This is the most aggressive G+ company page I have seen so far, a not signed in search query for 'Daily Mail' displays their bio and brand logo along with 2 most recent G+ posts. These URLs go straight through the dailymail.co.uk - displaying a deep link opportunity for any organisation that is looking to regularly seed content out via G+.
In an attempt to pull website usability and website rankings closer together, the infamous Google Panda update included data on pages per visit and bounce rate making their algorithms more critical than ever.
The real lost traffic to websites in this area is where a visitor leaves within a nanosecond of reaching the page as opposed to an indexation issue at Google's end due to ambiguity/semantics of the typed search in question.
What is bounce rate?
Before launching into this, bloggers or company blogs are exempt from this article because blogs typically have an 80% plus bounce rate as it is different in its composition to a website.
The other part is a well known fact but when you build your online empire it is all too easy to lose track of. Countless studies prove that on average a visitor will make a decision to stay or leave a website within 3 seconds WITHOUT scrolling. It is true that 'below the fold' content is also equally important with the advent of quick finger tip browsing on tablet/smartphone, but if your above the fold content isn't clear and high relevant (see the remedies given below) then your below the fold will be ghostland.
A bounce is defined as a single page visit and is then expressed as a percentage of visits vs bounce visits. Technically, once your analytics script has been downloaded within the user's session and they leave without the script being downloaded again on any other page. This is important to understand because your analytics installation needs to be completed in line with the guidelines supplied to you - for example click here for the Google Analytics installation developer notes.
Why you need to get to grips with bounce rate
In the SEO world, farming traffic was popular; in 2011 it was killed by Panda. Now, SEO experts must be tuned into getting to grips with bounce rate because of the directional change of Google's algos. And there are some umcomfortable SEOs out there because of this.
There is always some type of cost of generating online traffic - at a minimum, this will be your time. If in excess of 50% of your visits are bouncing then you have a problem that you need to prioritise and some suggested measures are listed below.
Some decent remedies of bounce rate
- Check the site loading time using Google Webmasters. This gives you the facts that you need to take to your developer if it comes back in the red (see diagram below).
- Use of contrast and bold colours to make reading easy
- Employ decent line spacing so that any text is easier on the eye.
- Choose a simple, web safe font. Consider the variety of devices that will be accessing your website.
- Break up text and don't have long paragraphs. Eye scanning experiments have shown our eye movements go left to right, typically 3 times to make a '3' shape.
- Contextual links - link to other posts or pages within your site's text content to encourage website engagement. Just because you make a clear path that you desire doesn't mean that your visitor will follow it.
- Check your navigation against your competition and critically evaluate it. Is your navigation concise, helpful and a good breakdown of your content/business type?
- Test. A/B testing for lower page view websites and Multivariate testing for higher traffic ecommerce websites is an absolute no-brainer.
Google Webmasters site performance - to access go to 'Labs' & then 'Site Performance'
In the last post regarding local search engine optimisation 'the was and now' I concluded with the salient points that any small business owner needs to prioritise - with or without any agency/consultant assistance. I named this section the future but this is only 'the future' to masses of small businesses (and indeed big brands) because social media & mobile phone (smartphone) technology have accelerated at such an astonishing rate.
So this post is for the local businesses have a polished online operation but want to be truly innovative. You are trying new things in digital, usable sites in desktop/mobile/tablet, gaining great traction in social media and have good control in your search engine marketing efforts. You know what citations are, have review generation processes in place and have great content within your Google Place.
A small business need to have a real grasp on mobile technology and how it interacts with the physical environment of their target audience. This means more than just ranking well for key search terms. This means bringing social media alive and having it truly integrated into your customer journey - with mobile at the centre of everything. This is unchartered territory to some degree but as with anything the opportunity then is to be truly innovative.
The next bit is quite simple. Be inspired by 3 videos that I have shown below. 1 is from Google's Global Marketing Director [Mobile] Rikard Steiber and is over 40 mins long - if you are short on time you will still find the first 12 minutes truly fascinating and inspirational. Startling stats, thought provoking research and a real insight into where you need to put your strategic thinking to make the most of the localised search boom that is happening right now.
The next two are from Coca Cola's content strategy team. I bet all you hear and read from 'experts' is 'content is king'. You understand this but how do you make it a genuine priority? Again, be inspired by a super brand's approach. Understand the definition of content and why it is a crucial part of your future digital strategy.
The world wide web. Get a website – you have to have a website. With an explosion of web design companies, bedroom web developers, free website providers, domain registrants you can get what you want – so get your website up there with your logo, about us type content and hey presto you’re up there.
Then…the reality of search presents itself when you login to your analytics package when you see zero visits. You then have a good, bad or indifferent experience with a search engine optimisation where they look to artificially influence the search engine results pages (SERPS) with techniques that use little of their time/resource and employ a suggestion of blackmail when generating page 1 / top 3 positions.
You become wise to bad SEO. By finding a more reputable, content led, quality links approach you continue to grow.
Your limitations? Updating content, increasing social media platforms, website development all go to the back of your queue due to cost and time constraints.
The now
97% of consumers search for local companies online. Your Google place is an integral part of traffic generation – that is of course if you have registered it, added content and attracted reviews. Core proactive opportunities being citation building and creating review generating processes.
1.5 billion high end smartphone sales by 2016 (sorry, no more mobile stats in the week of MWC) is completely relevant to the small business market.
What else? This week, Google Venice was a major part of the 40 algorithm change for Google. Simply put local websites are gaining more and more visibility under generic searches - ‘Digital Marketing’ or ‘SEO’ as opposed to ‘Digital Marketing Leeds’ or ‘Leeds SEO’. Local websites will be treated more like national websites by Google.
The future
I am a small business owner. I know how much pressure is on time. However, back in the day when you got ahead of your competitors by getting a website, you need to know what ‘ahead’ looks like and what the very top priorities are.
Citations. Still a massive part of local SEO, an ongoing discipline.
Content freshness. New content grabs high amounts of search visibility – and if what you give visitors is of genuine interest, people will link to it. The bit that the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker neglects – but this could be the ticket to being top of the pops in your industry locally.
Your Google Place. Add great images and videos. Create coupons and follow the Google Places terms and conditions. Don’t try and be disingenuous or spammy in the content you provide – it won’t work!
Reviews. On your website and on your Google Place – hugely important. Generating your own reviews and ratings can lead to more advanced techniques with a benefit of showing this data within the SERPS. Get a strategy for this.
Mobile. OK, one last stat. 61% of smartphone users look for local products and services. Having
Localised social media. Check-in based apps such as Facebook and Foursquare offer consumers a chance to voyeuristically show their every move, including interacting with your physical location. Tipped by the best to be a big ranking signal.
My advice in summary – get an actionable local SEO plan based on these core areas in your calendar over the next 12-24 months. Break it down into bit sized chunks and be brutal about your own current weaknesses. None of this is hard when tackled gradually – and if done correctly should be relatively inexpensive.
