Why is my site not ranking?

Getting your site to rank is like a puzzle that has to be solved. Good news, IT CAN BE SOLVED!
So let's get into it. Let's start by saying that Google has algorithms that decide how a site get placed on its search engine. This changes a bit, but for years it has had some basic fundamentals and we will talk through them. If there are any questions on these, shoot us an email or give us a call and will talk you through it.  In the coming months, we will deep dive into many of these, but let's give you an overview of 4 key things to do to get going.

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Authoritative Content

Content matters. 

• The more words you have with the right keywords the better you are, but just stuffing keywords like "We do SEO, web design Chicago, promotional products, social media, blah blah" in one sentence is no good and Google will not appreciate it when it wants to rank you.
• Start your content writing by doing keyword research with tools like Google Keyword Planner or free tools like Uber Suggest from Neil Patel, and Alexa ranking. Take a notepad out and write out all the words that matter for your industry. 
• From there, check out the competition, and see what others have so you know what you have to do. 
• When it comes to writing, we like the home page to have 1000-1500 words. All other pages should have 500-1000 words. I know that it tough, but don't try to do it one day.  Go little by little and get it done. If you are still stuck, there are people on the web that will gladly right your content, like Ava Digital Marketing, and you can just provide feedback. 
• We put Content as the first thing on this post for a reason. It's important and its hard. We get it. 
• FYI, if you have an e-commerce store like an amazon.com, make sure all your descriptions on each item is strong and has the right keywords. 

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Backlinking

Backlinks are a bit of mystery to folks not involved in SEO or digital marketing. Think of backlinks of powerful website, one that has a lot of traffic, that allows you to put your website link on their page. That one link from their website is like a VOTE in the world of Google. The more votes you get the better and the more votes from powerful sites, the better. In the world of backlinks, quality matters.    So how do we find backlinks. Well, it's not the easiest without some tools.

If you know of sites in your industry like bloggers that have a lot of followers, you can ask to guest post and potentially pay. You can also get on your local chamber of commerce sites. 

At Ava Digital Marketing, we use tools like Mangools to look for powerful sites that will allow us to put your site on their's for free and get a backlink. We can do that with comments, blog posts, business listings, complementary sites, etc.  I do believe there is an art to identify powerful sites and placing your URL on there. This is an ongoing battle and must be done on every page you want to rank on Google. It will take time and if time is not on your side, hire an SEO firm like Ava Digital Marketing to get this done for you. This is gold in terms of getting your site ranked!

Citations

I'll keep this short. Citations are like the yellow pages of the web. Places like yelp, foursquare, bing, and hundreds more are vital to help your local business. Citations matter because you are telling the internet world about your business and location.  Google likes it because its a foundation to help your ranking. A little additional nugget here is that you usually get links from these listings so they become defacto backlinks. Hooray!  They are mostly "No Follow" backlinks which means you don't get any votes, but Google still cares about them and again they are great from a Citation standpoint.  This task is something you an assign someone to begin this process or give us a call and we'll begin working on this.

Google My Business

No, I am not asking you to google your business.. Google My Business is the way your business gets on the "Map Pack" The Map Pack is the top 3 results with a map listing on Google. Without a google my business setup, it's simply not possible.  Head over through the link above and sign up. You'll need to validate your business location and can do that via postcard or other options that Google will give you. Once you have set it up, you'll need to optimize it. Optimizing Google My Business means going line by line and entering all the details of your  business so Google can provide the customer the necessary information.  Google My Business is extremely critical for your business. 

Content, Backlinks, Citations, and Google My Business are all critical to getting to page 1 on Google for your keywords.  Without these main pieces, getting your website to the top is a non-starter.

If you need help on any of the SEO tactics mentioned above, send us a note and our team of SEO experts can walk you through what to do on a step by step approach.  Ava digital marketing group is a digital marketing agency focusing on web design and generating leads to your business using the SEO tools above.  To learn more about our services, click here.

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