Content is important in any website. That’s the truth. In order to succeed online, you must provide excellent content to your audience. The question now is, “How to exactly do this?”

1. Set your goals.

In every strategy, you need to plan carefully. It is a must to establish goals and identify your audience even Google knows this. As discussed in the Search for Beginners Ep.1, Google emphasized on knowing who your target is, and knowing where to find them.

However, most people just ignore this step. No, don’t take this for granted. Often, plans fail because they weren’t able to capture the right audience. Perhaps, marketers offered a different content, and thus, the people weren’t interested.

So, you have to be specific on the WHO part. For instance, you are selling laptops to students. The typical student would want something handy and lightweight. Meanwhile, art and photography students would want a more sophisticated computer. They would need a computer for products like Adobe Photoshop, Light Room, and etc. These computer programs are hefty, and a basic computer just won’t do.

You could even write about laptop buying guides and budget friendly laptop. In the end, the content you put on your website should be personalized depending on your audience’s needs and interests.

2. Join the bandwagon.

Next, for people to start talking about your content, you should ride on the current trend. As long as it is popular and relevant to your brand, go for it. You would be surprised on how many business follow this suit.

If you want to improve on your social media presence, try to integrate the topic to your lastest blog post.  Take this chance to insert your brand into a popular conversation topic. Just make sure to not meddle with controversial topics. The plan will surely backfire and you will attract if you start throwing shades! More on: The Role of Social Media in SEO

3. Work on your titles.

Yes, the page title is the first thing a user sees. It should be interesting and catchy. However, not to a point where you try to deceive them in order to gain clicks!

The page title should be an ACCURATE representation of the contents of a page. Take time to ponder what the best title should be!

So, what are the different ways to improve page titles? Follow the tips listed below:

• Use numbers (such as 5, 129, 4642, etc) instead of writing the text form of five, one hundred twenty nine, and so on.
• Present statistics and survey results (such as 80% agree)
• Give what you promised. For instance, you promised to give 4 tips like this post. So, give 4! If you promised 10, then provide 10.
• Use a headline analyzer. There’s a free headline analyzer from CoSchedule.com that will help you write better headlines.
• Never resort to clickbaiting users. If you make titles just to clickbait, you will not gain anything. At the end of the day, you may heap thousands of clicks, but it surely damage your credibility. No one will ever believe your articles the next time around!

Remember clickbait will just encourage users to bounce back to the search results. Trust me, you would not want your bounce rates to be soaring high. Read more on: 3 Reasons Why Your Website Has a Huge Bounce Rate

Okay, we’re back with another recap. Last time, I started to talked about Search for Beginners, Google’s newest animated series. In episode 1, Google addressed the question, “Do I need a website?“

For episode 2, it’s all about setting goals for a website. After you have determined a platform in the first episode, it’s now the right occasion to invest time and money. Whether you choose to sell your items on platforms like Etsy or Amazon, or establish your own website, setting your goals is utterly important. You gave this your precious time and hard-earned money. So, naturally, you would want something in return, right?

For example, you own retail a store and you want to sell to people that are out of town. If you want to cater to not only locals, you need to understand how people search online. For people to become your customer, first, they need to find your store. Like in the real world, people need to look up your business online. For instance, when someone searches for T-shirt on Google and your website appears in one of the search results, this is what you call an impression. In real life, you can equate this to having someone discovered your retail store.

If the person is interested on your product listing, they would click on the link in the search results. When you count all the clicks you get, then, you get what you call page visits. Once they are on your website, they might browse around your wide array of shirts. With the variety of tools available, you can track on how many impressions and visits a page makes or you can also learn if users left your site immediately.

Most platforms offers their own dashboard to track these important website metrics. For Google, there are 2 options: Google Search Console and Google Analytics. These are free tools that will help you track numbers. That’s why it is important to set goals in order to identify which metrics to closely monitor. about Search for Beginners Ep.2, see the video below:

Now, let’s move on to episode 3. The third episode focuses on the tips when hiring a web developer. Because in order to boost your online presence, you would need someone to help you. You need to upload your product photos, write product descriptions, set the prices, adding flexible delivery options, and so on. For some, these things can be overwhelming. That is why you need to decide how much control you want on your website.

Remember, if you decide to use an online platform, you may end up with less control since you are bound to its Terms of Service. However, if you want to start from scratch, you get to decide every little detail, but it will require more effort. You will need a help of a web designer or developer…. how will you find one?

• Look for their portfolio and load them on your phone.
• Do the pages load fast? Are they user-friendly?

Once you decide on a developer that fits your needs, reach out to them and be sure to clearly explain your goals as discussed in the second episode. To learn about the tips for hiring a web developer, watch Search for Beginners Ep.3 below:

Like I said previously on What is a 404 error? How do I recognize a 404 error on my website?, an error 404 is on the user side, implying that the error is visible on their end. It could be that you have misspelled the URL or the page has been removed. Other than that, the page has been moved to a new location. Once any of these happens, for sure,  you will see the 404 error on your screen.

What should you do to fix the 404 error?

If you ever you encounter the error, don’t fret. Below, I have listed some helpful tips for you to do.

1. Refresh the page.

   • The error could be resolved by simply pressing F5. It might be because the web page did not load properly. So, tap the F5 button on your keyboard, and you’d be surprised on how refreshing the page resolves the issue.

2. Clear the browser’s cache and delete the cookies.

   • Next, try clearing the cache of your browser. The error could only be visible on your end.
   • Also, connect to the page using another device. For instance, if you can access the page on your desktop, try using your mobile phone. If it doesn’t display correct on your mobile, try clearing the cache on your phone’s browser.
   • If that doesn’t work, then, you might want to try clear your browser’s cookies.

3. Check the URL.

   • You have to check if you have spelled the website correctly.
   • This is particularly important if the website address contains hyphens, underscores, and commonly misspelled words. Often, the error 404 because the URL was inputted incorrectly.

4. Take a step back.

   • Hit the back button, and go back from the last working page. For instance, if the https://www.phoenixsearchengineoptimization.com/2019/12/ gave you an error, go back to https://www.phoenixsearchengineoptimization.com/2019/. A broader area to search for, but you will, at least, confirm that content is already unavailable.
   • Another option is to go to the homepage, and search for the specific content using the search box.

5. Contact the website admin.

   • If you see a 404 error, it is best to directly reach out to the people behind the website. The admin could tell you if  the page is deleted or if it has been moved. They can tell you that it’s no longer available or they provide you the current working URL. Either way, they would be thankful to receive your observation. So, better check the website’s contact page to know their email, or you could just simply give them a heads up on their social media page.
   • If you’re not sure of what’s happening, check the social media accounts for trending topics. Like when Facebook was down, it quickly became a popular topic online. So, better check Twitter for news on the different website outages.

6. Contact the website admin.

   • Lastly, try to search the website from any search engine of your choice. Perhaps, you have the wrong URL, and Google can provide you the correct one. Once you click the link from the SERPs, it should help you to get to the page you want. Better to save the link as a bookmark or add the URL to your favorites.

On 3 Reasons Why Your Website Has a Huge Bounce Rate, I discussed some of the causes why the bounce rate is high. For whatever reason you have, don’t worry because you can still turn the tables. I will tell you 5 tips on how to lower the escalating numbers.

1. The content should match up the given title and meta description.

The Google search results is comparable to a highway filled with glowing ads and billboards.

Whatever you stated on your billboard in the search results should be the same with the actual content.

If you say you will give 5 tips, then give 5 tips. NOT 2 or 3!

Stop saying that you are selling the finest products when in fact the product testimonials are mostly 2-star reviews.

You get the point. Never deceive your audience just to get clicks!

2. Highlight important elements.

When people are on your website, they won’t be able know what are the essentials at first glance.

It’s your job to lead them to the important aspects of your website. If you are selling something, highlight your bestselling product and show clear product photos.

If you are running a blog, highlight the titles of your articles. Utilize the different header tags to divide your content into distinct sections.

3. Improve website speed.

In this day and age, the faster things are, the better.

People want things to appear instantly.  That’s why online shopping rose to fame because people can conveniently shop with just a few clicks.

How can you enhance the speed of your website?

• First, compress the images. For the most part, a high-resolution is not really needed.
• Check your current plugins and scripts. You would be surprised on how many tools you don’t need anymore. Take time to review and remove them if you are not using it.
• More tips are on Functional Tools and Guidelines to Increase the Website Speed

4. Some elements should only stay on the background.

There are important web elements as stated in number 2. However, there are some things that should stay on the background.

For example, people won’t bother knowing about the ads, email subscription button, or your current promo. Typically, they are on your website to shop, to read, and to be informed.

These visual distractions will trigger people to bounce back to the search results. So, if want to promote your email or display promotions, put it on the sidebar.

5. Assist users find what they looking for.

If you want to encourage more people to stay and browse your website, you should help them find what they want.

Give the information using a single click. How? Add a search bar.

Just look at the Google search. Users only need to type their query and the autocomplete feature can help predict what they are look for.

Aside from that, you can revamp your website navigation. Experiment on what your users prefer: do they want a drop-down menu, collapsing menu, top tabbed menu, or something else?

Related articles:

Read on what could cause these high bounce rates:

• 3 Reasons Why Your Website Has a Huge Bounce Rate
• 3 More Reasons Why Your Website Has a Huge Bounce Rate
• 4 More Reasons Why Your Website Has a Huge Bounce Rate

Hopefully, I was able to share to you how to remedy towering high bounce rate. This will pretty much decrease it to the ideal 26% – 40%.

On 3 Reasons Why Your Website Has a Huge Bounce Rate, I talked about the definition of bounce rate, and the ideal percentage. After, I also stated 3 reasons why the bounce rate is extremely high.

Now, I will continue the discussion by sharing 3 more reasons why your website has a high bounce rate.

4. Slow page loading time.

For Google, speed is such an important part of a website. In fact, website speed is included in Google’s algorithm.

So, fixing it won’t just take care of the prevailing bounce rate problem, but speed will also help you rank better in the search results. It is best to work on improving speed as much you cant.

Not only that, when you provide a speedy site, it will be positive user experience for target audience. You will gain favorable reviews along the way.

If you won’t optimize it, no user would want to visit your website. Everyone will just abandon the page and hit the close button.  Thus, having an overall poor experience.

In order to check your current standing, you can use the the following tools:

• Google PageSpeed Insights
• Pingdom Website Speed Test
• GTmetrix’s Website Speed Tool

All these links above will give you specific insights and suggestions on how to improve site speed. More on: Functional Tools and Guidelines to Increase the Website Speed

5. Having a self-supporting content.

Don’t get me wrong, having a competent and efficient is great. Of course, your aim is always to guide users to what they want to read, hear, and watch.

However, when the users already find what they are looking for, they might leave your site. Subtly guide them to other pages of your website, and you might want to link suggested articles.

In some cases, the user will get everything they were looking for from the page on your site.

To be sure on this situation, you better go to Google Analytics and check the numbers on the Time Spent on Page and Average Session Duration. Because if the user is spending time on that page, it just means that the user found a relevant content. Most probably, the page was able to answer the user’s search intent.

If not, then try to convince the user to stay. You can either recommend reading other blog posts or you can suggest other products that the user may like.

6. Uneven contribution of the pages of your website.

If I elaborate my point on number 5, some pages of your website might be adding to your towering bounce rate.

Some pages may be able to fulfill the search intent. Meanwhile, other pages are causing people to leave your website.

It is best to identify the pages that bring more harm than good. Just go to Google Analytics and then proceed to Behavior. Then, on Site Content, click Landing Pages. Go ahead and sort the pages by bounce rate. You can even add filters to narrow down the results. Remember, don’t hesitate to remove the pages that influence your bounce rate. If the pages don’t makes sense, then, delete it and replace it with more authoritative pages.

Want more? 4 More Reasons Why Your Website Has a Huge Bounce Rate