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More content is not always better for ranking in Google

April 26, 2021 by Chad Blenkin

Content is king in SEO, but it’s critical that it’s the right type of content for your target audience and the SERP landscape for each client.

“Content is king” is a common phrase heard in the SEO industry. The statement is true, but it should not be applied to every situation and to every site. In some cases too much poor-quality content hurts local small businesses and SMBs.

Quite often when first starting to work with clients at GrowthLogic, one of the biggest challenges they face is that their website doesn’t rank well on search engines. 

“My site isn’t getting enough leads.” 

We haven’t seen the results we hoped for from inbound marketing.

“We have done keyword research and developed content, but our efforts have not yielded results.”

“Our blogging efforts aren’t yielding a return.”

Many of them are already using content marketing in some form. Maybe they blog regularly, or maybe they just redesigned their website.

The company may have conducted numerous rounds of keyword research, but it still does not rank on the first page of Google. 

Why is that?

This may sound familiar to you, which is why I understand how you might feel frustrated, especially if your efforts seem futile with no clear indication why it isn’t working.

Below, we will investigate a few of the causes for why your site’s content is not ranking, but it can be caused by a few factors.

You may not be ranking for all of the reasons below, but there’s a good chance at least one of them is holding you back. To start, let’s discuss why the factors on this list are so  important.

Organic search offers the most cost-effective and efficient way to bring in new leads. 

You can be found organically by people who don’t know you exist, but are looking for the solution or service you offer – and you don’t have to spend money on ads to do this! In order for organic search to be effective, you must rank well in search engine result pages (SERPs).

Google ranking well can seriously increase the value of your website. With software, I can see what my clients would have to spend to get the same exposure they get organically for the  same keywords. Some clients pay more than $20k per month. It’s not $20k per year, it’s $20,000 per month.

But instead, guess how much they’re paying for that exposure?

Not a thing.

They are only paying whoever is responsible for creating the content on their site, which is much less than $30,000 per month! 

(And, listen, there is a place for PPC as part of a comprehensive strategy, which is why GrowthLogic has experts that can help you with it.)

Having learned the importance of ranking, you might be thinking, “I want in!”. So why aren’t I ranking too?”

We’ll explain why you might not be on the first page of Google already – and what you can do to get there.

The top 10 reasons your site doesn’t rank well on Google

1. The speed of your site is too slow

What’s the average load time for mobile sites?

Sites take about 5 to 6 seconds to load on average. But how long will the majority of visitors stick around before they leave?

It’s more like 3 seconds.

People aren’t getting what they need fast enough because of this discrepancy.

A crucial thing to note is that Google looks at your engagement metrics, such as how long people stay on your site versus how many people bounce away, in order to determine whether or not people find your site valuable. It will help your rankings if your site appears valuable, and vice versa. 

Users that don’t even wait for your page to load won’t have a chance to see the value you offer, and search engines will negatively affect your rankings accordingly.

2. Your content isn’t building trust

Businesses (regardless of size, industry, B2B or B2C, etc.) are only going to succeed if potential customers trust them enough to purchase their product or service.

It sounds like common sense and something we can all relate to. However, you should always ask, how is my company building that trust?

Well, first, we all know what doesn’t build trust: 

We’ve all experienced a situation in which we felt bombarded by sales pitches when we were really just looking for information and some honest advice on a website or over the phone. 

As buyers, we want to be heard, understood, and informed so we can find the best solution for us.

Building trust in your content

Your website will need to address your prospects’ biggest concerns, worries, and questions in order to build trust among them.

Take a close look at your blog content.

If you blog regularly but your site isn’t ranking, look at what your content is about and how it’s being presented. 

All your blogs have an overarching theme of why your company is the best, why someone should buy from you, or why they need to talk to a salesperson?

It is not enough just to publish content and blogs on your site – you also need to provide useful and trustworthy information. In other words, you need to explain your clients’ concerns, prices, costs, how you compare to other companies, and help them empathize with your problems. Then and only then can you share why you’re the resource that they need to solve their problem.

In addition to writing about these topics, it’s equally important to write about them in a way that would build trust and offer readers unbiased, truthful information – not to convince them to purchase from you.

Be honest with yourself

See what your website pages look like.

Although it may seem counterintuitive, your site should be primarily about your visitors. It is more effective to focus your marketing messages on how your products/services can solve problems for your prospects.

It is our challenge at GrowthLogic to see how many times site pages refer to we, us, or the company name versus the word you. 

Sites that are primarily focused on their company, no matter how well they are optimized for search engines, rarely build trust between their brand and their customers, and suffer from ranking issues. 

Utilizing video content as a means of building trust on your site is another way to achieve this. 

If they see, hear, and feel who you are prior to knowing you are there, then they will be interested in your product or service. 

3. You aren’t targeting the right keywords in your content

When search engines can’t tell why you’re ranking (and therefore answering questions), you’re not going to rank. It’s essential that your content is clear enough for people to understand what it is you’re offering, not just site pages full of industry jargon that people may not be searching for. Researching keywords for your content is a good way to do this.

Any part of your site could benefit from this strategy, not just blog articles. 

Optimizing your site for SEO involves several factors (which we will discuss later) but at its core, you need the content to be clear about what your company/product/service solves for and how users find it.

4. You don’t publish regularly 

You can’t just publish blogs every week if they’re of mediocre quality. It is still necessary to publish optimized content regularly to be able to see search rankings rise.

Publishing 2-3 pieces of original content each week is recommended by content consultants for a variety of reasons. For starters, it keeps you in front of your prospects and keeps you top of mind for those who already know you. Your relevance is emphasized when you do this. 

Did you ever come across a site that looked outdated? A  new blog post lets your prospects know you’re still around, and the content on your site is still valid.

Second, and more importantly, you have a much better chance of ranking well in Google with these strategies. Google can index your content for different keywords the more content you have on your site.

As a result, if Google notices you’re publishing content on a regular basis, it’ll adjust the crawl timelines on  your site and visit more frequently. 

It’s possible that blogs who don’t regularly publish content have gotten Google accustomed to crawling their site very infrequently, maybe every couple of weeks or so. 

Regular publishing, however, makes Google crawl your content more often – daily for those rockstar clients – so that it has a better chance of ranking well. 

5. Inability to implement SEO best practices

The topic of SEO is so complex that there are many blogs and guides on the subject. 

From an SSL certificate for your site to the headers, titles, and meta descriptions on every page, there are many on-page SEO basics that you should incorporate into your website. 

SEM is all about delivering high-quality content to users searching for keywords relevant to your industry and standing out to Google as the best piece of content to show to them.

It’s likely that you’ve conducted a dozen or so Google searches in the last 24 hours. However, let me ask you a question: When was the last time you went to the second or third page of Google? What is your estimate of how frequently that  happens?

By delivering the most relevant and helpful content at the top of its search engine results pages, Google’s main objective is to satisfy your inquiry as quickly as possible. 

The best way to implement SEO

Following SEO best practices is the best way for you to alert Google that you’re interested in ranking for specific topics, questions, or keywords. 

In short, there are too many factors to dive into here, but the very condensed basics are title optimization, keyword optimization, header optimization, structure of articles, meta descriptions, and URL optimization. 

A lot of SEO today is focused on creating content that is more user-focused, whether it is the topic and honestly answering prospects’ questions, or how to visually provide the best experience for users as they navigate your site.

6. The navigation of your site is poor

Ranking is also affected by the organization of a site. 

A poorly structured site may result in users landing on a page of your site and then “bounce” straight back to the SERP pages to find a better answer to their question. 

The bounce rate is a metric that Google does not like when it exceeds a certain threshold. The search engines see this as a signal that your site may not be very good, and you are unlikely to rank very well in comparison to your competition if more people are leaving your site immediately, rather than sticking around and reading more of your content.

Users should have an easy time navigating the site

At the heart of great user experience on a site is usually the navigation menu. 

It may be time to take a step back and review your value proposition and site navigation strategy if users cannot get a clear picture of what you do within just a few seconds of coming to your site.

Don’t make it difficult for readers to grasp and understand your navigation menu labels or blogging categories without any additional effort on their part. Stay away from jargon in your writing and menu labels.

7. The market is highly competitive

Obviously, some industries will be easier to rank than  others. 

Inbound marketing, for example, is going to be challenging for an agency to rank for. (Think about it: We’re a bunch of marketers talking about marketing. We’re all trying to rank for many of the same keywords.)

But how many foundation repair contractors are creating this content on their websites? There are probably fewer or none at all. Marketing is not one of their main focuses; they fix residential foundation problems so people’s investments in their homes are protected.

Could you be one of them?

Therefore, the type of industry and market you’re in matters, but not in a way that excuses you from following the tips listed in this article. 

In a highly competitive field, you just have to work even harder. For example, you might consider adding video to each of your pages, as well as infographics and images that are professionally designed to accompany your content. 

The more competitive your niche is, the smaller your room for error is, which means that even if you do everything right, it may take longer to see your content rank higher. You might have to wait a little longer if you’re not yet a Featured Snippet. 

Additionally, you might need to revamp your content strategy. How can you approach your industry in a way that hasn’t been done before? How can you talk about it differently? What’s an aspect of your field that’s unrepresented? 

To succeed in a competitive market, you will need content around those key areas.

8. Your content doesn’t seem trustworthy

In addition to the previous statement about “all industries not being created equal,” this point is also relevant.

In 2018, Google released an E.A.T. update which meant that the author listed for blogs on sites was going to start being taken into account for rankings.

Particularly impacted are topics related to health, medicine, and legal matters. 

In fact, E.A.T. stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness.

We would like to encourage websites that are authored by an industry expert that will have a lasting impact on people’s lives in ways such as health, medical treatment, and legal guidance.

How eager would you be to hear from a random freelancer about a new medical procedure or health practice? Wouldn’t it be preferable to get information from an experienced, trusted medical professional? I’m sure I would! The search engine giant now does as well.

What can be done?

For articles within these industries, ensure you have an author whose reputation in that field is well known. You shouldn’t just  list your company as the author. 

Having an author’s bio on the website and linking to their LinkedIn profile will allow the search engines to figure out that this is an  expert talking. 

9. Your pages have a “no-index” tag

The no-index meta tag is basically a set of instructions that you can embed on your website pages to prevent search engines from crawling (and ranking) them.

What could anyone possibly use that for? Then why wouldn’t you want your page to rank in Google if it was possible? 

A lot of websites do this.

It’s likely that you’ll want this no-index setting on your offer thank-you pages, or even on the download page. 

It’s also possible that if you have a new site built, the page tags may have originally been added to pages while they were being built and worked on but might not have been removed once you published the website live. 

The no-index code should generally only be used for specific pages on your site. You can test your situation by entering a URL to a website like this one if you’re unsure whether it applies to you.

There could be a reason why it doesn’t appear in Google if it does have the tag. Remove the tags for that page from the backend of your content management system.

This can be accomplished in many ways, and platforms can be configured in many ways as well. To update the tag on a single website or landing page in WordPress, for instance, just go to Settings and then remove the coding added for the no-index.

10. Older posts aren’t optimized

The first page of Google is not achievable in one go.

Keeping up with it is a continual challenge, so if you’re not trying your hardest, you’ll probably lose ground in the rankings.

The same applies to old content that hasn’t been ranked yet, even if it was published decades ago. 

Some content may be outdated, lacking a critical element that people want to know about, or simply have an outdated structure, and such posts may need to be revised and rewritten.

Content strategy should not just focus on creating new posts, but also on optimizing older content. 

It is likely that dozens of articles need to be revisited to boost ranking.

In reality, optimizing all of your articles (depending on how many you’ve produced in the past) is an exhausting endeavor, and it might not be worth it for most people, especially if they’re not sure what they want them optimized for. 

The more time you spend on the articles that fall into the most beneficial buckets (or categories) will yield the greatest return.

The articles in this bucket may have bounce rates as high as 50%, may be appearing on the second or third page of Google, or may be receiving lots of impressions on search pages, but not a good number of click throughs. 

Ranking can become overwhelming at times. You can start here with these 10 items above.

It is important to realize that there are a variety of reasons why your content or your site may not be ranking, and it can be appealing to try to optimize every little detail. 

Progress is more important than perfection, however.

Obviously, this list is not comprehensive of every possibility that could contribute to a non-ranking. Perhaps the technical SEO issue is deeper than you think, or perhaps your keyword cluster strategy isn’t optimal. 

Regardless, this list should provide a good sense of your weaknesses and where you can work on them right now. You’ll find that many problems can be resolved by improving the  content on your site.

There is no need to feel obligated to do everything on the list above. You can choose what to do and what not to do. If your website isn’t fast, with frequently-updated, useful, and search engine-optimized content, the other details may not help you reach your goals.

In my experience as a content consultant, tackling the issue of trust is usually a good starting point.

Think like your prospects, review your content (or ask someone else to do it) and decide if it is more helpful or promotional. 

Filed Under: Google Tagged With: Chad Blenkin, Google, Meta Descriptions

Google Increases Titles and Meta Descriptions Length

February 4, 2018 by Chad Blenkin

While both meta description and title lengths have seen an increase in character limits this post will focus on the meta description update since it had the larger change. For those familiar with the meta description, the once 160 characters limited area has been updated to feature a max of 320 characters.

Time Frame

Google started unofficially testing/rolling out some longer extensions last year but it wasn’t until recently that they announced the purpose of the change.

How To Get Longer Descriptions

For now, this change is still a work in process for Google and it looks like it may be more of a dynamic update that pulls descriptive words inorganically. From the search tests I’ve done the common ones that are changed to the longer description are:

  • Articles: Food, News, Movies, etc.
  • Product Searches
  • Person Searches
  • Movie Listing (My favorites description showed movies and ratings. Convenient!)

This is not to say that other types aren’t going to be added since its still a dynamic update, these were just the most commons ones I discovered so far.

For Yoast+Wordpress Users

For now, Google has not endorsed making the change to 320 characters and has suggested that it’s not recommended to make the changes manually. This is probably because it’s trying to pull relevant content from the page instead of one generated through user submissions that are stuffed with keywords, CTAs, or emojis to just pull clicks.

For those that have been using Yoast, there hasn’t been an update to its snippet editor so making meta descriptions longer than 160 characters will look too long and won’t generate a preview so, for now, I’ll wait for a version update.

When it comes down to it, I’d recommend at least an audit of your page titles and meta descriptions to make your sure content and keywords are still relevant to the pages. More than likely we won’t get much more info on the change from Google besides as the change is a way to improve the search experience.

Hi Jeremy, we're looking into it as we speak! Doing some research before we decide to change things 🙂

— Yoast (@yoast) December 8, 2017

About Chad Blenkin

Chad Blenkin is an entrepreneur, marketer, and founder. Currently working in digital space as a director of business development.

Filed Under: Google Tagged With: Chad Blenkin, Google, Meta Descriptions

Facebook bans all ads for Bitcoin, ICOs, and other cryptocurrency

February 2, 2018 by Chad Blenkin

Facebook is banning all advertisements for cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin and initial coin offerings, as part of an “intentionally broad” policy against deceptive marketers. Product management director Rob Leathern explained the decision in a blog post, saying Facebook will no longer accept ads that “promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices.” He says the decision isn’t permanent, though, and that Facebook will revisit the rules when it’s gotten better at detecting and removing bad ads.

“We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception. That said, there are many companies who are advertising binary options, ICOs, and cryptocurrencies that are not currently operating in good faith. This policy is intentionally broad while we work to better detect deceptive and misleading advertising practices, and enforcement will begin to ramp up” across Facebook, Instagram, and its off-platform Audience Network, writes Leathern. “We will revisit this policy and how we enforce it as our signals improve.”

Facebook’s guidelines include a few examples of ban-worthy ads, including the straightforward “Use your retirement funds to buy Bitcoin!” It urges people to report any ads that slip through the cracks, although it doesn’t specify how much of a presence cryptocurrency had on the advertising network before this change.

Facebook allows ads for sensitive financial topics, with some restrictions. It requires “written permission” for any real-money gambling or gaming service, for instance, and bans “misleading or deceptive” student loan ads. It also requires advertisers of these services to only target users over 18 years of age. It’s plausible that legitimate cryptocurrency services will eventually get a similar treatment — once Facebook, like the rest of the world, figures out how to regulate them.

—-

Chad Blenkin is an entrepreneur, marketer, and founder. Currently working in digital space as a director of business development.

Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: Ads, Facebook

Getting your first customers – simplified customer development

October 10, 2017 by Chad Blenkin

Getting Customers

Sometimes startups come to me with this problem: we have created this great service, how can we get our first customers.

Those startups quite often need to put a hold on product development and focus customer development.

What they don’t actually know is:
– are they addressing a real, existing problem or a burning need?
– does their service or product actually solve the problem?

Answering those questions with genuine insight from real people is what customer development is.

Here is how to do it.

Find 10 potential customers from the target group and understand if the problem you are solving is a big pain or they don’t really care.

For each customer understand where they stand:

  1. Did they have the problem?
  2. Did they know they have the problem?
  3. Did they look for a solution?
  4. Did they hack a solution?
  5. Did they pay for a solution?

Achtung! Don’t ask them those questions. Have a conversation – not an interview – about the problem you are trying to solve and understand how they are solving it today. At the end, categorize them into the buckets above.

Once this is clear, the question is, how do I find those 10 potential customers?
Be creative, try different methods. Whichever method works best can later become one of your marketing/communication channel. Drop the one that doesn’t work. If you can’t find those first 10 customers, how are going to find 100s of them?

If your product solves the problem, the people that you identified as paying for a solution (the last bucket) are your potential customers. You can start selling it to them.

Filed Under: Blog

Why read Eric Ries’ Lean Startup?

October 2, 2017 by Chad Blenkin

The Lean Startup

The book Lean Startup by Eric Ries has transformed entrepreneurship and innovation.

Eric Ries, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, learns from the failures and successes of the startups. He extracts the fundamental principles that enable startups to succeed. By naming them and codifying them, their principles become tangible, comprehensible and transmissible.

Specifically, the Lean Startup explains how to think of its product with the minimum of functionality to avoid constructing an unnecessary product, and how, starting from this point of departure, iterates quickly: that is to construct and test new functionalities to understand what customers really use.

Lean Startup transposes the concepts of lean management to the context of extreme uncertainty in which a startup is found. In a process of innovation, where is waste? How to make continuous improvement and be sure that one focuses its efforts on creating value for the customer? The Lean Startup takes its meaning when you try to find out what you need to build to meet the needs of your customers.

For entrepreneurs, the Lean Startup is a scientific approach and practical tools to develop their project.

For product and marketing managers of large companies, the Lean Startup allows to design and test new offers, with concrete data from the field.

In his book, Eric exemplifies his principles by personally experienced examples, but also by other companies in Silicon Valley.

This book has now become a reference; at the origin of a real movement of background in the world of business. The Lean Startup approach has transformed several companies by making them faster, agile and customer-centric, such as General Electric through its FastWorks program.

Eric Ries enters the Top Thinker 50 in 2015 alongside Michael Porter and Clayton Christensen.

Filed Under: Blog

The Lean Startup in 5 quotes

September 29, 2017 by Chad Blenkin

Eric Reis - The Lean Start Up

Here are 5 selected quotes from Eric Ries to capture the ideas behind the concept of Lean Startup. These quotations are extracted from the book, “The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses“.

Success is not delivering a feature. Success is learning how to solve the customer’s problem.

It is celebrated when a feature comes out because it represents the work of a team. But it’s not that the customer will use it. Understand if it brings a solution to the customer’s problem, it’s a celebration.

The only way to succeed is to learn faster than others.

A successful startup when she found a business model that allows her to create, deliver and capture value to these customers. To find this business model, you must search, explore and learn what works and what does not. The faster you learn, the more likely you are to find this business model. And so … the only way to succeed and learn faster than others.

If you can not plant yourself, you can not learn.

To learn what works, you must try what does not work. To be deceived, again and again until improving with each attempt, one arrives what works. This learning is at the heart of the Lean Startup model.

Good design is one that changes for the better the behavior of customers.

Faced with a design we very quickly have options and preferences. We like it or not. But the only truth is that of the client and his behaviour. Does this new design, the behaviour of customers. This is tested on the internet simply with A / B tests.

If in doubt, simplify.

What else?

I recommend reading the full book, available at Amazon.

Filed Under: Blog

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