I’ve had quite a few client questions come up lately around SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and their website.
- Should I work on my SEO first? Or should I redesign my website?
- My website was recently rebuilt but is no longer showing up, why is that?
- We’ve just launched our new website, now what?
All of these depend on various factors, so in the end, each decision is unique to your business and your website.
Are you wondering what is SEO? SEO is the process of helping your website (and business) be found on search engines = “new clients find you on Google”.
Should I work on my SEO first? Or should I redesign my website?
It depends on the age of your website (is the code old or broken?), the functionality (does it tell your customers what to do?) and your content (do you have enough content that we can begin optimizing your pages and leverage your previous work?).
For some clients, your website may be recent, the code can all be easily fixed, and you like the layout and functionality. In that case, we can move forward with an SEO strategy to improve your optimization, create new content that is tailored to keywords you can more easily claim (low hanging fruit), and link building and reporting on our efforts.
For others, it may be best to start with a website redesign / redevelopment first because it isn’t converting current customers, or is hindering your ability to properly implement SEO activities. Then, we should focus on cleaning up your website and streamlining it for SEO because it would be a waste of effort to get new traffic to your site only to lose them because your website doesn’t direct them to what they want.
This depends on your website (code, content and marketing) and what you want your website to do. This requires a look at your goals, as well as where your website is currently standing.
My website was recently rebuilt but is no longer showing up, why is that?
There are two pieces to SEO: on-page SEO (your website) and on-going SEO (the activities to create new content to your site, link building, reputation building, etc.). When I build your website, I optimize it for your target keywords based on your website content.
However, SEO is fluid. SEO is like growing a garden. Your activities now have results, but if you stop caring for your garden then things run a little wild or die. This is true when I build your site, it may increase in rankings after first launching due to the improved on-page SEO, but with no new content or expanded content on your areas of expertise, it will fade away if your competitors are doing more to grow their SEO, pushing them above you.
Optimizing your website has value, but if you don’t take any action after that, it will slowly lose traction, especially if your competitors are putting in a more concentrated effort.
We’ve just launched our new website, now what?
How exciting! With a new website targeted at your ideal clients, you should have a customer funnel that leads them through a process of getting to know and trust your business. You may do this providing more information to them, offering free guides and resources, showing how your services/products help them, etc. Now is the time to get more traffic there.
There are multiple ways to market your business [networking pie], but today I’ll be talking about SEO. I’m assuming that your new website has been optimized with all the right content, headings, title and meta descriptions, alt tags, etc. with a targeted keyword for each page.
Now is about measuring your website, and creating more content. Until you have the right data, you can’t make an informed decision about your marketing.
A brand-new website will have less data and information than a redesigned website (with properly redirected pages), that has history on search engines, so may take longer to get information. A smaller website has less of an impact than a website with more content, etc.
Monthly reporting that tracks your keyword rankings, competitor rankings, etc will help in creating a path of action to grow your website organically.
A new website needs extra effort to ensure that you continue to expand your content, build links, and have a plan moving forward for marketing and SEO.
Marketing, branding, sales are all so intertwined that each of these activities has layers to how it can be implemented and how it best applies to your website and business.
If you have questions about your website, SEO or how to grow your business, I encourage you to schedule a free marketing consultation so that I can learn where your business is, what you’ve been doing, and how I can help you reach those goals. Or contact me with any questions.
