We get asked this question many times.

There are a lot of factors that will influence where your website will appear in the search rankings. Some of the factors to consider include:
  • How old is your website compared to your competitors?
  • How competitive is your market?
  • How pro-active are your competitors on keeping their websites refreshed?
To give your website a fighting chance against these influences that are out of your control, your site will need to be better than your rivals. Think of it as a house that you are trying to sell for the highest possible price in a very competitive market.

Foundations
The foundations and fabric of the building need to be well built.
The technical elements of your website need to be correct as specified by the search engines. This will ensure the content on your website can be “read” by the search engines so that they can correctly rank your site, some examples include;
  • Tagging your images with relevant captions,
  • Checking for errors and running validation tests,
  • Site maps
  • Url rewriting
  • Using software to find the keywords your customers will be using to find your website,
  • Writing good content using your keywords
  • Analysing your competitors content

Maintenance
Keep it well maintained.
You need to keep it in good condition and looking good so that when people visit they get a good first impression and want to come back again. It needs to be up to date and use the latest technology.You need to refresh your pages and add new pages regularly. This is where a blog can be very effective for continually adding fresh content. Combined with social media it can be a very powerful way of getting your message across to new and existing customers.

Wow factor
Create a wow factor.
Like the smell of home-made bread, inviting hallway or a new kitchen, first impressions make all the difference. An inviting home page with content that will grab the attention of visitors will make them want to look around and stay longer.

Marketing
Good houses attract more potential buyers and interest.
Likewise, attracting more visitors to your website is one of the factors that will improve its page rank. Get your social networks working for you and commenting on your products or services to help drive more traffic to your site.

Feedback
Just as your Estate Agent will give you feedback from visitors, you need to have all of the analytics available on your website to measure visitor numbers, time on site, pages they visited and jump off page etc. so that continual improvements can be implemented.

For more information about how to improve your website go to our Search Engine Optimisation page.

Mark Langston