Why Is Page Position Essential For Your MSP Marketing?

There is nothing more disconcerting than checking your MSPs website page positioning only to find that while you once were on page one, you find yourself pushed down to page 6. Instead of panicking, here are some steps you can take to regain your standing, and your leads.

Why is Page Position Important for MSP Marketing?

Your MSP website's page position refers to the position of your website as it appears after a business searches for a solution to their IT problems. When people speak about being on page one of Google, they recognize the importance of being seen before their competitors. This is not just preference, there is data that shows page one results earn 70 to 75 percent of clicks.

With this in mind, it's easy to understand why it's essential to maintain your MSP website's page position and why you should pay attention to any significant drop. One thing to realize regarding page positioning is that, in many ways, it operates as a “feedback” loop. 

• Google indexes your website, making it available to be shown as the result of a search query. 
• A potential lead searches for a solution to their problem
• If your site provides an answer to the query, Google will show the page as a search result.
• Potential leads click on the link and visit your site.
• Google tracks how many searchers click on the link.
• Depending on how long and how many visitors remain on your site, Google re-evaluates your content and will either continue to show it or reduce its visibility.

One thing most businesses don't realize is that SEO consists of two parts, one is technical, and the other is creative. If either of these tiers isn't correctly implemented, your page position can suffer either because Google doesn't understand what your business is about due to poor content or there is something technically wrong with the website itself. The elephant in the room is the one element of page position a business can’t control; when and how Google changes its algorithm. More on that later.

Technical SEO focuses on the behind-the-scenes elements of your website, such as metadata, navigation, schema data, and more. Technical SEO is designed to help Google better understand the internal structure of your website. Some issues affecting your technical SEO can be broken links, a lack of metadata, speed issues, and even whether or not your website is being indexed correctly.

Creative SEO covers the creative aspects of your website; this can include your blogs, service pages, social media, and other types of content, such as video. Your content is crucial because it is what Google and the other search engines use as a means to determine whether or not your content provides the best answer to a searcher's question.

Some issues affecting your content include not focusing on the topics you wish to rank for or something as simple as not having content that provides answers to questions. For example, you won't rank well for cybersecurity if you have no content discussing your cybersecurity expertise. Additionally, you won't rank for a location if you don't have an office or at least substantial content (case studies, press releases, dedicated service pages) that supports your claim of serving those locations.

How Technical SEO Affects Page Position

Your website is set to NoIndex: When a site is receiving changes or undergoing a revamp, your web team may want to keep Google from “seeing” the website while it's in transition. Unfortunately, when your new site is ready to go live, your web team may forget to turn your indexing back on. This means Google cannot see your content or website and drive traffic to your site. If this lasts too long, Google will begin to drop your page rank because, as far as Google is concerned, your website no longer exists. This seems to be disproportionately common with WordPress sites, but fortunately there’s a simple checkbox in the settings that allows you to change this.

Toxic or loss of Backlinks: Backlinks are links to your website that other websites place on their sites. Google sees this as a way for them to “vouch” for your expertise, and the more reliable the website that links to yours is, the more valuable their backlink is. Unfortunately, some businesses employ “black hat SEO” and pay for backlinks to quickly build authority. The downside of this practice is that, more often than not, these backlinks are of such low quality that Google may penalize you and drop your page position as punishment.

Weak, Duplicated, or No Meta Descriptions: Meta descriptions are designed to provide searchers with a brief description of the page they are about to click on. A meta description aims to gain their attention so that they will click on the link to learn more. 

If there are no meta descriptions, or they are generic duplicates of each other, then Google is unable to determine whether or not your content will provide the answer to a searcher's question. This can limit your opportunity to rank higher in a search result, and is why your meta descriptions should therefore be unique and accurately describe to the searcher what the page is about.

It’s worth noting that meta descriptions don’t really determine how you rank, but they can aid in your click-through rate as Google uses them as snippets. It’s also worth noting that some pages, like blog category pages and other superfluous URLs are fine to use generic meta descriptions. You don’t need to waste your time writing meta descriptions for all 324 pages of your blog archives section as long as the individual blog posts have good meta descriptions..

The Effects of Content On Page Position

Google’s algorithm is designed to offer the searcher the best result for their query. Google’s algorithm is dynamic and constantly changes in small and large ways. This search algorithm uses a variety of metrics to determine where to position a website. If your website experiences an inexplicable drop in page position, it could be due to a change in how Google’s algorithm is now evaluating the content of your website.  

Your content can include your service pages, blogs, and other content written to inform visitors about your website and business. Your MSP content is essential because it is one of the primary metrics Google uses to determine where to position your website in a search query. If Google determines your content is low quality or doesn't provide answers to a searcher's query, they may eventually reduce its page position or even stop showing it as a search result. Page position is important because if no one visits your website because you're on a low page, you have no one to convert into customers.

How Can You Regain Your MSP’s Page Position?

If the issue is due to a technical SEO problem, then the remedy is to correct the technical error. This is usually straightforward, and while regaining your position may not be instantaneous, it will happen over time. However, if the issue is due to your content or a shift in Google's algorithm affecting how Google understands your website, making a course correction could be more difficult. This is partly because no one outside of Google knows how their algorithm operates, so you may be unable to pinpoint the exact cause immediately.

One step you can take to gain insight into how Google views your website is reviewing how Google (and the other search engines) display your website's information. Type in your business or the search term(s) most associated with your industry and review how Google displays it. Remember, Google is pulling data from your website, so if it isn't showing what you feel is the right content, you need to rewrite it to better reflect your services as an MSP.

Finally, Google's primary goal is user experience—if it doesn't believe your content is valuable to the user, it won't show it. This could be one of the reasons your competitors' websites are being shown before yours; Google has decided that their content provides a better answer than yours. 

Is Your MSP Marketing Providing the Results You Want?

If you're an MSP and have been using a generic marketing agency, you may set your business up for failure. The reality is that marketing your MSP requires an understanding of what an MSP does, and quite frankly, most agencies don't know what you do and are limited in their ability to help market your services.

We are one of the few marketing agencies that understand what it takes to market MSP services because we're an MSP ourselves. Any problem you're currently facing is a problem we have already overcome, and we're not afraid to share the secret sauce. Call 888-546-4384 today to schedule an appointment, and take your first steps towards generating the leads your business needs to grow.