As a business of any size, it’s no longer enough to just have a website. Recent research by Google found that 97% of consumers search for local businesses online. In order to ensure that your business is visible to consumers online, you need to optimize your site. SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is the process of getting traffic from the free search results on search engines. Utilising SEO helps you to understand how consumers are searching for and finding information about brands online. Research by WordStream found that 72% of consumers who did a local search visited a store within five miles. Whilst this statistic doesn’t come as too much of a surprise, it does reinforce how critical search results are for local businesses.
How does it work?
SEO draws on both the technical and creative elements required for improving rankings, boosting traffic and increasing awareness in search engines. However, there are hundreds of factors that will impact where you rank, from the words you use on your site to how other sites link to you. By implementing the following techniques, you will have a search engine friendly website in no time.
Setting up your map location
If you haven’t already done so, make sure that you have claimed your business on Google My Business. Setting this up is simple. Go to the Google My Business page and fill in the necessary details. This function allows you to set up your map location, open hours and contact number, making it easier for consumers to find you.
Creating content
Put simply, content is everything that is on your website and is fast becoming the key part of SEO and in fact, digital marketing itself. In relation to SEO and keywords, online content is written content from the perspective of an individual or business aiming to inform and pull in new and existing customers. How can content be used strategically?
Your content needs to be relevant.
Your goal is to have people stay on your website for as long as possible. If you’re stuck on content ideas, look to see what your competitors are doing; those who are successful are ranking at the top for a reason.
Your content should contain unique keywords
Tying content in with SEO and keywords, every page on your website should contain unique keywords. This includes the title tag, the headline tag on the page, the body of content, the URL link and even the meta description. A meta description is a 155-character summary of your page. Of course, it is also important that you include a strong call-to-action (CTA) in all your content. This ensures that your traffic is lead generating and not just traffic for the sake of it. You can use a tool such as Google Analytics so that you can track how much of your website traffic is organic (coming from a search engine) as opposed to other sources.
Including relevant keywords into your content pieces
Keywords are ideas and topics that define what your website is about. In relation to SEO, keywords are the words or phrases that your potential customers are putting into search engines. Finding the relevant keywords for your website involves research and making sure that your goals align with the goals of your visitors.
Why are they important?
Keywords are important as they are the glue between what people are searching and the content on your website. Essentially, your goal in search engine ranking is to drive organic traffic to your site from the results page of the search engine. The keywords you use will determine what kind of traffic you get. When putting your list of targeted keywords together, you want to make sure you have a good combination of head keywords (a singular word with high volume) and long-tail keywords (specific combinations of words). Whilst head keywords may initially appear to be your ultimate goal, as they often have high search volumes, they can also be vague and come with stiff competition. For example, if you’re business is a clothing boutique, using the term ‘clothes’ as a keyword will have you lost in a search engine result as you’ll be competing with big brands such as ASOS, The Iconic and Boohoo. Long-tail keywords are typically more clearly defined and come with a higher rate of conversion. For example, using ‘vintage clothing boutique Fremantle’ will have less competition than ‘clothes’ and is relevant to what searchers would be looking for.
Why is content important?
Amazing content creates brand awareness and authority in a saturated market, which then has the potential to generate new leads and increase sales as more consumers become exposed to the brand.
Good content is generally more informative, so it gives people an opportunity to authentically engage with the content rather than a sales pitch or message. When customers are authentically engaged, they relate that good content to your brand and will have you front of mind when they are considering your services.
If you work on a content strategy that adds value to your clients and industry, you are more than likely to add value to potential clients also. Try focusing on educating your market about potential legislation updates or key trends that are happening in the industry.
SEO in 2018 is very much focused on creating valuable content for your audience. If you are able to do this, then you are able to make your audience stay on your website for a longer period of time and help them understand your firm better. If you liked today’s blog and learned a thing or two, then subscribe here for more.
