So, you have your website up; it’s mobile friendly and looks awesome (if you do say so yourself), but that phone still isn’t ringing, at least not as often as you would like. For the life of you, you can’t quite understand why your website isn’t attracting the kind of traffic you would like: high qualified leads (HQL) that you can convert to buyers.

This is an issue we encounter a lot with customers; while the answer is usually multifaceted in nature, it comes down to a few key areas: 1) Your Local Search Engine Optimization plan is not effective. 2) Search Console and/or Google analytics is not setup correctly, and 3) You’re not generating enough organic content to rank.

Alone, these areas may not cause problems; but encountering the trifecta (which is often the case) creates the perfect storm for web properties that are as effective as paper weights. Below, we dive into things to look out for and ways you can optimize your local efforts to start ranking in as little as 4 – 6 weeks.

1.) Your SEO plan is not effective:

The product you’re marketing, and overall goal, will determine whether you need to focus on a Local SEO plan or an SEO plan that ranks nationally. Our advice is to always focus on a “Think Local. Grow Global” approach; that is identify 5-7 keywords in your local area that you want to focus on ranking for, and 7-10 words to rank Nationally. For the purposes of this example, we’ll focus on LOCAL SEO.

LOCAL SEO: Choose keywords that are specifically used in your area and ensure BOTH the meta tags AND page on your website display references to the keywords. This will determine your relevancy score within Google. The HIGHER the score, the more relevant the content and the more likely Google will display your site when people search.

Example Meta Tag Description for Keyword “Digital Agency”:

Title: Tampa Bay Digital Agency Description: We are a Tampa Bay based Digital Agency with focus on mobile app and website development.

Bonus Points: If the page it directs to also has full length article directly linked to your web content, and/or a blog post specifically touting the services you offer.

2.) Search Console and/or Google analytics is not setup correctly

How often is your site being crawled? You, and your webmaster, should know the answer to this question, but in the event you don’t, it’s pretty easy to find out. Google’s Search Console allows users to do the following:

• view how often their website is being searched,

• the keywords associated with that search,

• who is linking to your page,

• whether or not there is duplicate content and,

• any issues Google discovers during the hundreds of times they crawl your page.

Sites that are updated with content daily can expect to average between 300 – 400 crawls per year. You can increase or decrease that number based on the amount of times you submit updated content to Google. That’s right – you can submit manual updates to Google by following a few easy steps, ensuring your sitemap is up-to-date and making sure all of your properties are connected to your Search Console dashboard.

3.) You’re not generating enough organic content to rank.

This seems like a no-brainer, but is often the most overlooked aspect of content management. To achieve the maximum level of engagement across platforms, you need a mixture of organic (natural and original content) and paid content linking to your website. This can be achieved a number of ways, but our tried and true is always maximum use of the following channels:

-Your blog is your best friend. It’s more than just where you update people on what’s going on with your company; this is the space you prove to existing and potential clients, why you are the best at what you do. Whether it’s providing educational or informational content, updates on changes you’re making or upcoming releases – linking people to different spaces in your website and generating content that links back in Search Engines, will help to increase your overall ranking.

– Your social media accounts. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat, all come equipped with offsite linking capabilities. Yes, a great digital plan includes aspects of paid and organic, but the higher and more engaging your organic content, the less expensive your paid advertisements become.

If you really want to achieve maximum engagement, increase traffic and get that phone to ring – we’d recommend completing the steps outlined here as quickly as possible. If you don’t have the time, let us take this off your hands with a 1-time Digital Audit and Analytic update.