Understanding the best SEO Strategies is the key to driving traffic to your website, generating new leads, and standing out as a thought leader in your industry. Follow these steps to learn important SEO terms and build out a successful strategy for search engine optimization.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of optimizing a website so that it ranks high in search engine results for a specific keyword or keyword phrase. According to searchenginewatch.com, the number one position in Google gets 33% of search engine traffic. 90% of searchers won’t look past page one. This is why utilizing the best SEO Strategies is so important for bringing visitors to your website.
1. The Best SEO Strategies Focus on Long-Tail Keywords
Keywords are words or phrases about a topic of importance. Think of keywords as the phrases people type in when they use Google search or another search engine. In a way, keywords act as the foundation for your imaginary SEO “house” because they are the focus of search engine ranking.
There are two kinds of keywords: broad keywords and long-tail keywords.
- Broad keywords are short words or phrases that are very general and can be used to describe businesses or industries like yours.
Let’s say you are visiting Akron, Ohio and you want to find the best deep-dish pizza place in town. Typing “pizza” into a search engine will bring up tons of popular pizza places. However, this broad keyword will not help you find the best deep-dish pizza place in Akron.
- On the opposite end of the spectrum, long-tail keywords are longer phrases that are specific to your business or industry.
In the same example, if we typed in “best deep-dish pizza in Akron, Ohio”, our search results will be more focused on exactly what we are looking to find.
In order to rank well for a certain keyword, your web page must be search engine optimized for a long-tail keyword.
SEO Tips for Placing Keywords
After you have decided on the long-tail keyword you want to rank for, place this phrase in your web page’s URL, title tag, image (alt) tags, headings, and throughout the content of the page.
- Avoid keyword stuffing. Google will penalize you if your keyword appears too often. A good rule of thumb is to have a keyword density of 3%.
- Write for the website visitor first and the search engine second. If a visitor comes to your site and is turned off by poorly written content, they are probably not going to contact your business to learn more about your products or services. This is why writing for your visitor or buyer persona is the first step to gaining new leads.
- Consider hiring an SEO content writer. SEO content writers are trained to write engaging content that is also search engine optimized. An SEO expert will monitor your search engine traffic to determine which keywords are generating the most leads for your business and will craft web page content using those keywords.
2. SEO Strategies to Boost Website Popularity
Consider the keyword “SEO”. There are so many SEO companies out there that a search query for SEO on Google Search yields over 347,000,000 results. Many of these results have the word SEO optimized in all of the correct parts of the page, including the URL, title, alt tag, headings and in the content of the website page.
How does Google determine which of these results should appear on page one? Google populates search results by listing the sites with the most potential traffic first.
Website popularity is determined by:
- The number of backlinks (links to a website)
- How recent the link occurred
- The popularity of the linking website
For instance, a link from a web page that receives millions of views daily will increase web page rank more than a link from a web page that has only a few dozen visitors daily.
How do you increase the popularity of your website?
- Create a blog and share your blog posts on social media.
- Measure social media ROI (return of investment) by tracking which social media pages are generating the most traffic to your website. The best social media marketing ROI strategy is that allows you to determine what traffic leads to the most sales for your business.
- Consider using a lead magnet such as a ‘free download’ or ‘software trial’ in order to obtain contact information from your website visitors. Once you have a prospect’s email address, you can easily track whether or not the prospect becomes a sale.
The Great Equalizer: Local Search
No matter what your SEO strategies are, it is difficult for a small business to compete with a Fortune 500 company. Fortunately for small businesses, web page rank is also determined by proximity. Be sure to put your company address in all of your social media pages, business listings, and web pages in order to maximize the visibility of your business on search engines.
Looking for a simple way to find areas where your website can improve? The Modern Marketer Assessment connects you with a live marketing specialist who will uncover any missing elements in your sales and marketing efforts.
3. SEO Strategies for Mobile Optimize
I think it’s safe to say we’ve reached the age of the mobile. It’s crazy to think that kids as young as two-years-old are playing games on smart phones and tablets. This means if you’re not optimizing your website and blog posts for mobile devices, you’re losing tons of new leads.
Mobile Responsive Tips & Tricks
When it comes time to make your website mobile friendly, be sure to keep these tips and tricks in mind:
- Use large fonts. Your fonts should be large enough to read without straining the reader’s eyes. A good rule of thumb is a minimum font size of 16px (CSS pixels).
- Design for chubby fingers. Touch screens can be finicky. Be sure to make buttons big enough for larger fingers. Any button (such as your menu dropdown or a CTA) needs to be easily clickable. These buttons should be big enough to be clicked by a large thumb.
- Remove pop-ups and Flash animation. Pop-ups on a tiny screen can be a pain to close out of. Eliminate these from your site and keep your visitors happy.
- Optimize for meta descriptions and local search. Just like we talked about concerning your website, you want to optimize for your ranking long-tail keyword. This includes adding this keyword phrase to your meta descriptions. On a smaller screen, your meta description (or the text displayed below your site name on a search results) needs to be short and precise. And remember to set your location to drive geo-targeted searches.
Phones are all different and uniquely set up for the user. If one particular person does not have Flash installed, they’ll be missing out on some animated parts of your site. Use HTML5 instead.
4. Make New Friends And Gather Back Links
Back links are another handy tool when it comes to gathering new leads.
Back links (also called inbound links) are hyperlinks that link from an outside page back to your company website. These links are crucial in gaining referral traffic and increasing your SEO.
Ways to Gather Backlinks
- Hire a writer. One way to generate high quality back links to your site is to develop a blog and hire a writer to create engaging, relevant articles that will appeal to your target audience. High quality content will encourage social media sharing as well as increase the possibility of another site linking to yours in order to share your content.
Make sure that you hire a writer who is an experienced marketer. Skilled marketing consultants will be up to date with all of the latest Google algorithms and can use that information to increase both off and on page SEO Strategies for your business.
- Reach out to journalists. Another idea for gathering backlinks is to pitch your product to journalists in your industry. Develop a relationship with these individuals and promote your product or service by focusing on the value. You can also express how certain aspects of your product or service will benefit the growth for your industry. Now, when creating high quality blog posts, these journalists will link to your site or one of your relevant blog posts.
- Create infographics. Gathering back links from infographics (images used to show data or information on a specific topic) is a trending process. In short, you create a graphic about a relevant topic in your industry. Then, you write to bloggers who are also talking about this topic and explain that you have created an infographic that you would be willing to share in exchange for a back link. If they like your image, simply send them the full quality version with a description that includes your back link.
- Mention people in your social media posts. @mentioning a person on social media is a simple nudge to gain natural and organic back links. Plus, this helps spread your brand awareness. Followers of the person you mentioned will be exposed to your company and the connection begins.
5. Use Social Media As Your Trusted Sidekick
Social media profiles also rank in search results. Even if your website is ranking below your LinkedIn or Twitter, viewers will still be exposed to your brand and product. This means that all of your social sites should be updated regularly and should contain your most recent publications which show the value of your product or service.
Always post new blog articles on all of your social networking sites. If you think of your website as the heart of your organization, your social media acts as the veins bringing in new visitors. A simple click of a button allows your new blog post to be shared with potential customers across the globe.
We mentioned infographics earlier as a way to gather back links but they can also be used to help your company trend on the social network.
Say for example, your name is Dr. Smith and you own a veterinary clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. You notice that there are over 30 Dr. Smiths in the area so you create an infographic about caring for older dogs that gets shared, retweeted, and liked thousands of times. Social networking users will see this infographic with your name attached and begin Googling “Dr. Smith + infographic”. When your veterinary clinic URL shows up in the search results, people begin clicking on your website. When Google sees that more people are clicking on your website instead of the other Dr. Smiths in the area, your site will become more relevant in searches.
6. Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help
Since Google is constantly changing its algorithms, hiring an SEO agency is essential to make sure that your website is optimized to its fullest potential. If you are too busy to comb through your entire website and blog posts in order to optimize, it might be time to ask for some help.
A skilled search engine optimization agency will give you the advice that you need in order to gain more traffic and convert more sales for your business.
Agencies use a variety of SEO Strategies such as on-page and off-page optimization in order to increase web page rank for your website. On-page SEO involves making sure that the best keywords are optimized in the content and code of a web page in order to increase organic traffic, or traffic from search engine results. Off-page SEO involves social media and link building campaigns to increase referral traffic to a web page. A great SEO strategy involves the use of both on-page and off-page tactics because search engines use both the keywords on a site and the popularity of a site (as determined by backlinks and social media shares) in order to determine a web page’s page rank for a particular keyword.
How SEO Agencies Improve On-Page & Off-Page Optimization
- Optimize less competitive keywords to maximize website visitors
Implementing the best SEO Strategies can be a complicated process. It isn’t enough to choose keywords associated with your business and place these keywords in the title tags, alt (image) tags, description, headings, and content of your website pages. In order to maximize traffic to your website, SEO agencies research the least competitive keywords pertinent to your business and optimize those keywords to maximize your website traffic. Constant research is needed in order to make sure that your website’s pages are search engine optimized to their fullest extent.
- Measure the effectiveness of social media campaigns in attracting leads
Social media marketing ROI (return of investment) can be measured through monitoring website traffic and recording which social media pages are generating the most referral traffic to your website. SEO companies measure social media ROI by analyzing which social media pages generate referral traffic that results in conversions, such as clicking on a leads magnet. What is a lead magnet? A leads magnet involves enticing a potential customer to give out contact information in exchange for a “freebie” such as a free trial. Once a lead has given his or her contact information, it is easy to track which leads result in sales.
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