Are you thinking about engaging in a Search Engine Optimization campaign for your website? Have SEO or other marketing companies been bothering you saying that you’re website needs better optimization? Do you even need it?
There are a few obvious (and not-so-obvious) signs that may point you in the right direction. Lets find out.
The Obvious
When determining if you should engage in an SEO campaign, there are some things that should be considered giant blinking billboards to enable you to make an easy “yes you need it” or “no you don’t” decision.
1. Review Your Website Traffic
Are you getting enough of it?
If you’re not getting the amount of traffic you desire, it may be a sign that your website needs SEO.
Has your website’s traffic decreased when you compare it to last year’s data, or has it been steadily trending downward throughout the year?
If your website’s traffic has been decreasing gradually over time and you’re not sure why, you may need SEO.
Is your website established (by established I mean old), but you still get very few visits?
If your website has been around for a long time (which is usually a good thing) but still isn’t pulling in traffic consistently, then you may need SEO.
2. Review Your Search Engine Rankings
When you perform a search, are you seeing yourself somewhere on the first page of the search results?
This can be a big indicator. Based on what we know about how clicks are distributed in the SERPs, being on the first page can be make or break for some websites.
Do you feel your site should be ranking higher than it is in the search results?
If your site is ranking #10 and you think it should be ranking #3 or #4, then you might consider getting involved with an SEO company. They might be able to recommend a simple improvement that could push your site up a few spots.
Do you see one of your competitors ranking in a position where you think you should be?
If this is the case (and it almost always is), then you should entertain the idea of beginning an SEO campaign.
3. Review Your Site’s Conversions
Are your website’s conversions not where they should be?
Search Engine Optimization isn’t the main factor that goes into how a conversion occurs on a website; conversions and usually related more to design and user interface. However, many SEO’s can make certain improvement recommendations to a site’s design that may help conversions. Also, if you look at it from a mathematical standpoint – if a website’s conversion rate holds steady and traffic increases, then conversions should increase.
The Not-So-Obvious
In addition to the obvious metrics you can look at, there are some less obvious signs that your website needs SEO.
1. Review Your Site’s Page Titles
Do your site’s page titles include descriptive keywords that you might wish to be found for in a search?
Search engines are very literal, so if you want to be found for something you must actually mention it in key places within the site.
Do your site’s page titles change from page-to-page?
It is important to have titles that accurately represent the content on each individual page of the site. This helps establish each page’s theme, as well as allows you to potentially target a higher volume of keywords.
Are your site’s page titles longer than 65 character spaces or shorter than 35 character spaces?
The typical cut-off length for titles in the SERPs is around 65 character spaces, so you want to make sure important keywords are used before that point. Conversely, if your titles are too short then you’re potentially leaving some additional equity on the table.
Does your homepage title include the word ‘home’?
This is a cardinal sin. Unless you sell homes, don’t use the word ‘home’ to describe your site on its most important page.
Do your site’s page titles include stop words, or otherwise meaningless jargon?
Remember, you have limited space to work with, so you need to be sure not to waste it needlessly.
2. Review Your Site’s Meta Tags
Do your site’s Meta Descriptions include descriptive keywords that you might wish to be found for in a search?
Your site’s Meta Descriptions often show up as your listing description within the SERPs, therefor it is important that you’re using target keywords in this area.
Do your site’s Meta Descriptions change from page-to-page?
Changing descriptions from page-to-page is important for establishing each page’s theme, as well as potentially targeting additional keywords.
Are your site’s Meta Descriptions longer than 275 character spaces or shorter than 145 character spaces?
Typically, for general keyword searches the descriptions are cut off around 145-155 character spaces. For long-tailed searches, listing descriptions may be expanded to around 250-275 characters. Therefore, you should be careful not to over or under-utilize your Meta Descriptions.
Do your site’s Meta Descriptions accurately describe the content on each page of your site?
This is important and can affect such things as bounce rate and time on site. The description that a user reads in the SERPs should be a good indication of what the page they’re about to enter is about – as opposed to a description that stuff keywords and has nothing to do with the page a user is click in the SERPs.
Are there more than 10 keywords in any of your site’s Meta Keywords tags?
Meta Keywords are not very important. Spamming keywords in this area is more hurtful than helpful. In addition, if you are spamming keywords, you may be giving your competition an inside look at your keyword strategy.
3. Review Your Site’s Content
Does your website have scanable HTML content on each page?
Remember, search engines are very literal. They use what they can gather of your website’s content to determine how relevant your site might be for certain keywords. Make sure you give them something to chew on.
Are you using descriptive keywords that you might want to show up in a search for?
Be sure to strategically place target keywords within the content on each page of your website.
Is your site’s content written naturally for users (while still using target keywords), or is it primarily written for search engines with no regard for readability (and lots of keyword stuffing)?
People use search engines and your website, not robots. Write for people first, robots second.
Do you include links within your content to other relevant pages on your website?
Search engines use the links you provide to find and index other pages on the site. Web crawlers are called that for a reason. Give them some links to crawl.
4. Review Your Site’s Inbound Links
Does your website have a sizable amount of links pointing at it?
Inbound links are a big part of search engine algorithms (especially Google’s). Inbound links act as “votes” for a website in the eyes of most search engines as a way of measuring the relative importance of one website versus the next. Therefore, the more votes (i.e. links), the more search equity and ranking ability you’ll have.
Does your website have a large amount of inbound links, but from sources of a low quality?
Have a lot of inbound links is not quite enough. It is important to get inbound links from high-quality sources. Getting inbound links from high-quality sources (i.e. other websites that search engines and users deem as important and reputable) is a sure way to begin to move up the rankings. You can check your number and quality of inbound links using SEOMoz’s OpenSiteExplorer.org Link Analysis Tool.
Your Conclusion
After reviewing these things, you should be able to come to a decision on whether or not your site is in need of some well-deserved SEO affection. You may already know (or have a reasonable idea) about some of the info above. Other stuff you may not.
Either way, it shouldn’t take you more than 30 minutes to look at all of the factors listed. There are certainly more aspects of your site that you can analyze, but by taking a quick snapshot of the factors listed above you should be able to easily say “yes” or “no” to SEO.
