We’re all alike.
We’re really good at some things and not others. I’m going to show how to be much better at making money from your website.
Here are the top 5 mistakes that contractors accidentally do that hurts the success of their website... including #4... the silent killer that haunts most sites.
Spammy content gets you poorly ranked. When your content is all about your company or entirely a sales message you’re in trouble. Good content provides a good user experience. The content provides valuable information for site visitors. Free tips and how to’s are awesome. Remember that your name doesn’t have to appear all over your content. You will be found for your name even if you don’t put it in your content. Google knows who you are if your SEO team puts a schema tag on your name in the footer as they should.
We suggest not putting your name more than one time per page. More than that is strictly ego and will damage your rankings. Before you start screaming and yelling about ego and damaged rankings consider this: Google weights each page and the entire site as a whole. If your name is in the content too much, it looks like that is your ‘core” key phrase and you will get ranked for it. You may not get ranked for the phrase that will make you money because Google thinks your name is what you care most about.
The best way to write content is by thinking constantly about providing a great experience to site visitors. Be a subject matter expert without being arrogant. You will be rewarded!
Bad backlinks. Most contractors know that buying links will get you penalized but also using articles to get inbound links can cause an issue. Articles are an old technique that used to be okay. Now Google may penalize you for it. As online marketers get more “creative” Google clamps down on overly creative techniques. Articles that are written to draw attention to your site will hurt your rankings. The best way to get links is to join legitimate business directories and utilize social media. Get your content out there in ways that others share it and you’ll see an increase in rankings and ultimately business.
Having a site that is not responsive. Responsive sites automatically re-size themselves to fit any screen perfectly. A huge percentage of searches are now done on mobile phones and tablets in addition to computers and large screen TV’s. Google started giving a little boost to sites that were mobile ready about a year ago. Recently they upped the ante to penalize those that are not and they are actually indexing the mobile version of your site first. Check to see if your site is responsive by pulling it up on your phone. If you have to stretch the screen to read the text – it’s not responsive. Here's a tool from Google that you can use to check.
Another way to check is to pull up your site on a desktop or laptop. Click the icon next to the close page X at the top right of the screen. You will now have a smaller version of your site. Now, right click on the right edge of the site and drag it to the left. This makes the screen smaller. When you get to the tablet size….does it change to fit a tablet. When you get to a phone size did it change and make your menu into one button and size correctly for the screen? Do you have a click to call phone number? If your site isn’t responsive have it fixed ASAP and you’ll see a ranking and business increase.
Having differing addresses and phone numbers. This is a Google penalty. There are people that believe they can trick Google local by getting a few addresses at the local mailbox store in different cities or towns with the intent of getting into the local results in those cities. This is a black hat technique that will hurt you. We even saw one guy that used addresses from abandoned homes and thought he was fooling Google. Bad idea. Google rewards consistency in address and phone number. Don’t play silly games and think Google won’t catch you – they will and your rankings will drop like a rock. Do it right and you will be rewarded. This is the silent killer of most sites. Owners don’t always know what’s been done in the directories and social accounts. Find out what’s been done on your case.
Guest Blogging. There is nothing wrong with participating in a blog with genuine ideas and conversation. This will help get you citations as long as you don’t link back to your site. Google is wise to guest blogging and linking back to your own site. They don’t like it. A good idea is to participate in blogs with meaningful input and simply put your name and company name at the end without a link. Getting citations this way will ultimately help your position as an authority and Google loves authoritative individuals and sites. Remember that in today’s Internet world --- it's all about user experience.