As Miller Ad Agency’s SEO consultant, I get tons of questions and tasks that are based off of incorrect assumptions about how online marketing works. I couldn’t possibly list them all, but here are a few with a reoccurring theme.
URL OPTIMIZATION
There are so many misconceptions about this let me explain how to make a good url first because it is one of the most important ranking factors a website has. A good url needs to have your business’s name in it because, out of all keywords that will rank for your business, the name is the only keyword guaranteed to generate traffic.
It does not matter whether your website ends in “.com”, “.net”, or any other domain name won’t directly affect your search engine ranking. The only real affect it may have is when customers try to type your website directly into their web browser, but accidentally type in the wrong domain name.
Buying extra urls with only the purpose of redirecting to your website is a bad idea. These domains will not rank on google so the only traffic that they will generate is traffic from people typing that exact url into their web browser.
Needless to say, people generally don’t look for your website that way.
CHECKING WHERE YOU AND YOUR COMPETITORS RANK
Checking your ranking on google isn’t as easy as typing in a search term and scrolling to where your website shows up. Google looks at several factors to individualize everyone’s search results such as location, search history, and even sex.
So if you are searching from the business location, are in the applicable demographic, and frequently visit the site, your site will be ranked higher because google thinks it is more relevant to you. The most accurate way to get these rankings is through third party websites such as Bright Local.
GETTING MEANINGFUL TRAFFIC
Not all traffic driven to your website is necessarily quality. When using third party vendors and ad campaigns, keep an eye on the time on site and conversion rate. These numbers are typically significantly lower than typical visits from search.
So when you are using email blast and banner ads, make sure that the visitors driven from these sites are interacting.
