It’s a harsh but true fact that when it comes to digital marketing, there is little room for sentiment. We often hear statements that can be frustrating in real life but has little relevance in the machine which is Google! Here we will go over some of the popular things we hear and what can be done to counter them. Also, there is some further reading under each of these topics which go into further explanation. It’s different for every market and of course there are exceptions to the rule but having a realistic mindset can seriously improve your metrics and ease your frustrations.
That you don’t see X as a competitor
Online when we talk about competitors, it’s anyone using your keywords. It doesn’t matter if they provide an incomparable service. In terms of the internet, anyone wanting to be visible for the same things as you are competing with you. If you are selling the same thing or providing the same service as a big player in the market, they are your competition. If you are selling groceries, you will be coming up against all the big supermarkets. Online you can’t say ‘we don’t want to be X’. Whilst this is fine in terms of your internal culture, the internet doesn’t care. Google rewards on relevance, trust, speed, content and of course who is willing to pay for position.
What to do?
Look for the gaps. Learn what works for you as a business, look at your data and who your customer is. Dive deep into what has or will make that user buy from you online or visit your website. What can you do to increase this? How is your strategy? How does your site perform? Digital marketing takes time, it’s a marathon not a sprint and so know the aspirational results and initial KPI’S won’t happen tomorrow.
Further subject reading
How To Find Out Your Competitors Keywords | Koozai
How To Identify Organic Competitors That You May Not Know You Have | (koozai.com)
View Your Competitors Facebook Ads Via Their Business Page | (koozai.com)
Your site was costly and should work out of the box
I know, if only! The best way to look at this is like if you build a house – the builder gives you the bricks and mortar, but you need to furnish it and pay the utilities. It’s an investment and an on-going outlay but the rewards can be substantial as well. Good SEO, solid ads, great content, and a smooth-running site is paramount. If you limit your site, it is unlikely to yield the results it could.
What to do?
I know it’s a hard pill to swallow but you will need to address your site and the associated metrics as Google sees it. The worst thing you can do here is ignore it or indeed do it yourself with no knowledge or experience. Get the right strategy in place and ensure you have budgeted for the costs which will be related. The difference between you and those at the top is they are taking their digital journey seriously and investing into it.
Further subject reading
What is a Content Strategy and Why do you Need One? | Koozai
Five Questions to Ask Yourself When Creating a Digital PR Strategy | Koozai
Who should morally deserve to be top
You worked hard we get it, you have burned the midnight oil, sweated, and shed blood but sadly this huge effort on your part is not recognized by Google. You have more experience and yet someone is higher than you on the search results, you are X brand and consumers should come to you first, you have property or physical locations… it matters not. Without sounding like a broken record, relevance, trust, speed, content, ads and functionality is what is prized in the world of the web.
What to do?
Audit the site, rectify the issues and work on deserving it digitally. Look at the gaps in your content, your keywords, your service and give yourself the best change of competing in a tricky market. Plan out and create a strategy which you can review and ensure you are working through with clear markers as to your progress.
Further subject reading
Ecommerce SEO and Beyond – The Complete Guide (koozai.com)
How Are Web Accessibility and SEO Related? | Koozai
I have a new site, my target impressions/leads/profit/units is X
Firstly, where has this target come from? Do you have previous data to reference and is the basis of this forecast? Have you considered what your digital outgoings will be? Remember your search results are based on the products you have, if you have 1 product for example, you will get a lot less traffic than a site with 1000. How big is the opportunity and who is your competition? There are lots of opportunities for grocery shopping but if that market is dominated, your target will need to be a realistic reflection of this. With no data this is only ever going to be a forecast and whilst there is merit in this, it is also a complete unknown until you start to get out there and have real data to base your metrics on.
What to do?
Coming with a target of that of an established site, service, brand, or product will only end in disappointment in the initial stages. The key to this is growth – start small. A small well controlled budget will allow you to assess the results to logically ratchet up your investment. Tag manager, Event tracking and Google Analytics are your friends and setting these up in the initial stages (and correctly!) will pay in spades later. If you don’t have clear metrics, you won’t have clear decisions and so monitor, monitor, and monitor some more!
Further subject reading
Should You Use Google Analytics, Global Site Tag or Google Tag Manager? | Koozai
Google Analytics Event Tracking Guide & Examples of How They Help You | Koozai
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