Website Marketing: How to Compete in Your Industry

Do you expect to profit from your website? If so, do you know how much traffic you receive on a daily/monthly basis? Would an increase in traffic increase your profits?

If you answered "yes" to these questions, your website is a good candidate for SEO.

Studies differ on the specifics, but we know that the traffic drop-off between the first, second, and third result on a Google search is quite significant.

This chart from Advanced Web Ranking, for example, shows that (in January 2020) the first result (on desktop searches) received 31.75% of the clicks; the second result 15.85%; and the third result  9.62%. 

If your website is currently the third result or lower, what stands between you and first place (and a significant increase in traffic) is likely some form of website optimization.

We note optimization here, instead of SEO specifically, because for many industries the top result is achieved with good design and development.

A good SEO campaign necessarily includes good design and development, but not all websites with good design and development employ SEO. On the other hand, many top-ranked websites do not employ good design and development. They receive their ranking by happenstance or good fortune. This is especially true for local, industry-specific businesses.

This might seem to be a case against SEO. If an industry-specific local business can achieve the top Google result by happenstance, what good is SEO?

The truth is simple: For many industry-specific searches, no website is employing good design and development, and no single website is employing good SEO. In this case, Google is left to choose the best sites based on relevant ranking signals. For example, if one site has more content than the next--even if the content is sub-par--and all else is equal, the site with more content will likely prevail.

What does this mean for local sites? A simple website redesign, with good design and development, could easily land you the top spot. A good SEO campaign can keep you there.

This is why SEO Sparta so often promises quick results to our local clients in the Philadelphia region. Depending on the industry, local sites stand to gain significant ground with a few simple changes. The challenge is when the top sites are well designed and developed, and employing SEO. Then you simply need to do better.

Do You Know What You Don't Know (About SEO)?

The problem for many website owners is that they don't even know what they don't know. This is not a problem specific to website owners. As Art Markman writes for Harvard Business School:

"You probably don’t know as much as you think you do. When put to the test, most people find they can’t explain the workings of everyday things they think they understand. Don’t believe me? Find an object you use daily (a zipper, a toilet, a stereo speaker) and try to describe the particulars of how it works. You’re likely to discover unexpected gaps in your knowledge. In psychology, we call this cognitive barrier the illusion of explanatory depth. It means you think you fully understand something that you actually don’t."

If this is the case for a zipper, it's certainly the case for website design and development, and of course, SEO.

At SEO Sparta, we have seen this scenario time and time again.

Recently, for example, we met a local business owner from Jenkintown, PA, who wants to compete in an industry-specific field. The owner's website did not appear on the first page for an industry-specific search, though he considered his site to be "beautiful" and "informative." When asked about the website development, he said, "Top notch."

The owner was surprised, then, to learn that one of the most basic components of the site, the page headers did not promote the site. The site's header simply named the company without noting the industry. Unless someone knows the name of the company, this information is worthless. A better header would've been specific to the industry--in this case "Jenkintown Immigration Law Firm." Furthermore, the website was lacking description tags for each page.

This is just the beginning of the website's problems--yet it was all news to the website owner. As noted above, this situation is not unique at all. For some industries, it's the norm.

Do you see the possibilities? If this is what you're competing against, you can easily trump the competition. The key is learning about website design and development, and to truly compete and stay on top of the rankings, you must learn about and employ SEO.

(Photo Source)

If you are interested in transforming your website into a money-making tool or are interested in exploring opportunities to outperform your competition, we encourage you to contact SEO SPARTA.

We combine traditional marketing methods and organic SEO--emphasizing natural website optimization--to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective marketing campaigns.

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