While we collectively recover from 2020, we can all acknowledge that the internet played a key role in the massive shift in focus for businesses big and small all over the world. Last year showed us the importance of having a strong internet presence and how essential it is for business survival. There are many components that go into creating an optimal online presence that will keep your business on everyone’s radar. One of the most important includes SEO, also known as search engine optimization.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
When the acronym SEO is mentioned, most people scratch their heads. That’s because most business owners understand that having an online presence is important but are unsure of what it entails. It is more than simply setting up a sharp website and attaching social media links. Building an effective online presence requires understanding the intricacies of how to drive traffic to your website so potential customers will want to buy your product or service. That’s where SEO comes in.
Simply put, SEO is the process of improving the quality of your website or web page for increased traffic from search engines. It is used to generate leads and should be included in your marketing campaign. There are two types of SEO, including:
- On page: This type of SEO refers to improvements made to the website. Examples of this include adding internal links, keywords, and improving your website’s speed.
- Off-page: This type of SEO refers to factors off the website that influence traffic generated to your website that you have no control over.
When developing an impactful marketing campaign using SEO, there are a few things you should consider to drive traffic to your website. You may already be familiar with these concepts but have not yet implemented them. Here’s where to start:
- Include social media links
- Include and research keywords
- Build internal links and backlinks
- Analyze search engine results
- Develop compelling content for your target audience
Last year showed us that SEO is now front and center when it comes to building effective marketing campaigns that reach your target audience. There is no way around focusing on improving your digital marketing skills if you want to stay in business. With online purchases increasing every day, most consumers will go to the internet to research a company. That means that your SEO quality may play a big factor in whether your customers find you or not.
Things You Must Know About SEO
- Understanding search intent — In order to build an appropriate webpage, you must have a thorough understanding of the intent of the search for your target audience. This information is critical for tailoring your content and adjustments to the search engine traffic you’re looking for. The key is for your page to be ranked on Google. Quarantine has impacted how ranking is configured since the search intent has to be adjusted for the circumstances. Being aware of changes in search behavior can make or break your Google rankings. The potential for specific search queries to dramatically increase or suddenly disappear overnight is another possibility to be mindful of. Diversifying your marketing strategy, you can avoid being significantly handicapped by these sudden changes. Using search engine tools to track interest and monthly volume like Moz or SEMrush will keep you ahead of the curve. Otherwise, you’ll be constantly playing catchup and wasting time. As a business owner, you can’t afford to waste time!
- Agility is key — Adaptation is a key element of effective SEO and local businesses have been hit the hardest during the pandemic. For this reason, your ability to pivot and make quick adjustments can make a huge difference in customer retention during this time. The pandemic initiated restrictions that required businesses to get creative and agile when offering their products and services. Including attributes that indicate online business hours, online appointment availability, and call buttons on the Google My Business platform have been effective and agile ways of maintaining customer engagement.
- Find strength in the SEO community — The SEO community is a close and helpful group of online professionals who have come together to uplift businesses during these unusual times. In between helping each other, we’ve come together to provide free advice and information to assist businesses in making adjustments to their marketing strategy to accommodate the online boom. While this is a frequent and usual occurrence amongst our group, we’ve dramatically increased our support in light of the pandemic. We will continue to grow and expand in the new year!
- Stay consistent — All the SEO tools in the world will not be effective without consistency! Regularly developing engaging and quality content will help you remain a constant presence in search engine results. Another way to increase your SEO presence is to include high-quality backlinks into your website. Giving current and potential customers more value can help increase your rankings on Google and that’s always a good thing!
- Use Google Analytics — Stay informed about how your website is performing through Google Analytics. Almost every marketing firm and professional utilizes this powerful search engine tool to monitor demographics, user behavior, and retention rates. It is a free and excellent way to anticipate what users will do on your website.
- Don’t google yourself - Every SEO marketing firm will tell you this but we thought we should reiterate it one more time. Doing so will cause Google to save your information and provide a false ranking at higher than average. A better way to achieve the result you’re looking for is to use the Incognito mode on your browser. That way, the cookies, and cache are depersonalized giving a more accurate picture of what users are seeing. Some other useful tools to identify your Google rankings are Moz and Google Webmaster Tools.
- URL optimization is a must — Keep things simple by creating an easy to read URL that is search engine friendly. When it comes to an SEO friendly URL, keep it short, simple and include keywords with hyphens. Specifically, search engines respond well to URLs that remain between 50 to 60 characters, allowing users to copy and paste your site quickly.
Contact Us for Help with Search Engine Optimization
As the foundation for your website, you want to ensure that appropriate SEO optimization is in place so that search engines find you quickly and easily. Again, a digital marketing strategy is not complete without SEO implementation. Changes are constantly being made in SEO and should be maintained on a regular basis. We know that most business owners are busy filling customer orders and providing services across the globe. Time is valuable and you may not have the time to focus on maintaining your SEO strategy. That’s where we step in!
With over 25 years of experience in providing integrated marketing solutions, we know what it takes to create a coordinated marketing front for your business. While you focus on your customers, we remain focused on increasing your visibility through a collaborative process that includes cutting edge strategies to get your message across. After a thorough assessment and analysis of your current marketing infrastructure, we move forward with providing appropriate services, including branding, multimedia, web development, and search engine optimization. We provide content creation, keyword research, and make SEO recommendations that will increase your bottom line.
If this sounds like what you are looking for, we are ready to help you today. Give us a call for a consultation today and let’s expand your online presence with exceptional SEO!
