Advertising is the Key
The days of throwing up a website and having people beat a path to it are long gone.
The days of building traffic by concentrating on hidden text and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are over, too. Millions are doing it, and Google Search AI is smart enough to see through it.
In today’s world, with millions of websites, content alone will leave you lost in the background. Sure, you can study Google’s documents about How Search Works, and work through the 200 Google Ranking Factors, but I’m going to make it simple:
- Build a website that clearly defines what you do, and keep all content relevant to the subject. If you have multiple offerings, like furniture and clothing, build multiple websites.
- Include your website in all advertising, letterheads, business cards, etc.
- Get and install a Google Tracking ID Number.
- Open a Google Ads account and create an ad. Be very specific about what you’re selling. No clickbait.
- Google will scour your site and suggest keywords for search. Choose only those that specifically describe what you’re selling.
- You can set your Google Ad budget as low as $100 a month, and you can pause your ad at any time.
- This will make Google aware of your website, update its knowledge base, and track the visitors to your site. Google tracks how long visitors are on it, what pages they visit, how far down the page they scroll and what links they click.
- Google will update the Traffic and Relevancy scores for your site.
- Websites usually improve dramatically in Google Search after only a few weeks of advertising.
- Advertising on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms will help, too, as long as your site is relevant to the search terms you define.
The Takeaway
- Your website is your full-color glossy handbook. Keep it relevant to what you’re promoting.
- Mention your website in all of your advertising and communications.
- Advertise only to people who are looking for exactly what you’re offering.
- It’s not about getting lots of visitors, it’s about getting visitors that buy.
About Content
Yes, generating new, site-relevant content on a regular basis is a way to raise your Google Search ranking. This is also called blogging. Click here for an example.
It’s much more expensive and time-consuming than running ads, and it takes months or years to build a body of work that Google respects.
What content generation and blogging IS good for is customer retention.
New website content can be automatically posted into newsletters, mailing lists and social media, which are great ways to stay engaged with your existing customers and loyal website visitors.
But don’t do it just for Google ranking.
Running ads – any ad – is cheaper and more effective.
A-B split testing on your ads and website is a better investment of time and money.
