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Adam Allaker | 10-08-22

Our web experts are often asked to explain whether it is possible to improve the performance of a website and its online presence. Before we dig deeper into that, let’s look at some statistics that every business owner needs to know.

The Power of Reviews

  • 77% of consumers ‘always’ or ‘regularly’ read online reviews when browsing for local businesses (up from 60% in 2020)
  • Online reviews have been shown to impact purchasing decisions.
  • People trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.
  • 79% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more, according to BrightLocal (2020)

Google Search

  • 92% of online adults use search engines to find information on the web.
  • 65% of people see online search as the most trusted source of information about people and companies. That’s a higher level of trust than any other online or offline source.
  • 93% of searchers never go past the first page, instead using only the first 10 search results to form their impression.
  • Businesses risk losing 22% of business when potential customers find one negative article on the first page of their search results.
  • Nearly half of U.K. adults said they have Googled someone before doing business with them.
  • 45% said they have found something in an online search that made them decide not to do business with the person.
  • 56% have found something that solidified their decision to do business with the person.

With these interesting stats in mind, your businesses online presence is obviously very important. We often hear from potential clients that: ‘I’ve had a website for years, but it’s never got me any business.’ It’s a common complaint and one that at Surrey Creative we have given a lot of thought to. Given that the internet is accessible across a range of devices including mobile, how can it be that your website has never generated enquiries?

If your website isn’t performing is it all Google’s fault?

Not really, Google is very good at what it does and for businesses that handle their online presence properly, Google will reward you with a steady stream of potential clients in your inbox. However, competition within Google’s search results can be fierce and if we return to the statistic that 93% of all online searches never go past page one it is paramount that your business performs well in search results. So, is good SEO the magic bullet to online success? Well that’s not the full picture but it’s a good place to start.

How does Google decide where to rank your website?

Understanding the answer to that question is fundamental to making a success of your SEO. It’s all about trust.

Google wants to provide the best possible service to its searchers. By making sure that only relevant results are returned for any one of the 3.5 billion searches made every day Google has built a multi-billion-dollar business and while it has diversified into many other areas, search still remains its number one revenue stream, so you can be assured that they care about getting it right.

If Google is going to return your website for a search query it not only needs to be 100% sure that your site is relevant but also that your site is of a high enough standard to satisfy the requirements of the user that clicks through to it. So it goes about scoring sites according to its own trust index and this is where so many people get things wrong on their website when trying to optimise for SEO.

How do you get Google to trust your website?

When your website is released on to the internet Google’s algorithm picks up on the new URL and sends its spiders to crawl through all the information that it can find within the domain. It’s a bit like a first date and first impressions are everything. If Google finds poor quality coding standards, then you are already off to a bad start. No privacy policy, cookie notice or site map? Things are getting worse! It takes more than two seconds to load… forget it!

People often don’t realise that it’s these little things that can set two websites apart when Google decides which one to rank higher. Google is picky about standards as businesses that haven’t invested in a good quality website are probably not the best result to display for a user looking for a quality service provider.

So, I’ve paid thousands for my website, I should be fine right?

A beautifully crafted website will only get you so far and once Google is happy with the standard of your code its algorithm gets to work on your content. After all, if Google is going to send someone to your website it wants to be sure that your visitor will be satisfied by what they find. Your content needs to be written with your user in mind and Google knows what people want, so it needs to be good.

There are three golden rules for good website content.

It should be:

Honest

This is probably the most important rule. Making false claims about your services is a big no no as far as Google is concerned. I’ve seen entire AdWords campaigns taken down by Google’s standards audits because the website they were directing traffic to was making some claims that Google felt were questionable.

Succinct

Write too little and Google and your users won’t have enough to get a good feel for your business. Write too much and you’re waffling and people won’t be bothered to read it. Google is well aware of people’s poor attention spans on the internet!

Unique

Didn’t have time to write your own content, so you just copied someone else’s? If Google matches your content to another website and deems it as plagiarism it will bury you.

My website is ranking well in Google, but still no enquiries?

It’s true that you may well have followed all of the rules to help get yourself to the top of Google, but still it fails to generate enquiries. When this happens you need to take the time to find out why. If you know that people are searching for and finding your business online, visiting your website but not enquiring, then there is something wrong with the site. If visits aren’t converting into enquiries you may have a problem.

A common cause of a poor conversion rate is that maybe your visitor isn’t left with any reason to get in touch. This is where your content can sometimes be working against you. If you’ve gone to great lengths to ensure that every possible question a visitor could have is efficiently answered by your website, then you’ve actually scored an own goal. Now they don’t have a reason to get in touch!

Your website’s job is to sell your business to your visitors, but you don’t need to answer every question under the sun. Your visitors should be filled with confidence that your business is just what they’ve been looking for and they should want to get in touch to find out more.

Great content and a well laid out site with useful calls to action that encourage enquiries is the key to a high conversion rate.

In Summary

If your website isn’t generating any enquiries, then there’s a pretty good chance that it is falling foul of one of many facets of what makes an effective website as we’ve described here. If there is demand for your services and you have a website that has been put together properly and it ranks well in Google it will generate enquiries for you, without fail.