If you’re a small business owner chances are you’ve heard that you need to keep up on your SEO strategies. If you don’t know what SEO is then you probably have bigger problems but in short, SEO is Search Engine Optimization and is used every day when someone puts in keywords into a search bar.
Let’s get you started with some quick suggestions to start injecting smarter SEO into your site so you can leverage this tactic with your marketing strategy.
1. You need to understand your customer base and what they’re searching for
Start by searching for existing products or services similar to yours. Is your site consistently popping up in the search results? What about your competitors? What kind of keywords did you use to find these sites? What might seem obvious to you isn’t always obvious to your target audience. There are many different ways to search for the very same thing like house maid service, residential cleaners, etc. All of these variations matter and should be found somewhere on your site so that specific search word is found through the search engine when it scans your page. Make a list of these keywords and keep them handy for your own reference.
2. Break Your Site Down
How many pages does your site have? What are the most common words you come across? It’s a good idea to make a spreadsheet with the titles of each page and the words that are used. What can be added to these pages from your keyword research that can drive up individual pages when someone searches them? If you have longer, descriptive keywords then it’s better to put these in your blog or FAQ pages.
3. Build Your Site Back Up
Now that you have a better understanding of how each page functions in relation to your site you need to make sure that your site is user friendly. Can your site be easily accessed from a mobile device like a phone or tablet? If it takes your audience several clicks to find what they need then many users become discouraged and will go on to the next search result.
4. Blogging and Social Media
Is there some unique industry insight that you would love to share with your audience? Blog it! Regularly posting a blog a month can help you position yourself as a leader in your field. This is also the place to sprinkle freshly researched SEO terms and incorporate it with the theme of your blog.
Social media should be used as well and requires regular, weekly content. It doesn’t always have to be a promotion for the business. Social media is a place to let your customers connect with you and keep up with the day-to-day aspects of your business but try not to spam. Show off and have fun with it. Your audience craves consistent engagement and this is the place for it.
5. Utilize Available Resources
Hootsuite.com is a great place to schedule your social media posts and to generate metric reports so you can see what kind of content is performing better than others.
Use Google’s keyword planner, https://adwords.google.com/ko/KeywordPlanner/Home to help with your research. http://ubersuggest.org/ is also free and gives you other useful keywords if you’re looking for more suggestions.
SEO should constantly keep you on your toes but the reward is a website with higher search yields and unique traffic being driven to your site!
Hot Dog Marketing helps expert service providers and tech companies build their brands at the same rate they’re growing their businesses. We have deep expertise in branding and online marketing for both business-to-business service companies and local consumer service businesses.