New website and SEO applied...now what ?

[csjm]

Hello all

My question concerns a new website; it is live, SEO optimized ( i hope...) now what do I do ? What has been your experience introducing a new site onto the web ?

The background is this - I am a solicitor in a 2 person firm, in a town of 60000 people. Competitors number 6 - 10 other firms. I have minimal IT knowledge.

I had a go and made a website in wordpress. I have so far, and this is not an exhaustive list...

Searched out competitors keywords using SEMRUSH

Incorporated these keywords into specific pages on the site.

Wrote and included a lot of descriptive & informative content of the services we provide, incorporating specific keywords on specific pages. I understand content ( providing it is relevant ) is king is it not ?

Optimized the website by using appropriate headings, meta descriptions & tags & titles according to guidance out there on line. SEMRUSH provided helpful tips for optimisation.

Checked which online business directories competitors had entries and/or subscribed and added our site. Some directories looked authoritative, others less so. ( this is building backlinks i would be correct in saying ? )

Registered with google webmasters/analytics and submitted sitemaps, incorporated UI analytic code etc.

Still waiting for the Google local business verification postcard weeks after submitting a request....

Made a facebook/twitter page

We are starting out from having no online presence whatsoever, from a digital perspective we are nothing, so I am under no illusion that the road to online recognition is well steep... All current business comes from word of mouth.

The site is current bouncing around at position 20 - 25 on google for specific keywords. Wincher tells me this.

I note that one competitor site has very little descriptive & informative content compared to mine but ranks on the first page in google. Presumably the site is there because the site has been live for years ?

Let me say I never expected to rank high from the start. I am of the impression that I now leave the site alone and hope that my SEO efforts are noticed by google and bear fruit. Is this the case to now leave alone ? I hear 6 months or so is not uncommon before results bear fruit. Are changes now to the site cosmetic & mere tinkering ?

Thanks in advance for any anecdotes, experience, feedback and lessons learned.....

 

[fisicx]

Does your website answer the questions people are asking? This means making sure the content is targeted and useful to local people.

If you get this right then you will rank well. Everything else is secondary.

Can't offer much more help without knowing the URL. But note that website reviews are only for full members.

 

[dougiehunt]

Hello all

My question concerns a new website; it is live, SEO optimized ( i hope...) now what do I do ? What has been your experience introducing a new site onto the web ?

The background is this - I am a solicitor in a 2 person firm, in a town of 60000 people. Competitors number 6 - 10 other firms. I have minimal IT knowledge.

I had a go and made a website in wordpress. I have so far, and this is not an exhaustive list...

Searched out competitors keywords using SEMRUSH

Incorporated these keywords into specific pages on the site.

Wrote and included a lot of descriptive & informative content of the services we provide, incorporating specific keywords on specific pages. I understand content ( providing it is relevant ) is king is it not ?

Optimized the website by using appropriate headings, meta descriptions & tags & titles according to guidance out there on line. SEMRUSH provided helpful tips for optimisation.

Checked which online business directories competitors had entries and/or subscribed and added our site. Some directories looked authoritative, others less so. ( this is building backlinks i would be correct in saying ? )

Registered with google webmasters/analytics and submitted sitemaps, incorporated UI analytic code etc.

Still waiting for the Google local business verification postcard weeks after submitting a request....

Made a facebook/twitter page

We are starting out from having no online presence whatsoever, from a digital perspective we are nothing, so I am under no illusion that the road to online recognition is well steep... All current business comes from word of mouth.

The site is current bouncing around at position 20 - 25 on google for specific keywords. Wincher tells me this.

I note that one competitor site has very little descriptive & informative content compared to mine but ranks on the first page in google. Presumably the site is there because the site has been live for years ?

Let me say I never expected to rank high from the start. I am of the impression that I now leave the site alone and hope that my SEO efforts are noticed by google and bear fruit. Is this the case to now leave alone ? I hear 6 months or so is not uncommon before results bear fruit. Are changes now to the site cosmetic & mere tinkering ?

Thanks in advance for any anecdotes, experience, feedback and lessons learned.....

Looks like you've made a good start on your research.

In terms of your end result from SEO, I am assuming you would like to increase the number of leads for potential new customers? In that pursuit, you should see this as an ongoing thing where you need to see what works, what doesn't, tweak, and repeat (well that's simply put anyways).

From an SEO perspective: You can start to appear in search results sooner than 6 months, but depending on effectiveness of your optimisation and when taking in consideration of competiting search results, ranking and results are never guaranteed.

A few little things off the top of my head you can do to boost your optimisation (SEO, etc) :-

1) User Experience – This is fundamentally the most important thing. If a user dislikes your site, content, design, usability, service, product, etc, their behavour on your site (notably leaving sharpish, i.e. high bounce rate, low time spent on site, etc). Ask friends, family, current customers, this forum, for their opinion on your site (the more critical the better). This will give you a rough idea of 'user experience'.

2) SEO – You can implement some further aspects –
2a) Schema Mark Up
2b) Citations
2c) Speed - ensure your site loads fast
2d) Ensure that you have 1 page per 1 topic/keyword phrase
2e) Creating new fresh quality content

3) Webmaster Tools and Search Console –
3a) https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
3b) https://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster

4) Landing pages - Are your pages designed (both beautifully and effectively) to convert traffic into leads?

5) A free online and instant quotation tool – Something that is a little more advanced but will ensure a higher rate of conversion from any traffic that you get to your site.

6) PPC and Google Ads – can be costly if not done right but can be stupidly effective. Bing Ads is also an option but who actually uses Bing

7) Technical aspects –
7a) Hosting. UK based? Fast?
7b) Cached and optimised? Try autoptimise. Super simple plugin.
7c) CDN - can improve page load times.
7d) SSL - need this as standard soon according to Google
7e) Optimised image sizes?
7f) Responsive mobile and tablet friendly design?

Sorry, would have explained this better and aware this reply is a little all of the place, but have manflu. Hope this helps signpost you a little anyways. Good luck!

 

[dougiehunt]

Does your website answer the questions people are asking? This means making sure the content is targeted and useful to local people.

And ditto this from Fisicx – Is it relevant, does it answer questions, does it provide information, can potential customers trust your expertise, etc?

 

[fisicx]

It's also worth noting that you have built the site around what you think is important. So be prepared to make lots and lots of changes once you analyse how people use the site.

As to ranking, if you get it right you should be ranked within hours. Which means your 25-30 position is where you are stuck until you make some changes to the site. Forget the directories and other links, they won't help at all.

Consider this: you expect people to come to you to get legal help rather than do it themselves. So maybe you could get help with your website rather than trying to do it yourself.

 

[Alan]

Still waiting for the Google local business verification postcard weeks after submitting a request....

Sometimes, if your phone number is listed against the business in directories, you can verify ownership by a call back pin.

If not request a postcard again.

This - at this stage - is the single most important thing for you to get sorted.

 

[Alan]

I found your domain too. I think it is a valiant DIY effort, I'm inclined to write my own T&C's rather than pay a lawyer, so I'm with you in the DIY front. Although the logic doesn't really stand up in reverse, as lawyers should be charging around £200/hour and web designers / content writers / SEO people is more like £50-60 per hour ( UK rates and far less offshore ).

As mentioned, specific website reviews are for full members, but if you want to stay DIY, that investment will save you lots of time and give you many ideas.

 

[fisicx]

Indeed that is a good DIY effort but a website review would open your eyes to all sorts of enhancements - many of which would easily boost your site to the top of the Google rankings.

 

[csjm]

dougyhunt, fisicx & alan - thanks all for the suggestions; some are already in place, others will be be on a to do list. The biggest lesson to take away is that a website review is heavily suggested so that will be requested shortly.

2 queries come to light -

I hear and see talk of landing pages - does a small info based site with most links visible from the home page need one ?

Dougyhunt stated - " Ensure that you have 1 page per 1 topic/keyword phrase "

Am I right in thinking that I should only use specific keywords on specific pages and attempt to minimise my use of these keywords on other pages or not use those keywords at all on other pages ?

I find this difficult to do - within the body on the home page talks of our offerings as family lawyers and deeper in the site i have a page with a detailed Q & A on divorce. It is inevitable that duplication of keywords will occur here within the body text ? Or is that reflective of my inexperience of writing for SEO ?

 

[fisicx]

I hear and see talk of landing pages - does a small info based site with most links visible from the home page need one ?

Every page on the site is a potential landing page. Suppose someone local wants help with a dodgy builder and does a Google search. They don't want your homepage, they want to land on your page about dealing with errant traders.

So think about all the phone calls you get and start creating pages that answer the questions people have. If this means you end up with 100 pages then that all for the better. You want your website to be the go to place for local legal help and assistance.

But that's just the beginning - a review will give you much more insight into the nuances of webdesign.

 

[Alan]

I hear and see talk of landing pages - does a small info based site with most links visible from the home page need one ?

Landing pages are primarily useful for paid search ( Adwords ), the site visit is primarily in a different context when arriving from a ( good ) advert.

Am I right in thinking that I should only use specific keywords on specific pages and attempt to minimise my use of these keywords on other pages or not use those keywords at all on other pages ?

Read Googles own starter guide https://static.googleusercontent.co.../search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

But the basic premise is, your 'SEO Titles' ( title tags ) should be unique for each page.

The rest of the content, focus on writing good content don't focus too hard on keywords, Google understands context / synonyms etc and cross reference useful content from one page to another ( with links ) to make it easy for users to 'explore' the subject.

 

[Simon.P]

Worth investing in freshbananas.co.uk online course too. Teaches everything for seo and local listing too. I have managed to get some keywords from serp 40 to between 5 and 10 as a result

 

[webgeek]

The difference between how you optimised the content and pages for keywords, versus how an experienced professional like Tin would optimise it, is akin to you hopping in a F1 car and wondering what lap you'll pass Vettel and Hamilton.

If you take Tin's course over at Fresh Bananas, you'll have the knowledge, minus the experience, to compete on optimisation. You'll undoubtedly be ahead of most of your competition.

If every customer is worth a few hundred, or a few thousand, Pounds, and SEO can bring you a couple or a few or several or many customers per month, if done to perfection.... A few thousand Pounds on a week or two of effort by a professional will pay for itself in months. Then, for years after, you'll be earning pure profit from those ongoing rankings.

 

[Alan]

A few thousand Pounds on a week or two of effort by a professional will pay for itself in months.

I don't disagree with the sentiments, but for the average business person to be able to select a true professional when the whole industry of SEO has so many charlatans, self professed gurus and snake oil salespeople, I don't know.

I actually don't know, and I have been in the online 'trade' for years.

 

[webgeek]

I didn't say to go find someone who claims they're great at SEO, I suggested they hire Tin. He's a known quantity, a guy who has proven he can win the big wars and made companies filthy rich (Kashflow is one massive example).

I can 'do' on-page optimisation, but not at his level, despite having tried more than once to achieve those kind of results. However, I do know when someone is peeing on my leg and trying to tell me it's raining out. It doesn't take very many verifications of site/change/ranking to pick out the pretenders from the contenders.

The average site owner won't be able to do that - hence me suggesting they take my advice and hire someone who knows what the heck they're doing, Tin.

 

[Alan]

I read that binary either do Tins course or spend a few thousand with a professional.

Thanks for clarifying - do Tins course or hire Tin.

edit ..

A sad state of the SEO industry when there is just one person that knows what they are doing, Tin

 

[webgeek]

A sad state of the SEO industry when there is just one person that knows what they are doing, Tin

A lot of people know what they're doing. Unfortunately for some, Google seems to like Tin more than the rest.

 

[Certa-Hosting]

If you dominate the Google rankings, you’ve got a significant advantage over other websites in the same search results. And if you’re on page two or three? Your website is akin to being non-existent to the average Google user. Only 4.8% of people even look at page two.

 

[ukbf0001]

IF you have done your Keyword Research and
IF you have optimised pages for those keywords / phrases
Then there are 2 'things' left for you to do.

Lets take the easier option first -

1. Social Media Monitoring and Response.
I use BuzzBundle - for a few simple reasons - it covers more platforms than anyother tool and it allows me to respond to my customers queries discussions using many different personas. If you become a subject matter expert in your chosen field - then people will start to check you out - free PR in return for sharing some knowledge.

2. In order to climb Search Engine Rankings - you need the same high quality , relevant links from other websites. You cant find these yourself - you need a tool. I use SEO-SpyGlass , using it's own database as well as Google, it will show you all your competitors backlinks (they dont want you to know this). It sorts out the good links from the bad links, analyses the penalty risk (you dont want links from spammy sites). Let spyglass run and it produces a report of the top, medium average links to go for - as well as the sites to avoid.

Do the above and you are getting information that your competition dont want you to have - and also it will show you links you competitors dont have and you should try and get. In my experience most website owners have never done this much research - and so are easy tocatch and over take.

Just my 2p worth - that works fine for me

 

[fisicx]

If you become a subject matter expert in your chosen field - then people will start to check you out - free PR in return for sharing some knowledge.

How many leads have you got as a result of your SM monitoring and response?

 

[webgeek]

Social media for solicitors? It's a bit like pest control.

How many people want to publicly engage with someone who's helping them get rid of a bedbug infestation? ...possession of a deadly weapon with intent to do GBH?

If you could monitor the conversations of everyone in your catchment area, which you cannot, you could pick up on someone's FB chatter that they spent the night in the pokey, then give them a jingle and mention representation was available. However, that level of listening to the community isn't possible for anyone other than FB themselves - and even they would need some massive AI/machine learning to pick out those leads.

If you're listening for brand mentions, you're way beyond the point of lead capture - you're looking at customer satisfaction and retention. Social media is good for customer service venting in the B2B arena, and great for recruiting - but it isn't going to drive your top line sales like any other activity (organic search, email, PPC).

 

[ukbf0001]

"How many leads have you got as a result of your SM monitoring and response?"


Re SM monitoring etc - A fair bit, I do some work for a company where I get a percent of online sales. So once a fortnight I'll fire up buzzbundle, let it run in the background or over night, then the following day I will follow up - only where it is relevant though and where I can answer a question. If someone somewhere has asked a question , posted on opinion and you have the answer - you have added value, which is there for all to see in the future - and as a result they may check you out - caveat - it does depend on your niche though. If Im looking for a heart surgeon I wouldnt go off a blog post reccommendation .....

Social Media for Solicitors - well you could argue that is what the Citizens Advice Beaureu do already. They give examples of various case law, what to check / clarify and the options open to you. If I had recieved meaningful advice from them I would be far more likely to then use their paid services (if they had them) rather than pick a name of a solicitor from the yellow pages to represent me. Well that's what I would do anyway

 

[webgeek]

90%+ of people would either go with what Google served up in a search for 'criminal defence manchester' or similar, or would rely on someone recommended to them by someone word of mouth.

Yellow pages... what's that? Oh, nevermind I see one in the Smithsonian archive website next to the other dinosaurs.

 

[StevePoster]

Once the new website is done and the optimization that you called was applied, it doesn't stop there but further think about the performance of the site. Does your site pages answer the needs of your target audience? Does your website engage with the users? How long? These are one of the many think abouts to determine your website's effectiveness in the field.

 

[M.H]

How about a youtube presence? It is a great platform. A short introduction to your company, it's services etc. Another broadcast offering free advise on your specialities and so on.
Get your youtube channel linking back to your website.

 

[fisicx]

They are Solicitors. I doubt many prospective clients will be looking there for a solicitor.

 

[M.H]

I was thinking
?Link value
?Advantage of 'meeting' the person, face to a name before hiring

 

[HazelC]

Make sure you are continuous in what you do - you may have a great site now but keep it fresh and updated (things like new testimonials, case studies, latest news & blogs are great for this) great to have set up social media accounts too - but make sure you use them

Good Luck!

 

[fisicx]

I was thinking
?Link value
?Advantage of 'meeting' the person, face to a name before hiring

Links are no-follow. and how many time have you ever watch a you tube video and actually clicked the link to visit the website.
A picture and bio on the website will be far more useful than a talking head.