Sure, we’ve all seen him barking orders at chefs on shows like “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmare”, but can he bark orders at website owners too? Maybe not exactly, but a lot of what Ramsay looks for in a kitchen can be applied to your website.
A recent article on SearchEngineWatch.com lists 8 things a website owner can learn from the uber chef:
- Clean up your menu: This reminds me of an example we all likely know: The Cheesecake Factory. With their ginormous menu and endless options, it seems like it would be a great dining option, no matter what. However, there are times when I find their menu overwhelming - going in with the mindset that I’m going to “try something new”, reading the menu and giving up, then ordering an “old standby.” In other words, too much varied content on your site is not a good thing - for you, your visitors, or your search engine ranking. Pare down and focus on what’s really important to your potential visitors and create landing pages specifically for those areas. You’ll be glad you did.
- Find your niche: There are likely dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of other websites writing about the same topics. Instead of focusing on high-ranked keywords with lots of traffic (and competition!), focus more on long tail keywords that will get your site ranked and make it stand out.
- Redecorate: A little spring cleaning never hurt anyone, and this goes the same for your site. Take a look at your site from the consumer standpoint (or ask for a second set of eyes) and consider “redecorating” your site. Bottom line is, it doesn’t matter how high you rank if your site isn’t attractive to your visitors.
- Get your kitchen sorted out: Just as any good restaurant needs a well-run kitchen in order to succeed, a profitable website needs a good back-end in order to maximize its profit. Look at things like your CMS, technical structure, elimination of frames, and site speed.
- Cook what your guests want to eat: The phrase “it’s my site, I’ll do what I want with it” won’t ultimately get you very far with your visitors. If they don’t see what they’re looking for, they will likely leave and find another site that shows them what they’re looking for without much effort. Remember, it’s really your visitors’ site, not yours.
- Get the right people in the kitchen: In the restaurant worlds, many owners think they can play all the parts simultaneously - chef, head waiter, host, AND owner. Fact of the matter is, the probably can, but not well. Get the right people to play the parts you need - you cannot do everything efficiently, and it doesn’t hurt to ask for a little help.
- Give your potential visitors a taste of what they can expect: Since your titles and descriptions show up in natural search, make sure to let your potential visitors know what they should expect when they get there. Think of it as those free samples you can get outside of the food court stalls at the mall.
- Aim for high quality: As a site owner, you must aim for high quality - have high standards, try to stand out from the crowd. If you put only half an effort into your site, you won’t attract many visitors, you probably won’t rank well, and you won’t convert at the rate you expect. If you give it your all, you will certainly reap the rewards.
Read the entire article on SearchEngineWatch.com.
