How to Make a Website Perform Better Organically

How can I improve my organic website positioning on Google?

We hear this question from every new client coming to us with hopes to improve their SEO.  As with everything else, it takes hard work and time and if you are willing to commit to both, your business will see results. This list contains a few basic steps to follow.  With SEO and a Google algorithm, there are no guarantees and no secret recipe exists to assure you will rank #1 for all your keywords.  There are a few steps we can confirm that help your overall rankings, but the most important element to remember is to build a well-designed, informative, and relevant website. Building just for keywords and SEO does not help you grow your business.  Having an outstanding value proposition, unique products, knowledge, and great customer service is the winning combination.  A great website helps you generate more leads and sales and assures and reinforces the culture and offering of your company.

1. Start with good content.

   A well-performing website is based on well-curated content.  This means you are telling the user a story about your company, and adding detailed information about the products and the services you offer.  This portion of the website reflects an effort on your part to inform the user about your overall mission and vision. You should start with a good amount of content.  We know that users don’t often read the entire copy on the website, but they do pause and focus on titles and headings.  Structure your website correctly so that the titles and subtitles tell your users how to navigate the page and tell Google more about your organization.
   Make sure the items you are offering have separate pages for each specialty, product, or service. You cannot include all of them under 1 URL /service. To Google, the word “services” or “products” has no meaning and gives it no direction in what it is that you are delivering to the client. Be descriptive and accurate with the information you are placing on your website.

2. Cover all of the technical basics.

   From website speed to meta titles and H1-H5 tags, ensure that your website is built correctly.  If you are not certain how to approach this portion, work with a reputable website design agency.  It is crucial to do your research and find a reliable partner that can guide you through the process, from compressing and sourcing images to setting up your server correctly.  One of the things we have noticed over the years is that a slow website, especially when accessed on mobile devices can hurt your overall rankings. Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is no longer a requirement but rather a standard. It’s been determined that Google does not put much priority on this element as a strong signal, but it requires your website to be safe and secure. The technical portion of your website is important from a ranking perspective and that is why reaching out to an expert can be beneficial.

3. Regularly expand the content of your website.

   This does not mean that you can ask an AI tool or content generator to write the blogs for you.  You need valuable content, you need to share knowledge unique to your expertise.  Answer the questions your clients are often asking you.  Expand on the details of the products  you are selling. Offer your expertise in the industry you are serving. Although we have been utilizing AI tools in many different ways, we quickly realized that the content delivered by AI writers is just simply put: not always very good.  All of the blogs have the same structure and utilize the same language, which is not very “human-friendly”. We’ve tested it on a lot of factual information, asking for details about certain points in US history.  Consistently, the information generated by AI engines was not correct.  It was correct as a snippet, just often not in reference to the question we asked.  It is extremely important to fact-check AI written content.  We still believe that you have a lot more information and knowledge to share than your AI counterpart, and you should consider growing content organically.

4. Set up a rank-tracking mechanism.

   It can be as simple as an Excel spreadsheet or as complex as a paid multi-faceted ranking tool.  Regardless, make sure you continuously check the rankings and make adjustments to your titles, subtitles, and content until you see that your keywords are moving in the right direction.