The Deep, Blue SEOcean

What makes a good fisherman? Someone with clear skies in their weather forecast, a prime location, rods made specifically for reeling in a heavy catch, and the perfect bait for the exact fish they’re after. 

What makes a not-so good fisherman? Someone without a clue what they’re doing! 

If you want to go fishing and bring back a decent catch, then you’ve got to understand your fish. Where are the best fishing spots? When should you be there? What type of fish are you after and what do they like to eat? Every skilled fisherman thinks about these questions before boarding the boat because, to catch your fish, you have to know your fish. 

Your business works the exact same way. As a business owner, what do you know about your customers? 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not a one-time marketing plan with a start and end date - it’s an ongoing guide for website content creation so your business can be matched exactly with what your customers are searching for. You can have the nicest boat on the water, but if you don’t have the right bait, you’ll turn up empty handed. Your website is no different. 

1. Where Do I Find My Fish?

The first step is understanding how people are currently finding your website. You can use Google Search Console and Google Analytics as the foundation of your audience research. 

Google Search Console shows what people searched on Google before discovering your website. It tells you which search terms caused your website to appear, how often it appeared and how many people clicked.

For example, a home improvement company might discover that its website appears for searches like “bathroom remodeling near me” or “cost to build a home addition.” A veterinary practice might appear for “new puppy vaccines,” “emergency vet near me” or “veterinarian accepting new patients.”

Google Analytics shows what visitors do after reaching your website. It can tell you visitors’ location, demographic information such as age, gender and interests, and whether they arrived through Google, social media, email or another source.

It also identifies your best-performing pages that people see when first entering your website.

A contractor may discover that a kitchen remodeling page attracts more qualified visitors than the homepage. A veterinary practice may find that an older blog post about puppy vaccinations continues to bring new pet owners to the website.

Google Analytics can also track what those visitors do next, such as viewing additional services, submitting a contact form, requesting an estimate or scheduling an appointment.

This information gives you a much clearer understanding of how you’re reaching the right audience and if that audience is converting. 

2. What Should I Use as Bait?

Once you know where your website visitors are coming from, the next question is what attracted them in the first place.

Your website content is the bait. That includes your service pages, blog posts, FAQs, project galleries, page titles, the language you use to describe your business, photos, graphics, etc. 

Google Search Console can show which searches are generating impressions and clicks. Google Analytics can then show which landing pages bring people into the website and what those visitors do next. Together, this data helps you identify the topics and services your audience is most interested in.

The home improvement company may discover that homeowners are finding its website through a blog post about the cost of a bathroom remodel. That tells the company more than simply which topic is popular. It suggests that potential customers are researching the financial side of a renovation and may be in the early stages of planning a project.

The company could build on that interest by publishing related content about remodeling timelines, material choices, financing options or what homeowners should expect during construction. The original article should also direct readers toward other relevant resources on the website like an estimate request form. This creates a clear path from researching a question to considering the company for the job.

This doesn’t mean publishing content about every popular topic you can find. A remodeling company could attract thousands of visitors with general DIY content, but those visitors may live outside its service area or have no intention of hiring a contractor. 

The goal is not to attract the largest possible audience. It is to answer questions that are relevant to your services, demonstrate your expertise and guide qualified potential

customers toward the next step.

3. Is My Fishing Gear Doing Its Job?

The right location and bait won’t help much if your equipment can’t do its job. Your website also needs a strong foundation to turn search visibility into business.

Search engines must be able to crawl your website, understand its content and add important pages to their index so your business can appear near the top of search results. Broken links, missing page titles, duplicate content and poor website structure can make that process more difficult. If Google cannot easily understand what a page is about, that page may struggle to appear for relevant searches.

The website also needs to work properly for the people who visit it. Pages should load quickly, navigation should make sense and the mobile experience should be just as functional as the desktop version. Contact forms, scheduling buttons and phone-number links should be easy to find and regularly tested.

Even great content can underperform when the website supporting it doesn’t function properly. SEO isn’t only about what your website says. It also depends on whether search engines can understand it and whether customers can actually use it.

4. Am I Actually Catching Anything? (Is my SEO working?)

In other words: are you making sales?

Website traffic and high impressions are encouraging, but they don’t pay the bills. Your SEO should lead to real customer actions, such as phone calls, estimate requests, contact-form submissions and scheduled appointments.

Google Analytics can show which pages and traffic sources are generating those actions. You may discover that one service page attracts fewer visitors but produces more qualified leads—or that a popular blog post needs a stronger call to action.

Are the right people finding your business and becoming customers? Could a clearer button, faster form or better connection between your content and services help you make more sales?

Sometimes, a few small adjustments are all it takes to turn website traffic into business.

Stop Fishing in a Dry Pond

SEO isn’t about throwing content onto your website and hoping the right people eventually find it. It’s about understanding who your customers are, what they’re searching for, which content captures their attention and if your website can turn that attention into business.

Google Analytics and Google Search Console give you the information you need to make those decisions. Once you understand the data, you can adjust your content, improve your website and focus your time on the opportunities most likely to generate results.

You don’t need more traffic just for the sake of having more traffic. You need a website that gives the right people a reason to buy. 

Not sure whether your SEO is bringing in the right catch? LJC Digital offers complimentary website visibility consultations to help you understand what’s working and what isn’t. Let’s go fishing.