You’ve set up shop in your town, you’ve sent out all the flyers, you’ve tried your hand at Facebook ads, but your business isn’t making enough money.
It’s frustrating, it’s overwhelming, and you just do not know where to start.
I get it, there’s so much information out there, and it’s hard to know who to trust and what strategies to try.
Here are 4 reasons to think about why your business isn’t making enough money.
1. Can your audience find all the information about your business in 1 or 2 clicks?
As a society, our attention spans have shrunk significantly. We scan articles, the trendiest app right now has a time limit of 60 seconds, and the best length for a YouTube video is 15 minutes.
Take this into consideration when you’re looking at your business’s online presence.
When you search ‘hair salon near me,’ does your business show up in the local 3-pack? When you click on your business’s profile from Google, would you visit you? Can you book straight from Google?
You should be making it as easy as possible for your audience to click and buy or click and book.
Easy Fix: Get your Google My Business optimized with my free guide here.
2. Does Google even know you exist?
One of the biggest goals I have for small businesses (other than helping them make more money) is to make them BFFs with Google.
But first, Google has to know you exist. Otherwise, they can’t rank your website. To check if Google already knows you exist, I want you to search ‘site:[enteryoursitehere.com].’ If the links to your site show up, great! Google already knows you exist. If not, that’s okay too. You just need to send your site off to Google.
Easy Fix: Let Google know you exist by submitting your sitemap by following Yoast’s instructions here.
3. Is your information up to date everywhere?
So, now that we know a secondary goal of yours is to become Google’s best friend, we wouldn’t want to send them mixed signals. This means making sure your business’s key info (name, address, phone number, and website) are the exact same everywhere your business is found.
Not only does an error in your key info confuse Google, but it can also confuse your audience. Have an old phone number attached to your Facebook? You’re missing out on calls. Have an old address on Foursquare? You’re sending hot leads to the wrong address.
Easy Fix: Head to the 5 most significant places you can get leads (Google, Facebook, Yelp, Foursquare, Yahoo!, etc.) and triple-check that all of your info looks the same on all sites.
4. How many reviews do you have from the last 6 months?
Good reviews are like mini recommendations to Google, saying, “Hey, this business is well-loved. You should show them to more people.”
On average, your audience wants to see at least ten positive reviews from the last 6 months and a star-rating between 4.7 and 4.9.
This increases the trust with your leads as well as Google’s confidence in your business. Google is always going to favor more trustworthy businesses.
Easy Fix: Ask every single client that walks through your door (or that you walk through their door) to leave a review. This can be done in person, by text, or by email.
