Business owners are Google’s captive audience.
In 2008, Uptown Studios started paying a LOT of attention to what Google was telling us to do. We worked on our organic content, we developed strong keywords to make sure we are talking about what our visitors are searching for and we upgraded all the websites we manage to include SSL certificates to improve site security.
We are careful to analyze our Google Analytics, not only to watch the daily site views but to change tactics to get better results. 
If a point or two drops, we are proactive to improve our content related to that keyword, including writing a blog about the subject or add a small campaign that will drive people to our website.
In 2008, 95% of our clients came from meeting people in-person and referrals – today we are at 40% of our clients finding us on a Google search. That is a huge increase only by managing our web presence seriously.
When you are serious about changing your business you MUST become and advocate for Princess Google. Pay attention to what she wants you to do, then implement the changes as quickly as possible so you do not lose any ground.
Here are a few explanations about some of the items I mentioned above:
Organic Content:
This is the way you write your information on your site. Google wants you to write about the things that people will be searching for. If you say you do graphic design – then there needs to be pages of content that talk, in detail about Graphic Design.
Go onto Google and do a search for Graphic Design Sacramento – Uptown Studios should be on page one and in highlighted area (if we are lucky) on the Google search. Now search for a service that you provide – count to the first page that you show up on the search – if it is past page 2 you are not going to be found. Call us!
Keywords:
This is what Google uses to find you – they note the words you use and then connect to your site when someone searches for your keyword.
SSL Certificate:
We highly recommend this be added or included in all websites for your site security. Using an SSL certificate creates an encrypted connection between your visitor’s browser and your website’s server adding an extra layer of security.
In 2014, Google announced that HTTPS would become part of their ranking algorithm and if your site does not have SSL certificate it will likely rank below your HTTPS competitors.
Any site that is accepting credit cards or sensitive information would activate an Unsecure flag if not using SSL. This will redirect all of your HTTP pages to the HTTPS version of your website. Read more about this in a blog post from our Web Developer, Brent Stromberg: Avoid Having a Not Secure Warning
Google Analytics:
Sign up for your website’s account, it is free. This useful tool can be applied to one page or throughout your site, and allows for display of site data in several functional formats.
This tool allows you to view the number of visitors to your site, where the traffic is coming from, statistics on browsers and operating systems of your Web visitors. Google Analytics accurately tracks the number of human visitors to your site and so much more.
If you have Uptown Studios maintaining your site we will run a monthly Google Analytics report and give you some tips on how to improve your website interactions each month. Contact our amazing web team and let us know how we can help: Contact US
