Yesterday, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt presented his second Autumn Statement, but with a very different tone to the gloomy announcements made this time last year. The Chancellor announced initiatives with a massive focus on pushing growth in the economy. The main question you’ll all no doubt have is… “how does it affect me?”, let’s take a look…
8 Items to Check on Your Website
23 April 2019
Shirley Mansfield
Building a Business
How long has it been since your last post: new blog, news article, content? Google loves new and valuable content and loses interest in static sites that then drop down the rankings.
When did you review any of your marketing collateral?
Is your website still fit for purpose and drawing in the right type of business?
Our last website, whilst good, was not well suited to mobiles and tablets, had too much information which made the customer experience poor and was not sufficiently targeted to attract the right type of clients we were looking for. It was time for a change!!
The new website is now 3 months old. Our site is mobile and tablet friendly and we believe much clearer and more targeted. As importantly our marketing team has set themselves a 90 day goal. That means the website is reviewed in detail every 90 days for changes needed, additions, deletions and redirects. It helps us keep our website dynamic and informative, and on Google’s radar for search results.
Our website is our shop window; our sales pitch, information hub, it shows our credentials and tells people how they can get in touch. If it’s not working properly it has a big impact on the practice. Here are a few of the important factors for SEO on securing top search rankings:
- We review its performance using Google Search Console; it’s a free service from Google. It allows you to submit your website to Google for indexing when needed. You can use it to identify any search related errors and review the search terms people are using to find your site.
- We have linked the website to Google My Business. This will help the website appear in geographical search results. We know that people always seek recommendations before engaging suppliers and we are no different. We have started to see reviews posted on Google My Business which are shown as we appear in the search results.
- It’s important the website loads quickly; we’ve all become very impatient when online – we want everything right now! Google looks at this when rating the site, so we check the size of images; smaller ones improve load speed. We keep an eye on hosting services too.
- Before we started building the new website, we worked hard to uncover the right keywords that people use to search for accountancy & business services. Our SEO expert Liz Lovell from Be Seen Online guided us through the process. The keywords were checked in Google and when agreed, helped us to write the website copy knowing what our audience was looking for. What are your keywords?
- Liz worked with us to make the most from page titles, urls and meta data for every page, even the T&Cs page! We’re now focused on our keywords and appropriate links throughout the site….just the tip of the iceberg for SEO success.
- Importantly, we’ve learnt to regularly check that links from our site work. Especially those going to our own emails!
- We’ve eliminated the ‘404 Page Not found’ errors by setting up re-directs for pages we take down; another new marketing discipline!
- We’re are also now confident that money we spend on pay per click is working much harder with less wastage on useless clicks from uninterested visitors.
If you are serious about building a successful business then for most businesses your website is fundamental to your ambition. Is it time you reviewed your website? If you need a new website or assistance with SEO let us know and we will put you in touch with the right people.
