Basically the golden question, right?! We all want to be first on Google’s search page, but in reality, we find that our website might be on page 9+ which is really a bummer. I mean, who looks on those pages THAT far out?

I recently had a client reach out to me and express that when she googles her recipes, her website doesn’t come up. Why do you think this is?

Google HAS to favor certain businesses over the other based on how much work they are putting into their website. It’s basically a reward system. The more strategy and time you put into your SEO, the higher Google will try to rank you. As we all want to be ranked high, we all also have to put in the work to actually BE ranked. You can’t just click publish on your website and expect the magic master of Google to say “oh! she published her website, let’s rank her high!”. Nope, it takes more than that…

Let’s dive into what you can do to make your website rank higher on Google.

It’s not going to be easy, but hopefully you take some of these things into consideration and get your ranking higher than it was before!

First things first: Ranking on the first page of Google isn’t going to get you more clients. Focus more on WHO you want to see you content rather than placement on a page.

The end goal for most people is to be on the FIRST page of Google and this isn’t necessarily the right strategy to follow. If you REALLY want to gain traction, you need to focus more on who is seeing your content. Is it a random marketing person that isn’t your ideal client or is it someone who is genuinely interested in your services? So, how do we get THOSE people on our website? Keep reading!

Push informative, relevant and up-to-date content that your ideal clients would want to read.

I get it, blogging is annoying. It’s like this thing you *have* to do, but really dread it, so you end up not doing it at all. Based on my experience, the more you blog, the more potential for traffic there is. Here at CCS, we try to push out blogposts every Tuesday and Thursday. That’s two blogposts per week, whether that be about client projects or a topic of choice like this one that you are reading. If you are a dietitian and write recipes for a lot of your potential clients to make, start writing those recipes on your website. For our clients, we use WordPress Recipe Maker plugin to create recipe cards that people can print!

However, I always recommend to not only put the recipe picture and steps. Yes, this is helpful and straight to the point, but for Google, it’s not the best. Why? Because it’s best to have over 300 words per page. With that in mind, write about your recipe. What’s the backstory? Who would this be for? Why do you like it? Does your picky children like it? Let your readers know! Once again, think of things that your ideal client would want to read.

Regularly check your websites load time.

Before launching any of our websites, I do a quick speed check. If you use this website, type in your URL and take a look at your page speed. It gives you a score for both desktop and mobile [which is really important nowadays!] and pointers you can do to improve. I would say anything above a 70 is average, but it’s great to continue trying to increase this number!

Create a Google My Business profile.

Often this is a missed step because people think if you don’t have a physical address, you shouldn’t create a Google My Business. WRONG! You can setup your profile with no physical location! This is really important as this essentially puts your business into a “database” of businesses in Google’s inventory. It allows for that sidebar of your business name to populate. Another great asset to add onto this step is to try your best to obtain Google Reviews! This is something I am really trying to be better about – normally I would ask for testimonials through a form, but now I’m redirecting to Google Reviews, as it could help you rank higher!

With all of the above steps in mind, just stay consistent with everything you do. If you can only do one blogpost a week, do that. Something is better than nothing!

It’s also really important to note that SEO and ranking does take time to populate with Google. It’s basically impossible to publish a brand new website and rank high in your ideal client audience immediately. After implementing new SEO, I would suggest waiting 6+ months to review and change as needed.

If you have questions about your website, feel free to set up a discovery call with myself so we can chat about designing your website with SEO in mind!