What does it take to be the first result that shows up on Google?
I wish there was a clear answer that I could give that would work for every website. After working in web development and search engine optimization (SEO) for over 8 years I know one thing for sure: The formula is always changing.
I love to cook (healthy dishes, of course) and I think of SEO as an advanced form of cooking. The result of all your SEO efforts will always depend on:
- Quality of the ingredients – quality of the website components like the hosting, the quality of the domain name that you chose, how well the website is built structurally, how fast the website is.
- Exact measurements. There is a certain balance of the SEO “ingredients” that create the best result. A certain length of texts on your pages, a certain number of pages, a certain number of keywords used in the website copy, a certain number of quality links pointing to your website – all of these things matter. However, if you spend all your time only on one component then the end result will still suffer.
- Inclusion of all of the ingredients. You can’t leave flour out of the cake recipe and expect it to come out right, that’s obvious. Even if you leave out small ingredients like baking powder or baking soda your cake still won’t come out right. The same goes for SEO efforts. You need to consider EVERY component that can improve your rankings. Leaving some of them out with result in a pretty “flat” position for your website.
- Make it pleasing to the eye. You get the best experience from a meal when it is pleasing to the eye and delicious to the taste buds. Visual presentation is a key in creating a culinary masterpiece (or even something that young picky eaters will eat!) After the website is “cooked” according to the recipe it also has to be made aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Search engines track the usage of images that appeal to most website visitors, use of text formatting that makes consuming information easier, and overall user-friendliness of the website. Having a website that is mobile-friendly is becoming increasingly important not only for website visitors (over 60% of people today use mobile devices to perform search engine searches) but also for search engines.
- Your competition or the occasion. I can fix a pretty amazing bowl of cheesy grits with eggs (Google it if you do not live in the South) that my entire family LOVES. But this meal will unlikely succeed at a formal dinner party or even at my kids birthday party, the competition and the occasion are totally wrong. If your website does not have a lot of competition online then ranking it well will be pretty easy even if you do not have the best “recipe” on hand. But if your studio is located in a highly competitive market then your website and SEO efforts must be several steps ahead of your competition to beat them in the search rankings.
Today I invite you to visit PilatesEvolution.com – a website of a Pilates studio located in Port Washington (Long Island) NY. This video review will showcase some of the most common website mistakes that a lot of studio owners make. It will also offer practical advice on how to improve the overall layout of the website to grow the business and to perform better in the search engines.
Quick overview of resources and suggestions offered in the video
- Make website mobile-friendly by utilizing a responsive website design.
- Use descriptive meta tags on every page of the website. Your developer can include a descriptive title, meta description and meta keywords.
- Use target keywords in the text copy of the website.
- Use the slider section to showcase benefits that clients will get from practicing Pilates at THIS studio. Include buttons to direct website visitors to the next step.
- Use newsletter signup form to get contact details of potential clients.
- Ask current clients to leave reviews on the Google page of the business.
- Add studio details (including website, studio name, address, contact details) to relevant website directories. Pilates Finder on PilatesBridge is one of them.
- Check how many backlinks (links that point to your website) your website has – use this free tool.
- Add Google Maps to the Contact Page
Do you have questions or feedback about the website review or Google rankings? Leave your comments below.
Do you need a website for your Pilates business? Or do you need to improve rankings of your current website on Google? PilatesBridge offers website services designed specifically for Pilates professionals. We “speak” Pilates but know all the nitty-gritty of building successful websites.
Thank you so much for this insightful and actionable feedback on my website. I feel like I won the lottery by having you select my site for review. I am going to email you about helping me make all the changes you suggested!
You are welcome Mo! Your website has a lot of great things going for it and I feel that after implementing the changes discussed in the video it will help you grow your business and stand out among the competition in your area.