Search Engines

Got a website?

Then you’ve probably also thought about where you appear in Google. You might even obsess about it – a lot of people do.

A small warning, however: put all of your energy and resources on search engines at your own risk. It only takes a change in their ranking methods to see your website drop down the listings. If you don’t have other ways of getting visitors and business then you are going to suffer.

‘Natural’ Listings

You want to be found when people search for words or phrases relevant to your business. But how do you make sure you are found?

There are a lot of factors that influence your search engine position, too many for every business to keep track of. You should make sure you get the basics right, which include:-

• Relevant content, useful to your visitors
• Descriptive page titles
• Links from other websites
• Fast page loading times

For a free website health check, call me on 01837 811 839 or email tom@tomdoggett.co.uk

Pay Per Click (PPC) Adverts

An alternative, or an addition, to natural search engines listings is to pay to be shown in search results.

You select your keywords, choose how much to pay and are charged whenever someone clicks through to your website.

Most businesses who use PPC make the same costly mistakes. Some tips:-

• Don’t send people to your home page – create a ‘landing page’ that is relevant to the advert and encourages an action
• Test different adverts – Google allows you to split test very easily, and you can quickly see which adverts and headlines work and which don’t
• Hide parts of your website – when someone arrives at your site, don’t overwhelm them. Choose one action you want them to do (e.g. join a mailing list, buy a specific product) and elminate as much as you can that isn’t relevant to that

To discuss how PPC adverts could help your business, or for a free review of your current adverts, call me on 01837 811 839 or email tom@tomdoggett.co.uk