One million websites are missing the SEO basics…
Are You missing the SEO basics?
That staggering number comes from a blog post over at the Content Marketing Institute.
1 Million websites analysed, the majority of which are in the top 1% of the 141 million active websites on the Interwebs.
What’s this got to do with your local business website?
We’re small fish, we really don’t need to be in the top 1% of websites online. You don’t need to be found worldwide, you DO need to be found locally. That is why it is even more important to get the SEO basics in place.
The problem of local businesses missing the SEO basics really resonated with me over the last week or so. Yes, there’s a Jan rant on its way…
Contents
A US Invasion…
I’m working with a local business that offers a range of services, I’m writing some web copy at the moment. One of these services is fairly unique in the UK (or so a Google search would have you believe). It is very popular in the US though.
My first problem was the language difference – yes, we do often use different terminology over here. Because we’re targeting UK people we need to use words and phrases that are in common use here. After much muttering and researching (it’s not a service I am familiar with), I tied down a range of words and phrases associated with the service that we Brits are familiar with.
Light at the end of the tunnel – or so I thought.
Now I knew what people are actually searching for, off I popped to Google and just typed in the most popular phrases. I thought I would have a quick look at what our UK competition was doing and how they were packaging their service.
Not a single UK website was shown on the first page of results…
Or the second
Third
I gave up after three. I kid you not!
Local SEO Basics – tell Google where you are based
It wasn’t until I switched to UK only results that I found local UK websites. Mr, Mrs and Miss Average Searcher do not tend to do that.
It was searching on UK only that we discovered what we thought wasn’t a typical UK service, actually had many businesses offering it.
Perhaps this was a search that really needed a local modifier?
Are you missing the obvious? Where are you based?
Google will try to return local search results even when a town or city isn’t specified. It knows where you live based on your IP.
Not every standard search will bring up a local search result complete with map, but searching with a local modifier will at least let the Big G know what I want from the UK.
Having found a fleet of businesses offering the service, I at least knew that it was available.
So I searched [keyword phrase] London (if it can’t be found in our Capital there’s no hope…)
Bingo!
So, we have lots of businesses throughout the UK offering this service. We have a decent sized cluster in the London area offering the service, with their own website – rather than a sub-a page on an existing website.
Searching with other town or city modifiers returned varied results. Many local search results were dominated by celebrity pages, results from Amazon and eBay selling related items with one or two local businesses near the bottom of the first page.
These types of search results are why I set up My Local Business Online in the first place.
Are You Missing The SEO Basics?
It is unusual to see search results so completely dominated by US results these days. I suspect because this particular service is so popular over there. It tends to be an add on rather than something offered in its own right over here in the UK. There doesn’t appear to be any major players in the UK, no big brands offering the service.
I took a look at the difference was between our home-grown local websites and our US counterparts.
It was actually quite scary…
- Not a single UK website offering the service on a sub-page had the on-page SEO basics in place – no titles, descriptions, headings and sub-headings
- Neither did they have links pointing back in to that page on the sub-page websites
- Where the service had its own dedicated website, again they were the most search unfriendly sites that you can imagine, they looked lovely with nice flash intros and “enter” pages
- At best they had a handful of links in, one actually scraped into double digits
Compared to the US based website SEO:
- They titles
- They had descriptions
- They had web copy with related words and phrases, with headings and sub-headings
- They all had links pointing in – not in the 1000’s but obviously enough
- Many were connected to a G+ account and had nice thumbnails in search results too
- They weren’t doing anything fancy – no flash animation “enter” pages
Searching with a town or city modifier improved things. A map result wasn’t always returned, but at least one or two businesses that mentioned the city turned up in the results.
As a local business, we’re not competing online on a worldwide scale. Often we’re not competing UK wide either.
Many searchers do not always add a town or city modifier – should they be forced to add “UK” to their search or switch over to UK only results?
Having a website is not enough…
You do need to tell the search engines who you are and what you do in a way they understand. Those are the on-page SEO basics and you can discover if you have them or not over at FreeSEOScorecard.com, where the top image was taken from.
To be found locally online you do need to build up your local footprint, claim your business listings and Google +Local page. Tell the search engines who you are, where you are based, what you do in a way they recognise.
I can help you get your basics in place, take a look at my services.
Over to you… Did you check your website? Are your SEO basics in place?
1 Million Websites Miss The SEO Basics (Or Why Your Business Can't Be Found Online) by Jan Kearney
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Hi Jan,
Interesting article. The issues you have raised are so easily overlooked. In fact, I think the majority of local businesses miss the point that they are local, trying to compete for high position on Google without putting the basics in place, and this is why they are dragging behind in the search results.
If all the local business websites were built using WordPress as a platform, then I guess it would be easy to simply find and use a plugin to put local information in place and tell the search engines where the business is. But since it is not the case, webmasters have to do a bit of work to point searchers in the right direction.
I was thinking – it may be a good idea to give examples of “good” and “bad” websites for local searches, just to make it easier to understand and remember what you are saying, for people who are technically challenged. But of course there is a space limitation in a blog article, so it may not be possible.
Warm wishes,
Galina
Galina, I think you have just given me an idea for a local plugin that works! Not found one yet that does what it should do, works without glitching and has been kept up to date, so I “localise” by hand
There’s an infographic doing the rounds with things to include on a “local” website – I shall go dig it out and post it up here 🙂
Let me know if you find the software that does the job to “localise” a buiness Jan! Because if you don’t – it may be an idea to get one developed to solve the problem…
Kind wishes,
Galina
It’s on the to-do list Galina!
Great post Jan, you are such a boon to us newbies. I have signed up for your newsletter
Thank you Athena 🙂 Now I get to nag by mail too? lol
I have to say that graphic with the mice is priceless. I’m still laughing. That said, it’s an interesting challenge when you have a site that appeals to an overseas clientele. As an example, my http://www.HorseSenseAndCent.com site has an interesting niche market in the UK. Almost all my Kindle subscriptions for this (free) blog are coming from there (I’m in the US) along with a good number of book sales (particularly the e-books). If I focus on local will that make it harder for people searching from other countries to find?
Hi Nanette, since you are offering e-coaching, books and CD’s you wouldn’t really benefit from “local” since you have a much wider audience. Local is very much town/city local area based – which would be very useful if you offered face to face coaching. I’d set up a seperate site for that too.
Hey Jan
A very cleverly thought out post showing the process you used to get to the SEO conclusions .. Yes the US and UK language thing has always got me confused as well – Does the spelling make a difference ?
I think I am in a similar place to Nanette as far as the location is concerned … but I guess you never know where I may be heading in the future 🙂
cheers
xxxxcarlxxxx
Hi Carl, spelling makes a big difference – more in exact match search terms rather than the big G not knowing that colour and color are the same word. It is something you need to consider, not just for targeting but for how you want to be perceived.
A UK business targeting a UK audience using US spelling… that could possibly be detrimental to how you are seen by your audience, particularly in an older market. Our language is becoming more Americanised, US spelling is the language of the web and incredibly common. A younger audience don’t seem to notice it as much – it’s one for testing 🙂
It is far more than spelling though, we use words and phrases differently – think chips and crisps. In your case where you are marketing online… do you put on your stars and striped undies and American accent and go worldwide, or do you use the language and spelling differences as a niche consideration and grab that low hanging fruit?
Thanks Jan
I guess that the best strategy is to try it and see 🙂
I don’t like using Americanization’s (he says with a big ‘Z’ in the word lol) but I guess this is the way things are going and I don’t want to miss out on a huge target audience do I ?? 🙂
Thanks for the useful reply
xxxxcarlxxx