Being More Visible on the Web – a Goal or a Tool?
More than SEO keyword ranking, more than just being there in social media (and not spamming the hell out of your followers)… Top ranking through SEO, and having a good social media presence are not really goals. They are tools with which you can achieve your goals.
What can you do with these tools?
The road to the top of the search engine results can be long and some webmasters seem to forget why they wanted to get there in the first place. It becomes all about “winning”.
What will you do when you get there?
What to Do When You Finally Have That Top Spot In The Search Results
The same things that can get you there…
Be what the people want
When people type something into the search box, they don’t just want to find the site that used those words the most often or in the best locations on the page. This should go without saying, but they want answers – information on the topic or a way to buy it, not just a bunch of fluff that happens to contain the search terms. For many sites, having the answer is fairly easy to do. For an eCommerce website, all you really have to do is have the right product at the right price and be able to deliver the goods. For an informational site or blog, it really is not much different, just a little more complicated. Provide the information the users want, in a way they will understand and aim to be the best source of that information. Present your value proposition.
Despite all of Google’s efforts to provide the best results, there are still websites that rank very high in searches, but fail to deliver. What people find when they get to the website is not much more than the keywords in the title that brought them there. The old cliché, “For people not search engines” is popular for a reason.
The end result is unsatisfied users who click back to the search and choose a competitor, and webmasters who are left wondering why they put all that time, effort and money into capturing all that organic search traffic when it didn’t do anything.
Usability, Conversions and Calls to Action
Make it as easy for people to do what you want them to do as it was for them to find you.
A good user experience is essential. To many people, “user experience” just means the site looks good and the navigation links work. But there is more to it than that. The key here is “ease of use”. If the site loads very slowly, things don’t work or look right every time, or people have to work too hard to use it, they will leave as quickly as they came. Navigation should help users find what they want on your website with little effort – and it should help them find what YOU want them to find, too.
If you are generating leads, make sure there are enough easy ways for people to contact you. There is no need to go crazy about it and have a “Contact Us” link in each paragraph, but don’t make your users go on a scavenger hunt for your contact form by burying it on an obscure sub-page of your About Us page. If you want phone calls, give your number and not just “Call us today” and hope they find your number hidden at the bottom of your contact form or in the site’s footer.
For an online store, the call to action is pretty obvious – “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart” buttons that work with a minimum of “Are you sure? I mean really sure?” clicks.
Present Your Value Proposition
Give your audience a good reason to engage with you.
What do you have to offer?
What do you offer that sets you apart from all the others?
Make it clear: Why are you the best? What sets you apart from the competition?
If you want to look like the best (rank number one, have the most followers, etc) – Be the best.
Making sure you have what people are looking for in searches and giving social media followers a reason to follow is at the core of the “right” way to improve your online presence.
