Since Google introduced “Panda”, the SEO game has changed dramatically over the last year. To non-technical people SEO was still complicated, but to those immersed in it, getting ranked was not really all that hard as long as you did very basic things – like keywords in URL’s, titles, images, headings, and content. Any decent SEO can now tell you (a year later) that at times doing all those things is “over-SEO” in Google’s eyes, and enough to give you a ranking penalty of some kinds.
The biggest difference in whether or not Google thinks that you’re doing something more than you should to get ranked (and whether or not you get a penalty) is how people do when they arrive at your website. One widely used stat is the (Google analytics) data for “bounce rate”. Bounce rate is a percentage number noting how many people left your website quickly (without finding what they were looking for). If your bounce rate is 90% – your rankings will change (for the worse) pretty quickly because Google will figure most people aren’t finding what they’re looking for when arriving at your website. On the other hand if your bounce rate is 50% Google might start sending your more traffic (because the rankings you have seem really relevant to visitors).
Local SEO and Low Hanging Fruit
If you offer products or services in a local market they keywords you use might be really easy to rank for – because the competition is so low. Especially if your bounce rate is really low (because it’s exactly what visitors were looking for).
Many small business owners have a small website with some very basic informational pages about what they do. Creating pages that use the keyword terms people would use in your market will help you rank for those terms (especially if your bounce rate is low or there is little or no competition).
For instance, while we provide SEO Services for clients all over the world, in our specific local market people might finding us by Googling terms like:
Michigan SEO help
Detroit SEO
Ann Arbor SEO services
Toledo SEO company
Some of those terms have mild competition, and by writing separate informational articles or blog posts about them with great original content – it would be fairly easy to rank on the first page of google for all 4 items. For most companies in smaller markets, this is the case for nearly any product or service, and in medium or large markets with a little bit of linkbuilding – just as obtainable.
For most businesses though – they “don’t know what they don’t know”, and these types of opportunities go unused day after day. Could your business use some help in the search engines? We can get you ranked and help convert that traffic to leads and sales – please visit our SEO Services page for more information.
About the Author
JTPratt Media is a Michigan based SEO company that works with small businesses and corporations to improve online authority and rankings for increased website ROI.