Get More Visits to Your Florist Website, Without Ranking Higher

After reading this great SEOMoz article I was reminded how easily we can increase visitors to our Florist Websites, without the need for a #1 spot in the search engines. Though this is typically done during the early stages of a website’s SEO, I think that it warrants a revisiting every so often, even for the more web savvy Florists among us.

Search Engine Click-Through Rates though hard to calculate, should never be ignored. I am referring to the organic (non paid) listings that your SEO efforts are spent trying to increase. There is a lot you can do to increase the amount of clicks your listing will get, even without ranking any higher in the results.

How “Human Friendly” is Your Search Engine Listing?

When you look at your listing in Google, no matter where it is (though hopefully on the 1st page) what does it say? Is the title too long (ends in “…”)? Is it clearly stuffed with keywords for SEO? Is it all lower-case or worse yet, ALL UPPERCASE?

What about the description below the title, is it sentence form and legible? Is it inviting, does it say who you are, what you do and what makes you credible as a Florist?

You’re starting to get my point… People do not search the Internet as they once did, they are more and more aware of ugly SEO practices and have higher expectations over all from Web Retailers. You are expected to present yourself professionally, offline and online, because if you don’t, how could you possibly be trusted to deliver their flowers in a professional manner? If searchers are starting to seem like a finicky breed, that’s because they are!

Successful Search Engine listings are carefully constructed, and so they should be. They are the first thing people see about you when searching for your keywords, and if you lose them here, they will never even see your website or product to see how great they are or aren’t.

Tips & Reminders for Florist Website Search Engine Listings

Remember that your Title Tag and Meta Description Tag are the primary source from where Search Engines will get your listing information, you need to make sure these are in tip-top form.

Title Tag

• Your Title Tag should not be more than 70 characters long (including spaces), aim for a 55-65 character max
• Use Title-Case! There is a reason this is standard practice for headlines; it’s the most legible (duh), lower case is a waste and UPPERCASE is long proven to be perceived as YELLING
• Though your Title Tag is just that, a title (not a list, not a sentence); this is likely the most important piece of code on your website… don’t guess, research.

Read more about Title Tags here

Description Tag

• Max out your Description Tag at 160 characters
• Your Meta Description Tag should be sentence form, say something about what they will find on your website and your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
• Don’t forget your keywords, even though I encourage you not to “stuff” here either… find creative ways to include them yet still making sense to a human reader

Read more about Description Tags here

You might want to revisit your keywords during this exercise, analyze your stats to find out which are converting to sales and which ones you might be missing out on. But whatever you do, remember your aim is the best human user experience possible.