Wondering Why Few People Find Your Website?

Professionals tell me they don't get many search engine hits. They wonder what to do to get more traffic from potential buyers.

Should we buy Google AdWords? Pay for SEO services?

Well, maybe. But not without first addressing the real problem--the real problem is this:

When people search for a answers to their problems, they don't type in the name of the solution (cure), they type in the symptoms.

Think about it!

On your firm's website do you describe the symptoms at all? Or just have bullet points listing your cures?

Change the text on your website, accordingly! Then, if you buy AdWords or SEO services, use lots more symptom phrases than cure phrases in your keywords.

Comments

[Steve Matthews]

I agree Michelle, and the keyword research tools will back you up. Once you get beyond the high volume generic phrases, the long tail is mostly made up of these types of 'symptom' oriented searches. Ranking on these types of searches is not only easier, but tends to deliver a more qualified visitor.

I always advise hitting both angles. There's great value in ranking for those volume phrases, but there's also value in casting a wide net and ranking well for a series of subjects. Searchers don't just conduct one search, they do many searches. If your site shows up for a variety of different topics, it really does have an impact.

[Michelle Golden]

Excellent points Steve, thanks for your comment.

For those who don't know Steve, he is the fabulous creator of the Vancouver Law Librarian Blog and he has started a bold new business venture dedicated to building online profiles within the legal industry...combining his SEO expertise with services such as law blogs, RSS marketing, social media, creative web content, etc. Check his new company out at http://www.stemlegal.com/

Keep up the great work Steve and thanks for reading this blog!

[David Kutcher]

I think companies also need to be more attentive during their design process for their website. Lots of CEOs get wowed by fancy bells-and-whistles Flash sites that do NOTHING for your search engine results. They are sold on these fancy, splashy, useless sites, then wonder why 1) nobody is able to find them and 2) they have no stats regarding visits, pageviews, bounce rates, etc.