That’s right, just as you get SEO all figured out-- the link building, the keywords, the alt tags--Google goes and changes it. Well, that recently happened yet again.In the world of home building, it’s hard to keep up with every aspect of the business, especially when SEO alone could be a full-time job. So, is all SEO hope lost for you?Not yet..In a recent study by SEMrush (get the full report here), they uncovered the truth behind Google rankings. It showed that one of the most important factors in SEO predominately includes direct traffic, but it's also influenced by your website’s bounce rate, time on page, pages per session, and content length.  We realize that’s a hefty statement so let’s break it down…  

Direct Traffic

Direct traffic is all the people who come directly to your website. This means they were not referred by another website. With the new Google algorithm, this is the most important factor in your ranking. Basically, Google is rewarding you for having the most people search you out directly. It shows them that your business is known and valued by many.  You aren’t just getting all your traffic because of some amazing referral website.    

Bounce Rate

Another huge factor for SEO is your website’s bounce rate. Your bounce rate is the percentage of people coming to your landing page and leaving without taking any action. Meaning they do not click or navigate to any other page on the website. According to the study, they found a correlation between a lower bounce rate and a higher Google ranking. In fact, they found the average bounce rate for the top Google ranking is 49 percent. Therefore, half of all people coming to your website should take some action from the landing page if you want SEO to be successful.  Many of our clients come to us with a 70% or higher bounce rate. While the percentage may seem outrageous, it’s also not uncommon. Plus, it’s really hurting your SEO. And there are more statistics…

Time on Page

The study also showed the time your viewers spend on your pages helps you get a higher Google ranking. Your time on page, according to Google, is the average amount of time someone spends on your page every time they visit. Considering all the other data from this report, this statistic isn’t too surprising. The research reveals the top 10 positions in Google average 200 seconds spent on their website per visitor. So, viewers are staying about 3 minutes and 30 seconds. The top three positions have at least 215 average seconds per session.   

Pages Per Session

The time on your website is a large factor, and so is the number of pages per session. This can be defined as the average number of website pages a viewer visits per session. Again, a higher number of page visits relates directly to the ranking position on Google. If you don’t have an average of 3 pages per session or higher, your chances of ranking on the first page of Google are much lower.   

Content Length

According to SiteProNews, in one month an advertiser increase their client’s organic traffic by 20 percent by purely increasing the content length from 500 words to 1,500 words. It seems that content length on your website is extremely important and it’s probably because it helps provide your viewers with value while keeping them on your website longer. The SEMrush research also showed a correlation between a larger content length and a higher ranking on Google.   

Well, that’s all great to know, but where do you go from here?It’s actually a very simple concept moving forward. However, the strategy hinges on consistency and execution. Here are the 3 methods you should implement for SEO:  

For people to search you directly on Google, you need to be known. Cultivating brand awareness through emails, social, content, and referrals are key. This factor lies heavily in taking care of your customers, interacting with them in multiple ways, and keeping your business fun and fresh. People need to expect to look to you for the next best idea, they should come to you as the experts, and it should feel like a conversation all the time. It’s not easy to do because it takes our precious time, consistency, and patience. For example...Host a fun event at your office for charity or a local community event. This provides value to your viewers by showing your involvement in the community. It plants the seeds in their mind that they are buying a home from someone who invests in the community. People like to see businesses doing more than only focusing on the bottom line. It adds something to the conversation besides another promotion.If you meet someone in the grocery store line and they end up paying for all your groceries, you are more likely to remember them. When you go shopping and a representative teaches you all about a product and how to use it rather than telling you why you should buy it, you tend to ask for them the next time. It’s an old concept brought into online marketing. If you take care of your customers and show concern for the things they value, they are more likely to remember you.  

As the old saying goes, content is king. In the SiteNewsPro article above, they hit home the new saying: quality is king. The last thing you want to do in your online marketing is to throw out some content for the sake of having content. But, what’s the harm in that?Actually, you incur significant harm in doing it. If your content isn’t quality, people will spend less time on your page, visit fewer pages on your site, and be more likely to bounce off your landing page. Sound familiar? You are basically sabotaging your chances of a higher position on Google. It doesn’t matter if you have to send fewer emails, less social media post, or not as many blogs, it must be quality content. As a simple rule, I always ask myself, “Would I want to engage, share, or read this information?” before I post it. The answer has to be yes every single time. This process is actually the hardest part because we can get in a hurry for the sake of putting something out there. Remember to stop and check for quality before publishing anything.  

Bringing all the content together, you are left with promoting the content properly. While this may seem like a small detail, it can actually add up over time for or against your SEO.For instance…Sending an email, creating an ad, and posting on social media are all ways in which people can get to your website. If they are unsure of the landing page published because of an unclear call-to-action, your bounce rate would increase once they found the information unuseful. Further, if you are targeting the wrong audience or always selling something in your marketing, people will be disappointed to land on your website and find irrelevant or sales-focused content. And thus, your bounce rate, pages per session, and time on the page took a hit. So, this means social media is way more than just posting some nice words and a picture. Now, you not only have to gain the same amount of traffic from social, but it also has to be relevant. People who come to your website must spend time on the page, look around, and not just land on the page and leave. Social, content, content marketing, and website design just got more integrated than ever before.    

As more and more changes come to evolve online, it will only present a wider challenge to marketing and discoverability online. Whether you are using an agency for marketing or doing it in-house, it is essential to have the proper people in place. You deserve to be educated on new marketing techniques and your marketers need to stay on top of trends, especially when it comes to Google. If they are not talking to you about your website’s analytics, including traffic, bounce rate, pages per session, time on page, or content length, you might want to ask for these statistics.  Your marketing is only as good as the fruits of your leads, conversions, and money spent.  See you on the first page of Google!   Are you interested in comprehensive marketing strategy? Contact us today or fill out the form below for a free consultation and demo on your website and marketing services!