Step 6: See If Your Pages Still Rank Well in the SERPs
Many business owners should understand the importance of search engine optimization (SEO). That’s why it’s crucial to learn how to master it and get their pages ranked well in the SERPs (search engine results pages).
But then, time goes by, and before they know it, their high-performing pages stop sending traffic and sales. If your traffic and sales have begun dwindling, you may want to check to see if your SEO is still competitive.
This is something that is continually evolving into better algorithm results, so you have to stay aware of any changes that are made and help your site have a shot at competing for a top spot in the SERPs.
Remember, there are ways for you to go out and analyze your competitor’s sites to see how you can beat them in rankings. Don’t think they aren’t doing the same thing to you whenever you are out-ranking them for a particular keyword phrase.
There are tools you can use that will keep you informed of where your pages are ranking and when they fall. You want to take a proactive approach to maintain your top rankings and help your lower-performing pages improve.
By conducting an SEO audit from time to time, you will ensure that any changes that need to be made are done swiftly so that your competitors don’t have a chance to swoop in and dominate over you.
When it comes to SEO, so many elements contribute to it, and you have to stay on top of all of them. That includes the technical aspect such as using keywords appropriately, creating alt tags and meta descriptions, schema markup, etc.
But it also means you have to stay informed about strategic efforts, such as making sure your content can rank for voice search. This is something that many marketers fail to do, but more consumers are starting to use digital gadgets in their homes and car to conduct searches with extremely long-tail keyword phrases and sentences.
An SEO audit means you have to look at what you are doing right or wrong and what your competitors are doing right and wrong. If they are doing something correctly that you have not yet implemented, you can use the same strategy on your site.
And if they have missed an element of SEO on their domain, you will be able to capitalize on that gaffe and outperform them due to their lack of effort or awareness. So if you do have tools that you are using to help you audit your site, you can use them regarding your competitor sites as well to give you strategic insight.
The things you do to fix your search engine optimization might even be something as simple as giving old content a fresh update. Or, it might be technical, like making sure your site is mobile-optimized and fast loading.
Step 7: Examine Audience Engagement with Your Content
Audience engagement will tell you a lot about whether or not your site is as profitable as it can be. Your content will be spread out across many different platforms. Some will be used to network, others for selling, and more for educating and positioning yourself as a niche leader.
To conduct an audit of your content, you want to be looking at different areas. Start with your blog. You want to look at whether or not people are clicking through from search engines to access your content, how long they stay on your site, and what actions and behaviors they take once they are there.
If your bounce rate is too high, it’s a sign that your content is irrelevant or not interesting to the people who clicked through to your domain. You may need to refine the content to make it irresistible to the consumer.
You also want to see whether they are leaving comments and signing up for your list because they are impressed with what you have to share in terms of value and insight.
Another place your content will be shared is in your email autoresponders. You’ll have already conducted an email marketing audit from an analytical standpoint. But you also want to think about whether or not you feel your content is hitting the bullseye based on if subscribers ever respond to you to tell you how great your emails are or if they just hit the unsubscribe button.
Your content is also going to be plastered across social media platforms. Whether you are looking on Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Instagram, or elsewhere – you want to look to see how many views your content receives.
Social platforms are prone to showing your content to more people the higher your engagement is. So you want to check to see if people like, share, and comment on the content you upload to these platforms.
If it’s not performing well, you need to go further in your audit to see what content they respond to. Maybe your videos are too long or boring. Perhaps your Facebook posts don’t appear in the feed because you don’t use any images.
Or maybe you’re just not using a strong enough call to action in your social media content so people don’t feel they have to do anything extra except consume the content.
You may or may not be in this business model, but your content can also appear as a product. If you sell info products, you want to conduct an audit to see how they are received.
This includes everything from the sales copy you are using and whether or not it is converting to how the product goes over with the consumer. If you are getting low conversions, it’s a sign that your product is irrelevant or your sales copy needs a lot of work.
If people buy the product, it’s a sign that your copy works well. However, if they are refunding in high numbers, it’s a sign that your product is not delivering on what you promised or at the level of quality they were expecting.
Audience engagement is critical, even if you don’t personally care about it from an ego standpoint. It’s a sign that other people are aware of your brand and appreciate it, and this is a form of social proof that every business needs to be competitive.
Make sure that you’re paying attention to the comments that you are getting from your engagement. They may not always be positive, period. In fact, if you are receiving a lot of negative feedback, you need to listen to what consumers are saying and decide whether or not it’s time to tweak your approach.
When you’re ready to discuss or develop your marketing strategy, we can help. Contact us and schedule a free marketing consultation.