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It’s 2020, and while most of us are making resolutions to cut back on caffeine or drop a few pounds, business owners are setting their sights bigger on profit and growth. For many, that means taking a hard look at how effectively you’re capturing traffic online. It’s not enough to just put your website out there and expect customers to trickle in—there are many factors that affect how visible you are online, where you show up in search results, and even whether you show up at all.

If you’ve Googled your company recently, you may find yourself asking…why isn’t my business showing up in search results? How do I get my business to show up on Google Maps? How do I rank my business higher on Google? And what the heck is SEO anyway?

We answer these questions for new clients all the time, so here are 3 major tips for how to rank your business higher on Google in 2020:

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If you’ve Googled your company recently, you may find yourself asking…why isn’t my business showing up in search results?

1 | Include keywords in your site copy.

Most articles will tell you this is the first step to ranking higher, because it’s a big one! Keywords are what search engines like Google will tag your content with. When users search for words that you rank for, your content will show up for them in the results.

But what most articles don’t address is how to optimize for keywords:

Always include concise copy on your site that contains your keywords. Here’s why. One of our clients came to us with a great logo and decent site. But when Googling their business, they didn’t rank at all for their own name! What the heck was going on? We dove in and identified the issue: their logo was an image file, and their site didn’t mention their business name anywhere except in that image. 

Google reads typed copy on your site—it doesn’t pick up on text in images, so of course their name wasn’t linked to their content! We solved it by filling out metadata for each page, including their business name in the site footer, and using their name in copy on multiple pages. After that, Google made the connection and they started ranking for their business name.

So when optimizing your keywords, remember to pick your target word and write copy that includes and supports it—even if it’s just for your business name!

2 | Set up Google My Business

If you want to know how to show up on Google Maps, this is it. Google My Business is where we start with all new clients to ensure their listing is optimized for their area and capturing local traffic.

Here’s how it works:

• Sign up for a free My Business account through Google.
• Add important business details to your listing like what industry you’re in, what products and services you offer, your business address, contact info, operating hours, etc.
• Submit your details and let Google put you on the map!

Once Google knows details about your business and where to include you, you’ll start showing up in maps results for local and “near me” search queries, which is a huge factor in capturing local traffic. It’s free, fast, and makes a big impact right away! If you want to rank your business higher in a specific area like Fort Worth, Google My Business is a must. 

3 | Show your site to the pros for a free digital marketing audit

If your site isn’t ranking on Google like it should, there are lots of factors that may be affecting it. It could be a keyword issue like our logo customer above, or it could be a matter of site load time, mobile responsiveness, backlinks, etc. It’s a long list, and diagnostics can be difficult to run yourself without tools or expertise to help

We can help!

We’ll compile a totally free report on your current digital marketing presence—from your site’s load time, keywords, backlink profile, Google rankings and ad platform optimization—so you can know where to start making improvements!

We value helping local businesses grow, whether that means partnering with you as a client, or lending a hand with a free report that can get you where you’re going. Way we see it, it’s worth our time either way. Just tell us where to start, and we’ll send over your digital marketing audit asap.

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