Did you know that 78% of people who use search engines, use Google? Google is so famous the term “googling” is an accepted verb in the Oxford English Dictionary. With that said, it is evident that having your business’s website appear on Google is imperative for online presence and exposure.
Here is the tricky part: 94% of Google users only look at the first page of results. If they don’t find what they are looking for on the first page, most usually change their search terms and try again.
Although paid searches might be helpful in some circumstances, most businesses rely on organic, or unpaid, search results to promote their company.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the term for the combination of strategies, techniques, and tactics to increase the amounts of visitors to a website by obtaining a high rank in a search results page. In short, SEO helps increase your web site rank to place higher in search engine results. The Ultimate Goal: To appear on the first page.
Here are three great tips to get you started on understanding the power of SEO:
Tip #1: Keywords Attract Those Who Need You
As stated in an article from CIO Magazine, the first thing you need to do is to put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes, and think about what is important to them in relation to your business. For example, if Ms. Laura owns a beauty salon in Tampa, her target customers will be searching for things like “Price of Gelcolor pedicure treatment”. This is how you start thinking about effective keywords related to your business. If Laura’s Beauty Salon offers Gelcolor pedicures, it will benefit her to have something like “Best Price Gelcolor Pedicures in Tampa”.
Keywords should be relevant, and specific. Stick to customers in your area of reach. This is why Laura included “Tampa” in her string of keywords. Laura is not interested in website traffic from people in Miami who cannot visit her salon. Keywords should be present in the title, body, and URL of your page for the best results.
Tip #2: Backlinks, It’s All About Connections
Another way to improve your site’s ranking is to incorporate relevant links in your site. Note the word relevant meaning that Google will actually penalize you if you overuse links. A great way to get backlinks is by asking Bloggers in your industry to write about you. These blogs could be about an experience they had with someone in your business, as well as a review of your product or service. Making personal connections is just as important as cyber connections, so invite people to try out your product in exchange for a memorable mention!
Linking is in many ways a popularity contest. Try linking with influential pages or pages in your field that get a lot of traffic. In the physical world, networking with well-known people will give you access to other well-known people and increase your popularity. The same thing goes for the virtual world!
Internal Linking within your own website is just as important as external linking. The goal is to keep people on your website for as long as you can! The lower your bounce rate, the higher your Google ranking will be.
Tip #3: Content, Content, Content!
Great content in your website will also lead to more links, and more traffic. It is important for your website to remain active. Static websites rank lower than sites that consistently generate new content. One way to incorporate new content is to maintain a blog or add press releases to your website.
Topics for these could include specific products or services you offer, industry current events, or information about your partners. Thought leadership is important to becoming relevant to your customers and partners, creating value in a more relatable way. Don’t forget to provide links to your social media platforms from your website!
The biggest problem for most businesses is not having the time to create new content. (This is why so many hire The Crush Agency to take care of their SEO needs!)
These SEO tips are just the three most common techniques. An entity unto itself, there are many tools you can use for search engine optimization, but hiring SEO experts will be most beneficial to your company, while giving you more time to focus on running your business.
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