondering:
- What works for SEO?
- What doesn’t work?
- What has changed?
- What is the same?
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be confusing or difficult to get a good grasp on on-page SEO for your business’ website. A good way to find out what DOES work is by looking at what DOESN’T work. At StructureM, we’ve come up with this simple list of the 3 most common mistakes that we’ve noticed (some we’ve even made ourselves) on the web.
1. Writing For Search Engines and Not People
Have you ever searched for something, like new siding for your home, clicked on a search result, and been met with a page that sounds completely unlike any normal human would talk?
“New exterior siding replacement for the outside of your home can help give you the best ROI of any exterior home improvement.”
Not too bad right? But also not too good.
What the writer was trying to do was write a sentence that captured “keywords” that they wanted used in the copy (“siding replacement”, “exterior home improvement”, etc.) to help Google index their page and hopefully rank better than businesses that don’t.
While that was common practice say, 5-7 years ago, the web has evolved. Google has gotten smarter. While keywords will always be important, the way you use them has changed. In fact, even while writing this, I’m not thinking about keywords at all. I’m thinking about you and what I want to say, about communicating, one person to another, in ways that are (hopefully) easily understandable.
A better way now that I would write that sentence would be:
“Homeowners are often concerned about the cost of residing their home, however the benefits you get in energy savings, increased property value, or simply enjoying how your house will look far outweigh the cost of replacing your siding. Year after year, replacing your old, worn-out siding has been shown to have a higher return on investment than most any other improvement you can do to your home.”
- Can you tell what the keywords are?
- Do they stand out?
- Do they feel unnatural?
Did you notice these?
“Homeowners are often concerned about the cost of residing their home, however the benefits you get in energy savings, increased property value, or simply enjoying how your house will look far outweigh the cost of replacing your siding. Year after year, replacing your old, worn-out siding has been shown to have a higher return on investment than most any other improvement you can do to your home.”
Those words and their combinations (even if they are not next to each other) are what Google is looking for.
Writing in a way that includes keywords & synonyms for those keywords, but feels completely conversational and natural is much more effective for reaching the user than simply stuffing them in anywhere you can.
This is especially true for a local service-based business. A well-written, easy-to-understand page makes you more relatable to your customers.
2. Repeating Keywords Over…and Over…and Over
It’s tempting, once you have done your keyword research, to want to insert those keywords every single place you can, but there is a better (and more effective) way.
Google wants to see themes & topics on your site. It looks at your site as a collection of pages all contributing to a whole, all inter-related to each other.
Take a remodeling contractor. Is every page about siding? Windows? Doors? No. but they all work as a unit together to boost the main theme of “remodeling contractor”.
Remember how we said above that we are writing for people and not search engines? It’s the same principle here (see…I said this wasn’t complicated or difficult).
Use Keywords Naturally
Do you search for new siding, click on a result, and want to see a giant list of all of that company’s services? No. You want to see their information on what siding services they offer or what common siding questions they answer in blogs, etc.
To put it simply,
- Divide up those keywords and use them to guide your page topics
- Use them naturally in the copy of appropriate pages
You don’t want a siding page to rank for windows. You don’t want a windows page to rank for siding. Give the user the information they are looking for. Keep the page on-topic and don’t stuff in needless keywords.
If you write to provide the answer to what your users are looking for you will naturally include those keywords. What your keyword research should be giving you is a list of topics to write content about, not a list of words to use at every available opportunity. Do this and you will actually repeat keywords over and over, but in a way that is conversational and sounds completely natural. You’ll actually use many more keywords writing this way than you would otherwise.
Think about what questions you frequently get asked during your business’ sales process. Then look at your Google Business Profile Manager’s insights or Google Search Console to see what questions people are asking to reach your site. Are you found for topics you want to be found for? If not, a great starting place is to write content that answers the questions your clients are already asking you in the sales process.
3. Not getting to the point (wasting the user’s time)
So we’ve all seen this. You go to a page and have to wade through seemingly endless copy to get to the point of an article. Ever tried to look up a recipe only to get the life story of it’s author when all you really wanted was to make a batch of cookies?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t bother. I leave. On a website that’s called “Bounce Rate”. It’s how many visitors hit a page on your site, did not find what they wanted, spent very little time on your site, and hit the back button.
Now, getting to the point (see what I did there), providing the information a user is looking for quickly and easily is EXACTLY what will help you move up in the rankings. The more clicks you get from search results, the longer a user stays on your page, the deeper they scroll, etc. all is tracked by Google and all affects your rankings.
Is your page a service page?
- Have a good introduction and give them the information about your service right away
- It’s OK to briefly work into that text the main 1-2 things that set your business apart (you can always have a “learn more” button that links further down the page to more info) but don’t overcomplicate it.
- Keep your wording simple
- Expand on the service and other details of your company that are relevant later down the page (testimonials, galleries, etc.)
Not all pages are the same. There may be pages where you WANT to put your main company information first and services later, but the real point I’m getting to (see, I did it again) is that you should write for people and not Google. The more users like and spend time on your site, the higher Google will value your content.
Where do you go from here?
So while this is simple, it is quite a bit to think about. SEO and website development can be very daunting to a business owner, and this is just one part of your website’s Local SEO impact. Many simply don’t have the time to take care of their online marketing themselves, and it is costing them business.
This is where StructureM can help. For 10 years we have been a growth partner with businesses, helping them succeed at their marketing.
Most businesses struggle to get enough leads to scale up their business. We have a marketing system that keeps their sales pipeline full so they can grow their company 15-50% per year.
