A website is a fantastic opportunity to be contacted by people who have an identified need and are in demand. But the hard part is getting found by these potential customers. Indeed, a website, no matter how attractive, is useless if it doesn't appear on the first page of the search engines. Of course, if your brand name is common knowledge, typing it into the search bar will find you in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, this is not the case for most small and medium-sized businesses. They need a well thought-out marketing strategy. Fortunately, it's perfectly possible to make your site known online, thanks to the following tips.
Referencing
The term "referencing" is often poorly defined. In fact, having a site referenced simply means that it is indexed in the results of a search engine, no matter what position it occupies. So it's not enough to be referenced, but to be "well" referenced, i.e. to have excellent positioning.
There are a number of techniques for achieving this. Natural referencing is contrasted with sponsored links, which are paid advertisements. These sites, which pay per click according to an auction system, appear first. In second place are sites with what is known as natural referencing, which can be obtained free of charge. Google has developed a highly sophisticated algorithm that is constantly evolving, and its operating secrets are well-guarded. In third place are Google's geographic results.
Paid search
It's a proven fact that the majority of Internet users click on one of the first three results displayed. These are the places you need to target, which is quicker and easier if you pay.
Alternatively, you can turn to SEO experts who can handle not only the creation of an optimized site, but also its SEO, using cutting-edge techniques that nonetheless remain natural SEO. A site will never be propelled to first place overnight. Patience is essential.
Or use Google Ads, Google's advertising platform. Advisors are on hand to help you work out the most appropriate budget for your budget. Or you can launch a Google Ads campaign on your own. Explanations are relatively clear, operation fairly straightforward and account creation is free. You only pay when users click on the ad, which can still be very costly.
Natural referencing
There's a free and effective way to promote your site online.
It is based on two fundamentals:
- choice of keywords
- optimization of each page
1. Choosing your keywords
This is the first and most difficult thing to do. You have to try toimagine what words and phrases prospects will type into the search bar to find you. There are many keyword suggestion tools on the net. Work around the main keywords to avoid repeating them too often. Lexical fields and synonyms should be used.
2. Page optimization
Optimization takes place on a page-by-page basis. Search engines select the pages most relevant to a query. The quality of content is paramount. It must be relevant to the title, provide interesting information and answer questions. Photos, illustrations, fonts, text structure, layout, internal and external links - everything counts in the eyes of the robots that analyze the millions of existing sites.
Geographical results
To appear in the geographic results, simply create a free business listing. In this way, the company will be visible on Google Map, Google Earth and Google location-based search, which is no mean feat.
The listing can be customized with photos, posts, promotions, a description of services, etc. It includes the location, telephone number, e-mail address, opening hours and, of course, the website address. It's a fast, free way to promote your site.
The obstacles to good SEO
Certain factors can hinder a site's ranking. These include duplicate content and plagiarism. Duplicate content consists of copying text identically several times over in different media or on different pages. This method is pointless, quite the contrary, as only one text will be retained, and even then. As for plagiarism, it is punishable by law.
Beware of page download times, often due to heavy images. The site must also be adapted to smartphones and tablets (responsive).
The filters set up by Google penalize sites that don't add any value, those that use an abundance of irrelevant links, those that contain too much advertising, over-optimized sites and long domain names.