Getting Your Business Visible on Google
After a successful day at the Herefordshire Means Business Expo yesterday, we thought it would be a good chance to reflect on one of the workshops we attended. The workshop was the Google Digital Garage talk on ‘Getting Your Business Visible on Google’. The talk was led by Ian, an experienced Digital Marketer with over 10 years’ experience in the sector. Having someone as reputable as Ian to listen to is a very good thing for both Expo attendees and local business owners alike. Ian spoke about the importance of making sure your website is both voice & mobile responsive. Why? Due to the growth in the number of online searches via these channels. Ian backed this with the following statistic highlighting the importance of mobile optimisation:
“We have seen a 50% growth in local mobile searches this year”
Google Digital Garage’s Ian – Mr. Metrics
Ian spoke heavily about improving the search ranking of your website. He really emphasised the importance of having a good quality home page. Incorporating a good design with valuable, good quality content. This is because Google values good quality content highly. When someone searches a query, Google scans the internet for the webpage that best answers that query. He also spoke about the importance of keywords. Ian showed the seminar attendees a tool called Google Trends, A tool that allows us to compare keywords traffic over a specified period. He used the following as an example…
Nike trainers and Nike shoes
This shows that “Nike trainers”, over the last 12 months, has had a significant amount of traffic. He then posed the question “if you were Nike which word would you optimise for?” A mixture of answers came forward. However Harvey offered up the suggestion you should optimise for both keywords. Why? This is because you would be missing out on a volume of search for the other keyword.
Another method of getting good search ranking that was mentioned was paid advertising. Ian talked about Google Ads & how good of a tool it was. Ian even admitted the fastest way to get to the front page of Google is to spend money! However, this does not just mean spending money on your Google Ads but also on a good quality website. Ian showed us another tool for finding keywords called Google Search Console, a free tool used to find keyword traffic as well as track traffic & more.
To finish the seminar, Ian opened the room up for questions.
Ian was asked what is the future of google search rankings? A very good question. Responsiveness was the answer. Making sure that your website is available on all devices whether that by voice search or desktop searches. You want to make sure your website is performing well on as many devices as possible.
Ian’s talk was a useful learning seminar, giving out some very valuable information that if actioned correctly could increase your website performance dramatically, if you ever get a chance to go to a Google Digital Garage talk, especially Ian’s, we recommend to go. They really will help you learn new ways to increase your visibility in Google.
We also had the opportunity to chat to Ian while we ate our lunch in the lobby. Talking to someone with the same passion and enthusiasm was one of the highlights of the day – no lie!
