We are often asked how small businesses and estate agencies can make their website popular. Whilst we design and build great websites, if we do say so ourselves, we have some basic elements we like to pass on to clients. So, we have five top tips to help make your website popular:

Register your website with a Google Search Console

Ensure that your site and sitemap is registered on Google Search Console. This is a free service offered by Google to enable you submit your website for Google for indexing. By registering your sitemap to Google Search Console, you are signalling to Google that your website is in existence, which is the foundation of any search results appearances.

Link your website to Google My Business

When your site is registered on Google My Business, it easily appears on applicable search results. By registering for Google My Business, Google sends you a postcard with a pin to your business address which you verify. Google therefore recognises that you operate in a specific location and therefore your chances of appearing in search results within your area of operation. Google My Business is a vital element of local SEO, and for a business that relies on customers from a specific geographical location, using the service is necessary. Being locally optimised it becomes a popular site for customers seeking your products or services.

Have a fast loading site, especially on mobile

Perceived load time and real load times have a significant impact on site abandonment and engagement. Load time is essential for optimising customer journey. Google announced that starting July 2018, page speed will be a major ranking factor for mobile searches. So, if you want to make your site popular, increase the customer experience by making them fast loading.

Get Social

So you have great content on your website, however, great content alone cannot increase traffic. You need to use social media channels to promote your great content and keep your traffic engaged. Popular platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter have a lot of traffic which you need to engage with good content that draws them to your site.

(Side note: you don’t have to be on all the social channels, our advice is to go where your target audience are).

Devote your energies to SEO

If you thought SEO is dead, then you need to rethink your marketing strategy. Having generated good content for your site, ensure that it is optimised when your pages are SEO optimised, your organic traffic is boosted and this works well in ensuring that your site is popular.

We hope that these tips have been helpful to you. If you would like to talk about your website design and how to enhance it further, do give us a shout.