SEO for improving your search engine ranking, is an ongoing process! Your job is never done as SEO continues to evolve and Search Engines change their algorithms to help searchers find the best content possible.
Feels daunting right? There are some things you can do to improve your ranking and honestly, you worry about you. Don’t get overwhelmed with all everyone else might be doing, just focus on what you can do.
Here are my recommendations as a starting point for Search Engine Optimization.
Decide what 3-5 keywords people will be searching to find your business.
For ideas on how to do keyword research for your website or Blog post ideas that will help your SEO here is a short video training.
From there, start optimizing your homepage using those keywords.
Write content for your homepage that uses those keywords, don’t just stick them in your meta keyword area (that doesn’t work anymore!). Have content above “the fold” where people can see wording quickly on your homepage.
Next, consider making your site a scrolling homepage that has your about us, services, and contact information all on one page (increases wording on your homepage). And in today’s impatient world, the less users have to click around the less likely they are to leave your site – bonus to you!
Use Page Titles wisely – Don’t leave these blank!
Don’t just use your page name, add more detail and use between 60-70 characters. Ie. Instead of Homepage, use Boho Babes Photography | Family Photography Las Vegas.
In your SEO Meta data information USE THE DESCRIPTION area!
Describe the page and what you do on each page. Don’t leave this blank. This is the information that Search Engines show to searchers, you need to have enough information and detail that someone would know what you do and be interested in clicking through. Aim for about 160-180 characters here.
Use Alt Text on all pictures you use on your website – this is the way search engines will search your picture wording too!
Make sure you have a picture name to match as well – ie. Instead of IMG-001.jpg – use Family Photo Ideas Las Vegas or Family Photographer Las Vegas (or more descriptive if you can).
Use the Keyword Research you did to help you write blog posts that will answer questions people have about your industry.
Blogging isn’t about you, it’s about answering people’s questions, and helping them. Blog based on your clients needs and be strategic in your posting. Shoot for 1 blog per week and amplify your reach on social media.
When you first start you may feel like it’s a waste of time but I am telling you, if you will dedicate some time consistently to blogging you will increase your page rank and you can decrease the amount of money you pay for pay per clicks to get traffic to your site!
Take River Pools and Spa’s as an example of the power of blogging. They increased their business traffic by 300% and they have estimated that from one blog post, they were able to generate 2 million dollars in revenue.
How did they do it?
They used their blog as a tool to educate their potential customers.
They were able to blog about the most asked questions from customers and were able to filter out serious customers vs those who were ready to move forward before they even called in to their office. They used those most frequently asked questions in the headlines of their blog posts as well to increase authority.
They didn’t just blog about “Pools” they found long tail keywords like “How to Make Vinyl Liner Pools More Attractive” or “Which Type of Pool Has the Best Warranty?”
They blogged consistently!
Because of their consistency, they were able to keep customers coming back, produce enough content to help readers learn what they wanted to know, and they increased the frequency of how often the search engines crawled their site! If you never change anything on your site, the search engines don’t need to come back and they think you are a stagnant business (and you probably are).
They also had their blog on the same domain as their main website, not on a separate domain.
Why is this important? It helped them get more inbound links and cross links on their site, which increased their page rank on the whole site, not just a blog.
They also shared the responsibility between team members so that it wasn’t left up to one person.
One of the biggest things they did that you can learn from is they answered customer questions that their competitors were too afraid to talk about!
For example, their competitors never published information pricing because they didn’t want their competitors to see the prices they were charging, but RPS wasn’t afraid of being open and forthright with their pricing. Their blog post ” Fiberglass Pool Prices: How Much is My Pool Really Going to Cost? “, received 20,359 page views and 84 inbound links, that is huge!
They also responded quickly to comments on their site encouraging people to ask questions on their blog, even to the negative comments!
They were able to add calls to action to move customers along in the sales process from their blog posts.
And what was the benefit of all of this blogging?
They were able to get rid of PPC and instead focus those fund on earning organic traffic.
Back in the day, you could buy ad space very affordably, today, not so much. You will pay a pretty penny to rank #1 in ads. They realized their efforts could be better spent answering questions and helping customers move forward in the sales process.
What could you do with the money you spent on pay per clicks last year?
For one company I worked at, if they had redistributed the approximately $55,000 they paid in PPC they could have employed someone full time optimizing their website, writing blog posts 2-3 times a week and managing their social media more effectively.
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