Frustrated Because Your SEO Rankings Simply Stink? Google’s Best-Kept Secret

If you’re like many managed service providers, you lie awake at night scheming about how to get your MSP website to rank number one overall for all the search terms you can possibly think of. Images of Google searches dance in your head, with your name shining up at the top of every list.

First of, you are never going to rank for every possible search term known to man, so get over that thought right now. It’s not worth your time worrying about it. Second, take a look at your website. Did you just sign up for a generic website service that lists your services and think you could sit back and watch the leads roll on in? You’re dreaming, and don’t let me wake you up.

It takes more than that to start ranking on Google. Luckily, there ARE things you can do to improve your spot. Here is the simplest strategy that you can do to get your website to rank high on the Google search rankings:

Understand Google’s best-kept secret.

Are you ready for it? Content Quality Score. If you have an MSP website that gets the same blog content as everyone else, your content score is probably pretty low. Google actually pays attention to the kind of content that’s on your site, not just the SEO keywords.

How is content scored?

Know one really knows the secret (except of course for the people with a need to know at Google). I’ll touch on some of our techniques for producing quality content in other article, but for now, let’s focus on one of the most important factors: regular updates.

Websites that are updated regularly and have compelling content ALWAYS score higher. We see it immediately on how fast Google spiders hit the website after new content is published. Some of Ulistic’s best performing MSP websites have Google visiting almost instantly after the publish button is pushed. So regularly producing new content (and it needs to be new, not just a rehash of something you’ve touched on before) is key. But make sure that new content has a purpose.

The best MSP websites always focus on their purpose. Google has provided a detailed list on possible purposes for a website. Some include:

• Sharing information about a topic
• Sharing personal or social information
• Sharing pictures, videos and other forms of media
• Expressing an opinion or view
• Entertainment
• Selling of products or services
• Interaction with website visitors (forums)
• Sharing of files and downloading of software

Most MSP websites will focus on the first and the sixth bullets, but you’ve got to actually do a good job with the first to truly show the quality of your content. Make your information valuable to the reader and easily shared.

Provide quality primary AND supplementary content

What does that mean? Primary content on a page is the main body text and images – the focal point of each individual page on a site. This is where the meat should be, and where you need to hammer home the purpose of the content. If you’re talking about, say, a vertical you provide services for, make sure you’re actually providing useful information about the services that the industry will appreciate.

Supplemental content includes navigation (header or footer), social media buttons, other related articles, comment sections, ratings, calculators, product ads, and much more. Basically, anything that surrounds the main content of a page is considered supplemental, and you need to keep this content in mind too when you’re shooting for quality. Do you engage your website visitors with supplemental content?

Again, I’ll touch on what can make or break the quality of your content in another article, but just remember: it’s not a static process. You can’t just fling a website up onto the web and think you’re done. Stay engaged with your audience, keep your site updated, and focus on your purpose. The rest will follow.

Ulistic can help with all of this. Our MSP marketing services have followed these simple guidelines from day one. Need help? Give us a call. 716.799.1999.