5 Reasons your website is not making sales

As the digital age expands, the online marketplace is getting more and more competitive, as well as getting filled with spammers.   The search engine, namely Google, has basically said enough is enough... We don’t want spam and we don’t want low-quality websites or at least we will not place them high in the rankings.   Since 22nd June 2013, every site should have noticed a massive difference in the number of visitors to their websites.  For example, we dropped from position 2 on Google for “Web Design Tamworth” to position 9 and 90% of our traffic disappeared.  We were still on page 1 but the top 5 spots get all the traffic.

Our website is updated at least once every 2 weeks, sometimes every week. Blogs are added weekly and 5 guest blogs are normally published each month. This gives us traffic back to the site, but Google still dropped us!  Luckily a few minor tweaks and some extra blogs later, we were back where we had been and our traffic jumped by 95%.

So this newsletter/Blog is to highlight what website owners need to do to stop their websites from dropping from the search engine listings.

1 - Regular updates i.e not once a year

Google can only differentiate between high quality and a low-quality website by the number of times it is updated. Changing a sentence or updating an image once a year is not enough.  Google is looking for businesses that are actively keeping their clients (your clients) updated with useful information.  Images alone will not be enough. Video will and so would high-quality unique content.

2 – Do not copy images or text (Duplicate Content)

Google can use reverse searches on any image and text.  Copyscape is a free tool from which you can instantly see which sites are using a high percentage of your wording. The same is true with images.  Every image on the web is copyrighted and so is every piece of text.  Google has developed a duplicate content algorithm (Google Penguin) to instantly penalize any site which seems to have duplicate content.  Interflora and its unfortunate victims were hit heavily with this in February. They released a single advert to a large broadsheet newspaper which syndicated the advert across 100's newspaper subsidiaries.  Every single site carrying this advert got hit by Google Penguin. The Daily Telegraph was the biggest site to get hit. It dropped 3 places on Google and had to spend an undisclosed figure to get back to position 1.

3 - Not actively using Social Media

Yes that’s right; Social Media will bring traffic to your website.  What if I told you that 30-40% of our traffic and turnover comes just from Twitter.  Google uses Social Interaction   i.e. Tweets, Facebook shares/likes, Google +, Linkedin as a way to help rank websites. E.g. If you have two websites, both with really good high-quality content.  One site is not active in Social Media and the other is, then Google will use this as a measure to give the active users of social media a high position in the rankings.  It also counts as what is known as high quality backlink.

4 - Offline advertising

Yes that’s right... with all the best intentions in the world people may not know that you exist. You need to place your website in as many different marketing channels as possible.  E.g. if you have a van then your website should be on the sides, back and front.  Your email signature should have your web address.  Wear T-Shirts which are branded. I only got asked in the Bull Ring the other week by someone on a demo stand for a website quote.  She saw the shirt and then asked.

Sponsor a local football team or event as this should get you great coverage.

5 - Guest Blogging

You also need to do some work off-site, by getting guest bloggers to write about subjects related to your website with a link back.  However you don’t want to use an Article Submission Tool or a guest blogging website, you need to develop relationships with high-quality websites.  Remember the blogs should only be published in one location and linked back to your website.

Conclusion

Everyone says they don’t have time to update their website and often wonder why it isn’t performing.  3 hours a week in writing 1 blog for your website would possibly be enough to get you more traffic.  20 tweets a day sending out links from your website would generate traffic.

Just remember high-quality content that is unique will engage your visitors with your site. They are likely to stay longer and may very well share your site with a friend and purchase a product.

Don’t let your website stagnate if you don’t have time we can help you with content and Social Media just get in touch 0121 8203659.  If you've got any questions about this blog please feel free to comment below.