Have you recently created a new Squarespace website? Struggling to find it on Google?

We will be honest with you, there is a multitude of reasons why you might not be able to find your Squarespace site on Google.

Your site is new

If you've just hit publish te minute ago, sadly you probably will not be seeing your site in Google searches anytime soon. Every time a new site is built search engines need to be able to crawl and index the site before you can show up in SERPS.

Currently, there are 576,000 websites going live every day, suffice to say there is a lot of competition on the internet and it now takes a lot longer for search engines to find, crawl and index your site.

Has your site been indexed?

It is actually quite straightforward to check if your site has been indexed. All you need to do is carry out a custom Google search with your domain

site: yourdomain.com

If no pages show up, this means your website has not yet been indexed and you will need to ensure search engines can crawl your site.

Make sure you have Squarespace plan

If you have created a Squarespace site using their trial service, you will not be able to get the site indexed until you have upgraded your plan.

If no pages appear in results

  1. Remove any password protection you have on the website, if you are not sure whether your site is passowrd protected. Us a private/incognito browser to visit your site as any customer would. If your site has a site-wide password or a page password on the homepage, remove the password.
  2. In the SEO tab, ensure Hide this page from search results isn't checked.
  3. Submit you site to Google Search Consile, if you haven't already.
  4. Also consider submitteng your site to verify with Bing Webmaster Tools.

your site doesn't appear for specific keywords

This issue is a lot harder to diagnose as it is dependent on the overall SEO of your site and the specific page you want to show up in search engines.

It is very hard to get your site in the top spot for google searches, if you can't find your site on the first page it does not necessarily mean your site hasn't been indexed but more likely your site is hidden further down Google's ranking.

The best place to start to fix this issue is to begin search engine optimisation, also known as SEO, something we are very good at!

Get in touch if you would like to discuss how to improve your website.

Have you noticed recently some of your unoptimised or even optimised titles can have their title changed in SERPS?

Google has recently shared some more information regarding the page title update and how it chooses replacement text.

Your original titles are used more often

Google has stated that on average your original titles will be used more often, so worry about no longer optimising these because you figure Google will sort it out.

Original title elements are now used around 87% of the time, rather than around 80% when the first update rolled out.

What Kind of title will Google replace

Half-empty titles

Google's new system is designed to detect if a half-empty title for example title that may just have the site name and Google will adjust the tile to include other information found on the page.

Obsolete titles

A title can become obsolete for content that is used every year, for example, a page used for recurring information so the title stays the same. This is the case for guidepost e.g "Best SEO Methods To Try In 2021", Google will update this title by updating the year and leaving the title the same.

Inaccurate titles

We are all familiar to clickbait and every once in a while we get tricked by a title that does not match the content on the page.

Google gives the example of pages with dynamic content with a title element like: Giant stuffed animals, teddy bears, polar bears – Site Name.

Micro-boilerplate titles

Micro-boilerplate titles refer to boilerplate title elements within a subset of pages within a site. Google algorithm detects these titles and will adjust them accordingly.

“Consider an online discussion forum about television shows. It might have areas for different shows, and then for each show, it may have areas for threads for individual seasons.

The micro-boilerplate title elements appear on the season pages. The titles omit the season numbers, so it’s not clear which page is for what season.”

An example:

Guidance from Google

Google advice remains the same from when they first rolled out the page title update.

Lastly, Google adds:

“Beyond this, consider the examples in this post to understand if you might have similar patterns that could cause our systems to look beyond your title elements.

The changes we’ve made are largely designed to help compensate for issues that creators might not realize their titles are having. Making changes may help ensure your title element is again used. That’s really our preference, as well.”

Our Guidance

We advise you to carry on making sure your title is optimised regardless of whether Google updates your page titles or not. Google will continue to refine its page title system but one thing that won't change is you will always know about your site better than Google does.

SourceGoogle Search Central

Have you search your site and see that the site links showing are not promoting the links you want higher click-through rates for?

To begin, if you are unfamiliar with what site links are, these are the links that show up when your homepage ranks first in Google searches. Sitelinks are meant to help users navigate your website and go to the most relevant page for the search they entered.

According to Google, the search engine analyzes “the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they’re looking for.”

Google will only display site links for results when it believes it will help the searcher.

How to get better sitelinks?

The problem with sitelinks is that sometimes Google shows the least relevant pages you want for particular searches. If you are an e-commerce business you want sitelinks that make your catalog easier to navigate not links to your blogs and information pages, that's not where sales are made.

To improve your sitelinks you have to review the internal linking structure of your website.

First, crawl your website to determine what pages are linking to the site links you want to remove. You can do this using software such as screaming frog or the internal linking tool in Google Search Console.

Once you have the list of pages, review and update the anchor text and internal links going to that unwanted sitelink. and hen resubmit the pages in Google Search Console.

Noindex the Page Appearing in Sitelinks

WARNING! This should only be done with pages you do not want to be appearing in Google's index.

When you noindex a page you ae removing it from appearing in search results meaning you will no longer get organic traffic.

For example, if you have an old page that is no longer used you noindex it without affecting your organic results.

Create A Clear Website Structure.

This tip is not meant to improve your site links but to ensure that you prevent issues in the first place. One reason for bad sitelinks is that your website hierarchy is not defined. Your website should be set up with a clear hierarchy of which pages are important. For e-commerce these can be your shop pages and for businesses, these are your lead pages.

For example, a clear structure would look something like Cars > Tesla > Model S.

Conclusion

If you follow some of these tips you can ensure you always have the most important sitelinks showing up in Google searches.

Google has recently announced they will be passing on 2% digital service tax to advertisers beginning 1st November.

This is not an isolated incident, Amazon has announced it will also be passing on a 2% tax to users on their platform. 

Facebook which makes an estimated £4.2bn in ad revenue in the UK, is expected to follow suit.

Regardless of your spending, running ads on Google platforms is about to become 2% more expensive and if you also sell your products on Amazon your profits are going to be impacted.

So what's next?

If running Google ads is going to become 2% more expensive then you need to make your ads convert for less to prevent your spending spiralling out of control.

How to increase ROI On Your Ads

Search ads in super-competitive industries can cost several pounds or more per click – and that’s just the average. One way to lower your cost is with Google remarketing, this involves showing ads to people who have already been on your website. 

Google remarketing ads are some of the most cost-effective ad campaigns available to online advertisers. According to Wordstream the average cpc for Google search is $1.23 compared to $0.66 for the display network.

Advertising on the display network will get you a lot more impressions, but the way to succeed is with good, eye-catching graphics that are on brand. 

Reducing CPC

Lower your bids

This one is pretty straight-forward if your bids are high you will spend more. But we are not advocating you just start lowering your bids like Black Friday prices. 

You are probably asking wouldn’t lower bids imply a lower average CPC? In theory yes, but in practice your ad position will drop but you could still afford more clicks with the same budget. 

Try Long-tail keywords

If you are in a hyper-competitive industry, solicitors, accountants, estate agents etc.  One way you can still get clicks without blowing your budget is by targeting long-tail keywords. 

The downside to this is that long-tail  keywords usually have low volumes but the user intent is usually higher. 

A good way to come up with long-tail keywords is to see what people are searching in your industry using tools such as Answer the Public.

Improving organic traffic 

This one is pretty self explanatory, if you want to get rid of your ad costs completely improve your ranking in SERPs organically. 

Whilst this is easier than done, we are not talking about trying to outrank a regional competitor for a keyword with high competition. 

Do some keyword research and pick out the keyword with the least competition and optimise your site for these keywords. Whether it's through cornerstone articles, getting more backlinks to your site and improving internal linking.

That we should not be named

Bing ads are the forgotten child of digital marketing, despite Bing on average having users with high-income. Bing ads are rarely looked at as a leading source for traffic but now may be the time to start looking at running some ads.

Microsoft has not yet released any press releases stating whether they will also be passing on the digital service tax to advertisers. 

So now maybe the time to start advertising on Bing. Yes, Microsoft's system isn't as polished as Google ads but with some good strategies you can make Bing ads work. Even better now you can transfer campaign from your Google ad account.






    If you are currently using Yell, Wix, Squarespace or any other drag and drop website builder you maybe hurting your bottom line.

    These website builders offer less technically-gifted business owners the opportunity to create a website in a matter of minutes. However, whilst you can create a site for your business in an afternoon, there is a price to pay.

    You may not own your site

    A lot of pay monthly website builders can hold your site hostage. Although, sometimes I think the word website is thrown around freely.

    These website builders essentially rent you templates that you can make minor cosmetic adjustments to. This isn't necessarily building a site rather making updates to a site that already exists.

    With some providers you can not move your website away if you decide you would like to revamp your site or to add new features.

    In the long term, when you do have to move your site, it will cost to get another site created.

    Limited functionalities

    Website builders offer the very basic features a website needs: a homepage, about us, services and contact.

    Although, there is nothing wrong with this, depending on your industry you may need other functionalities. For example, a mortgage advice business may need a mortgage calculator or estate agents may want a portal for their tenants.

    On a bespoke site these features can be gradually added, so what your site can accomplish is limitless.

    Your website already exists

    As stated before, when you use website builders you are effectively just editing a template, so you are limited in features and design.

    We recently came across two businesses that used a website builder and had the same website but different color schemes.

    Your website should be an extension of your brand, you wouldn't decorate your office the same as your competitor, so why would you have the same website as them?

    SEO Will Suffer

    Website builder sites are notoriously bad foroptimise for SEO because of how rigid they are. Most of these platform will also offer SEO services, however you should be cautious.

    A source working inside Yell told me that the company do not actually employ any SEO experts. All of their digital marketing is outsourced to agencies who then outsource the work again to low-cost operators in South East Asia. Several Yell clients told me they are routed to the Philippines when contacting Yell with questions about their SEO service.

    Richman SEO said this about Yell's SEO service:

    Because of the rise in social media many business owners no longer see SEO as an important factor, however, just because you can advertise your site on Facebook does not mean you should disregard trying to appear high on organic search on Google.

    The internet is now too competitive

    Everyday 1000s of sites go live and all are vying for attention, therefore your site has to be good. So many times we run audits on website builder sites and often they have been badly optimised.

    The learning curve for these platform is very easy, it can fool you into complacency. Once you see you site is live and working you pat yourself on the shoulder and call it a day.

    However, you should understand how and why your website functions, the way it does. When you edit templates you do not get this knowledge.

    In conclusion, website builders can be useful to students, artists and anyone who just needs a placeholder site on the internet.

    But if you are serious about creating a great website that can drive traffic and get you leads, you need to go bespoke.

    Get a free audit of your site below or get in contact to see how we can help you.






      In recent years, the search engine giant has progressively increased its market share in various heavily feed-based verticals, including hotel bookings, flights, and more recently recruitment.

      "We are leaving Rightmove" this is a phrase that has been uttered by many estate agents in the country. In light of all that is going Rightmove has failed to understand the needs of their customers.

      Why would Google disrupt this industry

      For me the question of whether Google will enter the property market is a question when not if. With other offerings such as Google Flights, Hotels and Jobs. Estate agents should prepare themselves for Google Properties. 

      Last year, Google quietly became the biggest job board. Google has the power to do this they have the power to put their content over others even if it means making some businesses redundant. 

      It is no surprise that Google's first real estate offering failed. In fact, Google so much as admitted this in a statement they released saying:

      We recognize that there might be better, more effective ways to help people find local real estate information than the current feature makes possible. We’ll continue to explore this area, but in the meantime, Google offers other options to home-seekers - Brian McClendon, VP, Google Earth and Maps

      This statement was made all the way back in 2011, so the question is has Google Maps improved since then and could a Google real estate feature be reintroduced again?

      This is tricky, it would be quite simple for Google to implement, for example Google my business pages have without a doubt killed directories. So a Google real estate platform could just as easily kill property portals.

      Property industry has got lazy

      Many in the property industry have focused all their marketing time and money to the property portals. Which leaves many estate agent website that are not optimised and have bad user experience. Many agents all use the same website builders so identical estate agent site with different color schemes and logos are not a regular occurrence.  

      A new property offering would force agent to focus on improving their sites and also allow Google to make money from PPC ads. 

      How it would affect you?

      Imagine starting tomorrow, you can easily look on Google maps on your phone to see houses for sale or rent in your area and through Google maps you can send an enquiry. With such an easy user experience you probably won't bother to look on Rightmove.

      This is a feature that could shake up the whole property industry, it would push the sector to focus more on SEO and web presence.

      Property portals would lose their value, if data from these platforms can be fed into Google listings like the above. It would make going on a specific platform redundant.

      Local Search

      Real estate revolves entirely around locations, and Google will serve users with the results it deems most relevant to either their geolocation or to geo-targeting keywords such as ‘flats to rent London’. 

       

      Free Website Audit

      Regardless of whether Google does enter the real estate sector again, I think it is always imperative to focus on your own web presence, and keep your website on step ahead of your competitors.

      If you want a free website audit, provide your details below and we will send you a tailored report for your site.


      In the past two weeks, I have analysed over 52 estate agent websites, this first started when I asked a few estate agent owners in a poplar Facebook group to post their websites for me to critique.

      I ended up receiving over 52 replies with people asking me to look at their websites. After reviewing every single website I noticed a recurring number of errors the websites all had. Other industries make some of these mistakes in their SEO strategy, but the ones I will list below are more prevalent when it comes to estate agents.

      Template Websites

      A lot of estate agents do not get bespoke sites and use companies that offer them template websites. The issue here is many do not know that they have template website. These template websites make it difficult for owners who are not SEO specialists to optimise their site. Speed optimisation and A/B testing is difficult due to the rigid nature of template sites.

      But the worst thing is that your business which has its own brand ends up with a website that looks like everyone else's.

      Hosting lead gen tools on different URL'S.

      A lot of estate agent websites have valuation tools. mortgage calculators, and other lead generation tools. These  are usually hosted off their site and sometimes take users to pages with no SSL certificates. Having too many of these tools that take users away from your website can actually prop up the domain authority of the url's these tools are hosted on, not your own website!

      Also, because these tools are not hosted on your site, this makes tracking data difficult as once users leave your site, you can't track their interactions to optimise the page for conversions.

      Broad Keywords

      Most sites I looked at did not have a SEO strategy to target people searching in the area where the agency is based.

      For example, an estate agent in Essex not having Essex in their title tags and meta descriptions (these are the results you see on Google.) Broad keywords put you in competition with national competitors and it is harder to rank especially for site with  low domain authority. Of all the sites I reviewed, not one had a domain authority over 50 ( domain authority of a website describes its relevance for a specific subject area or industry it is score 1-100.)

      Using broad keyword also lead to unqualified leads, you don't want people on your site who are based in London but your agency is a based Lancashire.

      Missing Sitemaps

      When I first started reviewing some of the 52 websites, I noticed a few did not have a sitemaps, as I reviewed more this was an issue on over 50% of the sites I looked at. And most of the time it was the sites that were hosted by companies who create template sites.

      Sitemaps are essentially a road map for the Google crawler bots that deciphers what your site is about for ranking purposes. Missing sitemaps coupled with broad keywords for most sites was usually reflected in the low monthly traffic going to the sites. If Google can't decipher what your site is about, you will suffer in search rankings.

      Slow Loading Speeds

      A lot of sites I reviewed were not optimised for speed, this was the result of many mistakes.  Again the template websites were the biggest culprits. Too many tools cause a lot of estate agent websites to load slowly because there is too many requests. Loading properties on the homepage also caused many sites to be slow. A remedy for this is showing properties on separate "For Sale or Rent pages".

      Missing SSL Certificate

      An SSL certificate on your site is one of the fundamentals for good SEO practices, without one Google will not rank your site high. Or even worse, if you do somehow manage to rank high and receive visitors they will be greeted with a notification informing them that you site is not safe for them to enter their personal information. If you site exist to get leads this is a sure fire way to have an empty leads inbox.

      Conclusion

      These are just some of the most reoccurring errors I found on many sites I reviewed. There were many othe errors I uncovered such as websites with all pages missing meta titles and descriptions, 404 erros, missing robot.txt files and many others. I recommend any estate agent looking for a new website opts for a bespoke crafted site that is built with SEO in mind. Cheaper template site will cost more in the long-term as they impact SEO which needs to be fixed.

      If you would like to know the current state of your website please provide your details below and we will send you a FREE Website SEO Report.

       

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