Here's Why Your Site Isn't Ranking on Google

Google is processing over 99,000 searches every single second. That makes for up to 8.5 billion searches a day. So the question is: is your business appearing in any number of those searches? And on this episode, I’m going to give you an understanding on how you should approach your SEO, your search engine optimisation strategy, to give you a real insight of how your site can have a better shot at ranking for relevant search terms.

Hi, my name is Jordan McFadyen. Welcome to the Marketing Mindset podcast. This podcast is challenging both you and I to reassess our marketing strategies. I want to share some new thoughts and new ideas on how you can move away from random acts of marketing, and start helping you actually build a long-term marketing strategy.

And today we’re talking all around SEO, search engine optimisation. And I want to preface today’s podcast just by saying that this isn’t going to be the podcast for you if you’re looking for SEO hacks, if you’re looking for quick wins. That’s not quite how SEO works. We still speak with clients now that are expecting that we’ve got some sort of silver bullet that we can put into their website that will suddenly get them ranking for the first page for all of their different search terms that they want. That’s not quite how it works. You actually need to have a strategy here.

And instead of going through these hacks with you today, because they don’t exist, what I want to do is I actually want to educate you a bit more on why SEO is so important. And I also want to educate you to the point where, as a founder or a business leader or a marketing leader, you can then start to educate your team, and help provide them the right direction on the type of content and the type of strategy that you need, and your search engine optimisation strategy needs, to be able to actually see some good results from SEO and from Google and from organic Google marketing. So that’s what we’re going to chat about today, is around how you can actually tackle SEO as part of your marketing strategy.

Because I also find that SEO is often made to sound much more complicated than what it actually is. People are trying to game the system, thinking about all these different things that you need to be thinking about, using different hacks, like I said before, to try and boost their rankings. But it’s just not necessary, because what we need to do is peel it right back and just think about, at the end of the day, SEO and Google is really a process of understanding what information people are searching for, and then providing it to them in a clear way as possible. That’s literally it. That’s how we can actually rank better on Google. Obviously, we’re going to break that down in today’s podcast so you can get a slightly better understanding.

But while there are a lot of factors that go into Google’s rankings, it really can just be boiled down to some of those real basics. And the three basics that I want to cover today is, firstly, relevance. So thinking about: is your page what the reader actually intended to find? Thinking about what Google is actually there for us to do in the first place, which is to provide an answer to the questions that users have, essentially. So that’s the relevance.

The second one is credibility. Can the reader even trust what you have on the page? Can the reader trust you? Can the reader trust your business? If so, why, and how are we going to show that on our page? And that third one, sorry: usability. How are readers actually going to interact with your website? Does your website work in a way that makes it easy for people to read the information that you have? Or is it too whiz-bang, and so much things going on that it actually detracts from answering that core problem?

There are all those things, those three things that I want to cover today: relevance, credibility and usability. Because again, if we go back, Google’s goal, really, if we peel it back, is to provide the best results for what people are trying to find. And if you and your website and your content is aligned with that goal, you will naturally have a rise in your rankings.

So let’s go through this. Relevance is that first one. So relevance is really understanding search intent. So people are using search engines literally to solve different problems. And the game that you want to play is you need to figure out what problems users are actually trying to solve. So if you want your article to rank high on a search engine, then what you need to do is you need to make sure that the content that you’re using is actually solving a problem. More specifically, it needs to solve a precise problem as well, that precise problem that the reader intends to try and solve. And this is something that we know as search intent.

Again, people are going to Google with search intent. They’re going to Google with a particular problem, and your content is going to help them fix that problem, or it’s going to help find them the solution, or lead them to the way to be able to fix that problem. And when you understand the problems that people are trying to solve, you can then make your content more useful than anyone else’s. And if you can do that, that’s going to help you maximise your odds of actually ranking well on those particular search terms.

And luckily, search engines like Google are actually going to help you at the end of the day as well. Even if you do some searches yourself, you can start to get a bit of an understanding around what people actually care about. You see all those different signals on a standard Google search now, about related searches, and “People also search for”. That’s Google literally giving you information around what people are actually searching for, what matters to people right now. And you can actually use some of those pieces of information that Google’s giving you to actually help you craft your content, especially if it relates back to your product or service.

And then the next step is to actually understand how many people are actually searching for a particular search term as well. This goes into keyword research. And keyword research can get really in-depth, and it goes back to some tools. So if we were going to do an SEO strategy with a client, which we do, we use tools like Semrush, we use Moz, Ahrefs is another one. There’s a lot of different tools that we have a look at, and this gives us a lot of relevant data. It has a look at competitive research, terms. How many people are actually searching that particular term? Relevant keywords, questions that people are asking around those keywords. They give us ideas on other keywords that are related to that keyword, but not. There’s a lot of different tools out there.

But as a starting point, you can even get some really, really good Chrome extensions if you use Google Chrome, and one that I would suggest is called Keywords Everywhere. It’s a real simple browser extension, but once you have it installed, what it’s going to do is it’s automatically going to tell you how many other people are actually searching for whatever you’re typing into Google. And that’s a great way to get a good understanding about some ideas on keywords that people are actually searching, and problems that they actually have. So if they’re related to your product and service, chuck it into Google, chuck on that browser extension, Keywords Everywhere, and just like that, you’ll actually get some really good data, which will help you quantify whether it’s worth creating content for that particular keyword and that term.

The other one that you can use is Google Trends. Now, Google Trends is: go to Google, type in Google Trends, and it’s a great tool. Obviously, it’s one of Google’s tools. And this gives you a really good precise idea on different search terms and how popular they are at any one time. You can ask what solutions are people searching for. And you can chuck those keywords and those ideas into Google Trends, and it’s going to give you a whole heap of relevant data that’s actually really going to help you craft your particular content, and find those different topics that you’re needing to search as well.

So not only do you need to know the keywords, but you also need to know: what are people actually going to Google for? What’s their intent behind it? So we break this down into different categories. The first one is informational. So this is the type of search where you’re looking for information of some sort. And these queries can typically be rephrased as the who’s and the what’s and the when’s and the where’s and the why’s and the how’s. Those are the type of informational queries that you go to Google. How does this happen? What type of day is this? What is this particular service? How can I do this better? Why is this a problem? All of those things, that’s informational. People going to Google, looking for info on a particular topic. Typically, they start with that who, what, when, where, why and how.

The next type is navigational. So a navigational type search, a person there, what they’re trying to do is they’re trying to simply reach a website for a specific company, and they’re using a search engine to do so. They’re looking for Done By Nine, digital marketing, and then our site’s going to appear there. It’s kind of the same as a branded search, for example. So this is a really good reminder also to make sure that you do Google yourself often. Just check to see how you’re currently appearing on a Google search, because it’s really important that you do come across really good on a Google search.

Another type of search term is transactional. So a search where someone is looking to do something. Whether they’re in the buy mode and they’re actually looking to purchase a particular product, or they’re searching for something like “convert a PNG to a JPEG”. They’re looking to do something. They’re trying to complete an actual action, and they’re looking for a tool or a product to actually help them achieve that. They’re not looking for info. They’ve gone past the info stage about why they need a JPEG. Now, they’re looking for a tool: well, how can I actually convert this to that? Because they’re actually wanting to do it.

And then the final one is the commercial type of search. So with the commercial search, what someone is, is they want to buy something specific, but they’re still in that research phase. Because if they were ready to buy, they would be back in that last phase we just spoke about, the transactional phase. So with the commercial stage, they’re still in that buyer’s mindset, but they’re not quite there, just ready to actually make that transaction.

So when you understand the intent behind someone’s search terms, what you can do is you can actually then start to create content that actually serves a person’s query, so the keyword term, and then also serve their mindset behind it as well. So those four different types, just again to run through, is informational: they’re searching for information on something, the who, what, the when, the where, the why, the how something happens. The navigational type of search: they’re looking just to go to your business page, for example, or your website. Transactional: they’re ready to buy. Or the commercial: they’re in a buyer’s mindset, but they’re not ready to buy just yet, but they are still looking for something specific.

So if you can nail that, if you can nail the different keywords and the different things that people are using to put into Google, and then you also can nail the intent behind it, behind why they’re looking to come to your website, then if you can put that down in a piece of content, then that’s a really, really good start as to building a really good SEO strategy.

Now, the second piece we want to have a look at is credibility. So thinking about your content on your website, and thinking: why should people even trust you in the first place? Because once you have them on the page, you then need to show the user, and you need to show Google, that you can actually be trusted in the first place. So you need to answer some of these real fundamental questions. Does your website clearly show historical information about your company or your business, about what you’ve done, when you were founded, how long you’ve been around? Does your website include some clear contact information? Do you have phone numbers on there? You’ve got email addresses. You’ve got your physical address. Do you have details around your team and the expertise that you have in your team? Are you showing all of that really clearly?

Because what you’re able to do is you can show trust. It’s going to help you establish transparency and legitimacy around your actual business. And it’s showing Google that you’re not hiding behind a dodgy website, and that your business is actually credible, and that you actually are serving direct customers. And that’s actually my next one as well: even having customer reviews, having testimonials across your website, showcasing customer wins and customer stories and testimonials, and having videos on there if you can on your website, actually demonstrates that social proof. And it really does. It helps build that trust. And I think it’s really important to have in there as well.

Also, it can be really handy to even try and link to external sources. If you are doing blog content, and you want to either credit someone of where you’ve done that research, or you want to reference another article or anything like that, linking out to external sources is great for SEO. If you are doing news and research studies and opinions, it’s a great thing. A lot of people say, but don’t we want all that traffic coming into our site? Yeah. But at the end of the day as well, Google’s looking for that natural website, that natural link building of links that are both pointing into your site, but also you handing those links out as well. It’s about all contributing to that overall Google ecosystem. And so if you can show Google that you’re getting links both into your site and also sharing links back out, then that’s actually a really good thing.

And then the final thing around showing credibility on your website is really just going back to using high-quality, original content. Make sure it’s to the best ability that you have. Make sure it’s original. You’re not just copy and pasting it from somewhere else. Ensure the website is showing informative content that is relevant. And this is the big one as well: relevant to your target audience. Remember, your business is not serving everything to everyone. Your business is serving a particular audience, a particular service, a particular product. So you’ve got to make sure that the content that you have on your site is really, really clear, really original, really high quality, direct for that target audience as well.

And the third thing I want to focus on today is usability. So usability is thinking about, once they come to your website, how people are actually then engaging with your content. Usability is really looking at that combination of how well your site is actually functioning, and what people actually do when they land on it. So they come to Google, they type in a search term. Yes, your website is showing at the top of a search result, which is fantastic. Then they land on your website. And then what happens next?

So how well your site functions is really important. If your site’s not loading fast enough, or it’s not working well enough on mobile, Google’s going to see that. And they’re going to see that as a usability problem, and they’re not going to rank you as high because of that. You need to look at people’s behaviour of how they use your website. So if people land on your site, and immediately what we would call bounce back off it, Google’s going to assume that they’re bouncing off it because your content’s not very good. Eventually that is going to make you rank lower.

A bounce rate is typically what you’d see in our traditional Google Analytics right now. But as we move away from Google Analytics, and move into what they’re calling GA4, Google Analytics 4, bounce rates aren’t going to exist. More, it’s thinking about engagement, and thinking around how users are actually engaging with your site overall. Are they staying on a particular page for a certain amount of time? Are they clicking through to another page? Are they moving around your website? Or are they just going to your website for a few seconds, realising it’s not for them, and going back to Google? And that’s not what we want.

And usability is something that you need to be working on all the time. It’s going to evolve over time. Again, there’s no silver bullets with this. You’re always working on it. You’re looking at your stats in Google Analytics. You’re saying, how can I improve that page? How can I make sure that people actually stay on that page for longer? And Google actually does offer some really great tools to actually help with this as well, and it helps you stay up to date on your site’s usability issues. And we recommend that you actually go in and play with them and have a look at them.

Some of them, for example, it’s Google Search Console. So with Google Search Console, this tool is designed to actually help you manage your search visibility. It’s literally where Google’s going to alert you to any number of major SEO issues that you may have. And it’s also a place where, if you do create some new content, you can actually go and request for that content to be indexed by Google as well. So having Google Search Console, and having access to that, is really important. And it’s free, so you may as well use it.

The other one is Google Analytics. So making sure that you have Google Analytics plugged into your site. This is really important. Again, it’s a free product. I would recommend you need to be moving on to GA4, because the original Google Analytics, the Universal Analytics, is going to be sunsetting in July. So you need to make sure you’re on GA4. And this again is going to show you some major insights from Google itself around how people are actually behaving and using your website. And again, it’s so important to see what those engagement rates are. They’re bouncing off the site. How are they actually using it? Is the page taking too long to even load in the first place? And are they not even getting to see your content? These are things you need to know, because it’s all going to affect, A, how you rank on Google, and B, eventually your conversion rates and how people actually perceive you as a business as well.

So just to recap real quick: SEO. You need to understand your users’ search intent. That’s the big one. Why are they even going to Google in the first place? What keywords are they using once they get to Google? Once we understand that, then we understand the type of solution that they’re looking for. For example, do they need information? Are they more looking to buy right now? Or are they using Google to get them to a website, to get them to where they need to be?

And then you need to make sure your website is usable at the end of the day. Make sure that people can actually go to your website, use it, it’s loading up, it’s viewable on mobile, it’s something that people can look at and go, yep, I know exactly what this website is about, and they look like they’re going to solve all of my problems. And using those quick tips, and using this as a bit of a checklist, an internal checklist for you and your team, is going to ensure that you do have a better shot at actually ranking on Google for specific search terms, to help support your Google organic strategy.

So I know that’s really an overarching look at SEO. And if you want me to feature any more tips or ways that you can improve your site’s SEO, so that you can give your team better direction on building a search engine optimisation strategy for your business, please email me any podcast ideas around SEO, or any other topic: jordan@donebynine.com. And look, if you did enjoy today’s podcast as well, please consider even hitting that follow button on this podcast, or giving us a star rating, as that is the best way to support me, and it supports me to be able to make you more content as well.

So I do hope that you got some valuable content out of this, and I do hope you really go back through your website, have a look through it, have a look at the content, have a look to see whether it’s actually answering a lot of the problems that your customers and your clients are actually having, and make a few tweaks. Make sure that people can actually use your site.

Thank you so much again for joining us on another episode of the Marketing Mindset podcast. If you need any help about anything to do with your digital marketing strategy, make sure you go along to our website, donebynine.com. You’ll find all our other podcast episodes, you’ll see all our articles and information about what we do. You can contact me or the rest of the team on there as well. We’d be more than happy to chat to you, and we’ll see you on the next episode of the Marketing Mindset podcast.