[00:00:00] James Breese: Strength Matters Media. Video. Print. Podcasts.
[00:00:05] Josh Kennedy: On today's show, we're talking about how there's no shortcut to ranking higher on Google, um, spammers, they'll give up very, very quickly, but real businesses will keep writing helpful content for years and years. And that is what it's all about having a great website or even a, and even a fast loading website will only get you so far.
[00:00:24] You have to do more than that. You can't, uh, and as I said, there is no shortcut, uh, no way around this. James, do you want to talk a little bit about why. You might short, try and shortcut and why that might not be ideal.
[00:00:39] James Breese: Well, let's, let's go away from the bigger picture first and foremost is that Google is trying to be.
[00:00:45] And it has a problem in the sense of there's so much content created daily that it has to have, it has to sift through all this content to make sure it sends relevant, useful, [00:01:00] informative information to the people that are searching for it. That is the whole purpose of Google. The whole purpose of Google is to help us.
[00:01:06] live our lives better, get the answers quickly to the questions that we're looking for to help us move forward from whether it's Google, whether it's YouTube, even Bing and Yahoo, they're doing the same sort of things. So they're trying to help us. So by doing that, they've got to make sure that there's no spam.
[00:01:22] And there's a lot of people trying to spam the world and try to send, you know, misinformation out there as well. So they've got a lot of work to try and do. So the point of this is now is. Is if you want more clients, leads and patients, right, you've got to rank higher in Google because that shows a sign of authority and trustworthiness, which is why people click the top of Google all the time, more than anybody else.
[00:01:45] Now, people think that I can build a website. It's going to be there. It's going to tell me about my services, which is all about their features, right? And it's going to help them. It's not how it works. Google wants to promote and [00:02:00] rank businesses. that provide helpful, useful content that's designed for the end user in mind.
[00:02:07] That is what they want to do. So the reason there's no shortcut to Google is because you've got to earn Google's trust. You're dating Google essentially, right? You're going to start dating Google. So before you can get married and they can rank you number one, you've got to earn their trust, earn their respect and showcase that what you're doing is legitimate.
[00:02:28] You're an expert in your field. Therefore, you've got to write consistently. You can't just put a website up there in four or five pages and go, yeah, this is going to be me. I'm going to be, I'm going to be an expert. I'm going to be top of Google. It doesn't work that way. You've got to show to Google that you are an expert in your field.
[00:02:44] You're not a spammer because anyone can build a website every single day, but not everyone can create helpful, useful, relevant content that solves people's problems, which is what Google wants to see. So there's no shortcut. You've got to write content [00:03:00] and you've got to do it consistently. The same with anything, social media, you've got to be consistent.
[00:03:05] This is why we're posting daily on social media now. It's same with YouTube. We're doing this podcast five days a week. We've been doing it ever since September of 2023. Right. We've gone from an ad hoc once a week type show to five shorter episodes every day. Consistently see consistently what's happening.
[00:03:22] We're starting to gain more traffic and subscribers on YouTube, right? Because it's consistent. So you've got to play with the system, be consistent, then they'll start rewarding you accordingly. So there's no shortcut. If you want to get more clients and patients via Google. You've gotta create helpful, meaningful content and there's no shortcut for it.
[00:03:43] Josh Kennedy: Was it easier to rank near the top of Google, let's say 10 years ago? Is it, is it harder now? Well,
[00:03:49] James Breese: it's, it gets harder every year 'cause people get better and better at writing content. Even the spams get better and better at trying to. I think the good example is in the last 6 to 12 months where [00:04:00] AI has come out, where every man and his dog is now asking AI to write an article for them.
[00:04:06] But guess what? What we're seeing is Google's getting better and better at seeing and shifting through AI content. So it may start ranking higher to begin with, but guess what? The website tanks when Google knows it's written by AI. This is why you've got to write from a firsthand expert personal opinion type narrative.
[00:04:27] They want to see people's personal opinions and expertise coming through now. And that is so important because they're going to shift through AI. And that is the issue now. So yes. People are gaming the system. They are trying to hack it. And it is harder to rank these days with all these things going on, but not if you do it through a personal means and sharing
[00:04:47] Josh Kennedy: your experience, a lot of people, I say that they will think they'll put their website up, whether they've done it themselves on a Wix or Squarespace or whatever it is, or whether they've got a web designer, uh, to do it.
[00:04:57] They probably think I put a website up. It looks good. [00:05:00] You know, it'll, it'll rank high. And, uh, job, jobs are good and I don't need to do anything else. If you've got a web designer, say someone who's built your website for you, what are some of the key questions then that they maybe need to be asking in order to get them to rank higher?
[00:05:14] Crikey.
[00:05:14] James Breese: I think it's a separate topic and website and, and, and like podcasts all together. But the first, first and foremost is speed, page speed, speed kills in sports. Speedkills and websites, like it's your number one user experience, ranking marker. If you haven't got a fast website, you need to get a fast website.
[00:05:35] If your website is not loading faster than 90 percent on mobile and close to 100 percent on desktop. You need a new web designer, simple as that. They just don't know what they're doing. I'm sorry, I'm going to call them out, but they don't know what they're doing in terms of SEO and things. You get website designers who are good at graphic design and making something look good, pretty, but there's, there's all show and no go in being an [00:06:00] athlete.
[00:06:00] Same with the website, all show, no go. Something looks pretty doesn't mean it's going to convert and rank highly. So the first thing you're going to do is optimize for Google first, then you create user experience and visual imagery second, that's in my personal opinion.
[00:06:16] Josh Kennedy: Andrew, I know this isn't your area of expertise, like it is for James, but anything you want to add to this before we sign off?
[00:06:21] Yeah,
[00:06:21] Andrew Wallis: I can, talking from personal experience, I've, I've gone through this process of, um, I've had a number of websites over the years and I remember clearly what one particular example, which ties in nicely with the topic here is that I found a website designer whose design skill set I really liked the, the, the display, the, uh, the framework that he put into play resonated with me.
[00:06:48] But the challenge I had was that he then said, well, provide give me the content. And at that stage, I didn't know how to put content together that was going to be, um, that would resonate with my target [00:07:00] audience. Of course, I do now because, you know, I've got, um, it's an interest, it's a passion and it's something I've done, dove into.
[00:07:06] But back then it was, I don't know. So I just gave him a Word document with what I felt would be relevant and he just essentially cut and pasted it in. There was no thought to SEO or anything like that. I didn't get any feedback from him even. It was just purely. As I say, he took what I gave him and he fitted it, shoehorned it in, per se, into the actual design that he put into play.
[00:07:36] Fast forward, did I have success with that? Well, unfortunately, no. It looked great, but nobody was finding the site because the content wasn't optimized, which is You know, it goes in line with what James is
[00:07:48] Josh Kennedy: discussing here. Absolutely. So there you go, guys. There is no shortcut to ranking high on Google. Um, make sure your website is loading very, very fast.
[00:07:57] As James has said, 90 percent on mobile, a hundred percent. [00:08:00] Ideally on a desktop and ultimately keep writing helpful content. Uh, that is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe. And if you want help getting more clients or patients, then book them for your free 15 minute strategy call with us by going to strength dot com forward slash strategy.