Introduction
As a service business, coach, consultant or practitioner, maintaining your website is vital to its success. Have you wondered why your website isn’t getting the attention it deserves? Perhaps you have poured precious time, money, and effort into your website. But you are unsure how it performs, let alone if it is visible on search engines. Having a website is only one part of the equation. Yes, it is one of your MOST valuable business assets. But if your website isn’t visible on search results, it’s like having an advert in the desert that no one sees. To ensure your website can be found by the right people searching for a solution to the problem you solve, read on for 10 quick changes to improve its visibility. And the best news is that you can do them yourself!
#1 Check that your website looks good on a mobile
Get your smartphone and find your website on a browser. Does your website look OK? Can you click on buttons? If your website is hard to navigate, it might not be mobile-friendly, which matters for Google and your potential clients.
Most website platforms like WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace let you adjust your mobile view with a few clicks.
CAPTION: Responsive web design is important for a visible website
GET HELP WITH A MOBILE READY WEBSITE
#2 Ensure your website is quick to load
Google measures your website’s site speed because this affects whether the user is having a good experience or not. If your pages are slow to load, your user may give up; remember that you only have a few seconds to get a connection. So, ensuring your site loads within a few seconds is vital.
Use this free tool to see how fast your site is loading. Don’t worry about complex fixes at this stage; just focus on what you can change. For example, shrinking large images can make the website load faster.
TinyPNG is free and helps compress your image dimensions and ensure it keeps the picture quality using this free tool. A fast loading website will improve website visibility.
CAPTION: Free tool to check your website’s speed
GET HELP SPEEDING UP YOUR WEBSITE
#3 Ensure your headings are clear
Headings are essential for your visitors and Google because they help to explain the content, so make sure they’re simple and to the point. If someone only read the headings, would they know what your business is about? Try it for yourself.
Look at the main headings on your website (the big, bold text). Are they clear and easy to understand? Add more H2 and H3 headings to break up walls of text and help your visitor understand the content more quickly.
#4 Refresh Your (meta) page titles and descriptions
When you are on Google and see the search results page, there is a title and description per result. Think of these as “little adverts” vying for attention. How you write these adverts will help them to stand out from the crowd and get clicked. This may be the first impression someone gets of your website. On most platforms, you can easily edit the page title and descriptions.
Take a few minutes to ensure each important page (such as home, services and blog pages) has a title and description that tells Google and your visitors exactly what they’ll find there.
#5 Signpost with clear, simple buttons
Review your navigation and use simple labels such as ‘blog’ or ‘services’. Don’t try to be clever and use unfamiliar words. Ensure a user can get to content within three clicks. If your content is too ‘deep’, your users may be unable to find what they are looking for and give up. It might sound silly, but have you clarified what you want your visitor to do next? ‘Call to action’ buttons with simple labels, such as [CONTACT ME] or [BOOK A FREE CALL], are clear signposts to guide visitors to the next logical step. Remember that links give users the routes through your website. Google loves to see your website being engaged with such as links being clicked and someone ‘dwelling’ on a page for a few minutes. These signals tell Google that your site is being read and used. A complex website doesn’t impress Google or your website visitors. Simplicity is key.
Most website platforms let you add or update buttons without any coding needed, and these buttons will help improve website visibility.
CAPTION: Provide a seamless user journey
GET HELP WITH AN INTUITIVE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
#6 Fix broken links
Google understands how your website fits together via the internal links. If it finds a broken link, it gets confused and will mark you down. A visitor may leave a website with broken links as they start to mistrust your website.
Improve website visibility by finding, catching, and fixing these broken links as soon as possible.
#7 Check that your website is secure
In 2014, Google announced that every website needed to start with https:// instead of just http:// at the start of a URL. And if a site didn’t change to https://, Google would mark them down, compared to a competitor site that did. This ensures that all websites, especially those that exchange data between the user and the website, are more secure with encrypted data. Simply look at the URL of your website in a browser and check. If you haven’t got a secure website, contact your web person or enquire with your platform/host to get an SSL certificate set up and added to the domain. However, you must redirect your domain from http:// to https:// because Google sees this as a brand-new link. Whilst this is a more advanced step, at least identifying if your site is secure is a beneficial check that you can do yourself.
Redirect your domain from http:// to https:// because Google sees this as a brand-new link
#8 Update some content
How long has it been since you changed your website content? Or do you even have access to your website to make a change? The reason I ask is that Google loves fresh content. If you last updated your site a while ago, then do so. Even a tiny change can signal to Google that your site is active and relevant and will improve website visibility.
Edit a heading, add a new page (Google will love that), create a blog post or update an existing one.
#9 Set up free Google tools to measure performance
Many tools will help you understand your website in more detail. But the two most essential tools to set up and use are:
GA4 (Google Analytics) – how your users find and use your website.
Google Search Console – how Google views your website.
These FREE tools will give you a benchmark of how your website is currently performing. And help you improve your website over time so that it performs better.
#10 Join a like-minded community
SEO, websites, digital marketing; there is a lot to get your head around. But at Engaging Content, we have you covered. Simply Visible Academy is the place to learn from an expert, uplevel your training in specific areas and be part of a buzzing community of “hands-on” business owners looking to improve website visibility. Check it out here.
Conclusion
These 10 small changes will reap BIG rewards in improving your website’s visibility, making it more visible on Google and helping people to find you online. And the best part? You don’t need to be a tech expert to do them! Here’s to more visitors finding your business online and your website starting to pull its weight.
