3 reasons why you are not on the first page on Google

No matter what products and services they sell, every company shares a common goal: gaining as much brand awareness as possible. Do you have difficulties appearing on search engines, despite your best efforts?

This can be terribly frustrating! Especially since Google has massively changed its search algorithm. This algorithm, which is kept a secret, includes more than 200 criteria that influence your SEO positioning. Thankfully, Google does provide a few helpful clues in a guideline of good practices.

Google shares this information to help:

• Guarantee an improved browsing experience for users;
• Develop guidelines for improving a website’s content;
• Improve the content strategy of websites and their structure in order to boost their positioning.

Here is a list of the most common bad practices that prevent B2B websites from reaching the first spot!

1 - Your keywords are way too competitive

Let’s consider an example: type “book” on Google, and you will most certainly not be surprised by the first results of your search. The sector juggernauts compete for the first spots. An independent bookstore in a small town stands little to no chance to position itself on Google. However, Google is the number one search engine when it comes to searching products. It has tailored its algorithm in order to grasp and accurately answer more complex queries.

What happens if that little independent bookstore decides to add specific keywords to its website?
Rule #1: Structure the content of your website around specific keywords that are tailored to your offer, rather than generic phrases.

Example: Say you were a caterer in London, “caterer London” becomes “caterer eco-responsible professional events London”

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          ### 2 - You do not use social media

It’s important to know that for Google, social media is not a criteria that factors in the calculation of your website’s positioning. However, there are two indirect ways in which you can improve your positioning thanks to social media.

• Post interesting and informative content on a regular basis from your professional social networks. This is key in increasing brand awareness. A well-chosen domain name, your reputation and a large amount of inbound links to your website also improve your positioning. They will attract traffic towards your website while creating a virtuous cycle (and therefore how visible you are in Google’s results!)
• The social network accounts you manage appear among search results. If they do not help improve your positioning among search results, your posts can still appear in the search results if the keywords, topic and timing allow it.

Rule #2: feel free to make time to build your brand on social media: consider this time an investment which will indirectly but strongly impact your website’s positioning and natural referencing.

3 - Your website is not mobile-friendly

In April 2015, Google announced it was updating the algorithm that gives the highest ranking to mobile-friendly websites. “Mobilegeddon” (that’s what it’s called) has quickly become one of the biggest algorithm changes, which has a number of consequences.

Of course, these changes do not only affect results for searches done on mobile phones. Keep in mind though that 56% of B2B clients use their smartphones to buy on B2B selling platforms. Therefore, you might be missing a big portion of your audience, simply because you did not provide the proper solution.

But how do you know if your website is well optimized for mobile use?

Google provides a testing tool that can help determine if your webpage is mobile-friendly and if it ranks well among users and for Google. This way, whether the result fits Google’s criteria or not, you will recognize areas for improvement and be able to develop a responsive version of your website.

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