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The odds of winning the Powerball Lottery are 1 in 292 million.
So are the odds of someone finding your website 1 in 1.72 billion?
Not exactly. You can stack the odds in your favor with SEO.
You will find more infographics at Statista
What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization— that much has stayed the same. It refers to techniques that help your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This makes your website more visible to people who are looking for solutions that your brand, product, or service can provide via search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.
Source: HubSpot
SEO in one sentence-
Make your website better for search engines.
Where do you show in search results?
Step 1- Search for your website.
Did it appear in search results?
Do all pages appear?
Search Engines are looking for 3 things from your website:
-
FAST
-
EASY TO NAVIGATE
-
SECURE
Structure your site so search engines can find the information easily.
INDEX- This is like the old school card catalog at the library.
TITLE- What is your website about?
META DESCRIPTION- A short snippet that tells people what they will find if they visit that page on your website.
TAGS- HI, H2,H3….. Describes how the page flows.
STRUCTURED DATA/MARKUP- Add specific “technical” language to highlight what you want search engines to know about your website.
HIERARCHY- Make it simple and EASY.
THREE CLICKS SHOULD GET YOU THERE EVERY TIME- Don’t make visitors “dig” for content.
Write content for your ideal customer.
IMAGES- Use alt image text to describe images in context of the content on the page.
AVOID SPAMMY CONTENT- If you allow comments, review them and take out spammy links to other sites. You can purchase software applications to do this- CAPTCHA, etc.
SITEMAP- Submit a sitemap to search engines so they know the structure of your website.
MOBILE FRIENDLY- Make your site easy to navigate on mobile devices. If you use a separate site for mobile, make sure you submit this sitemap and tell search engines how to access it.
PROMOTE YOUR WEBSITE- Google My Business and Bing Places for Business are FREE ways to do this.
Share articles.
Events.
Product offerings.
Special Offers.
CONNECT GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE AND BING WEBMASTERS TOOLS for greater insight on how your website is performing in search results.
SECURE- Use HTTPS via a Transport Security Layer that provides:
Encryption
Data Integrity
Authentication
Should you hire someone to do SEO for you?
Before you make this decision, be an educated consumer.
Check out Do you need an SEO? Video from Google.
If you do not understand what you are purchasing, don’t purchase it yet.
Step back, educate yourself, and ask lots of questions about exactly what is included in an SEO “package,” what are the deliverables, and how do we define success.
What is SEO?
The primary goal of SEO is to drive more traffic to your website.
If you dive a little deeper, what you probably want is your ideal customer to visit your website so they can purchase your product or service. This is an important difference. Instead of just stuffing a bunch of keywords into your blog or web page, you will want to use topics and phrases that solve your customers' problems.
Think about how you perform an internet search. If you are like most people, you ask a question looking for an answer.
This is why topics and phrases are a better SEO strategy than keywords alone.
As you can see in the image above, I had a very specific search request. Notice I did not follow a bunch of "steps" along the buyer's journey.
Don't make visitors dig deep for information.
Design your website so the visitor gets what they want in 3 steps or less.
Think about the Hierarchy of your website.
As an example for the above search:
www.bestpetsupplies.com/dogs/pillows-for-cage
would make it very easy to find a pillow for your dogs cage.
As compared to www.bestpetsupplies.com/supplies/cages/dogs/full-grown/accesories/pillow
Let me say it again: Don't make visitors dig deep for information. Use a Hierarchy that matches how your ideal customer searches for your product or service.
Google has some interesting observations on the buyer's journey and how consumers are searching the internet now: "Forget everything you know about the marketing funnel. Today, people are no longer following a linear path from awareness to consideration to purchase. They are narrowing and broadening their consideration set in unique and unpredictable moments. People turn to their devices to get immediate answers. And every time they do, they are expressing intent and reshaping the traditional marketing funnel along the way."
Do you need an SEO?
Practical & Tactical:
Actions to Take
Before You Pay for SEO
You can't manage what you can't measure. Here is a list of items that your SEO specialist should be implementing on your behalf. While some of the terms may seem unfamiliar to you, it would be worthwhile to know exactly what they are and how they relate to connecting your services to the ideal buyer.
Optimize Your Meta Description
The Meta Description is what people see when they are searching on the internet. It has three basic components: Page Title, URL, and Meta description.
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Page Title - Get to the point. Deliver your message in 70 characters or less.
URL - Focus on the keywords for which you want to be found in search.
Meta Description - Give a clear reason why they should visit your website.
Organize Your Website
Use Heading Tags
Heading Tags are like chapter titles in a book.
They are part of an SEO strategy to align Page Titles, Meta Descriptions and content. H1 Heading Tags can be thought of as chapter titles in a book.
Other Heading Tags like H2, H3, etc., are like those words under a chapter title in a book that tell you what to expect. These provide meaningful input to search engines to better understand the page content on your website.
Maximize Alt Image Text for SEO
You found this great stock image you want to use in your blog or landing page.
It is called: Conceptual image of light bulb on wall with sketches of ideas.
That's nice, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the content on your page.
If you right click the image above and hit, 'save image,' you will see the alt image text.
Now, right click the image to the right.
We have added alt text that aligns with this article.
Alt Image Text allows search engines to better understand the content of the image and provides input for text-to-speech programs for the visually impaired.
Add Structured Data
What is structured data? This is code that is added to specific web pages to allow search engines to better understand what is on the page. Structured Data is very useful for Blog Posts, Product Pages, and Service Offerings. Google has made this easy with their Structured Data Testing Tool.
Fix Broken Links
No one likes the, "Page Not Found" message! We really like using the Check My Links extension for Google Chrome. Use this tool to fix any broken links on your site.
Perform Keyword Research
We find many people have unrealistic expectations around keywords. If you have a relatively new website and/or you are just beginning to publish content on your website, you most likely won't be on page one for a keyword that is used by a million other websites. It is important that you talk with your current customers to find out how they search for solutions to problems using the internet and focus your keywords around solving those problems. Quality over Quantity. A useful tool to help you find high quality keywords is Keywords Everywhere, Ubersuggest and Google's Keyword Planner.We use the paid version and find it very useful.
Align Your Content with SEO in Mind
If your Page Title, URL, and Meta Description are about yellow sneakers, then your page content must be focused around yellow sneakers. You will hear the term, "Black Hat SEO," for all the ways to game search engines. Frankly, that is too much work and can have negative consequences. Why try to cheat, when the rules are available to everyone? Google tells you exactly how to do this in a Free SEO starter Guide. Google Search Console is very useful in helping you determine what content is resonating with your audience and what content is falling flat.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor and maintain your site's presence in Google Search results. You don't have to sign up for Search Console for your site to be included in Google's search results, but doing so can help you understand how Google views your site, which helps you to optimize your site's performance in search results. To maximize results, connect Search Console to Google Analytics.
Google Analytics
If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. If you can't manage it, you can't improve it. Google Analytics allows you to measure the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
Content
I don't know about you, but I find that many people struggle with content creation. It's important to note that content can take many forms:
- Blog Posts
- Surveys
- eBooks
- Infographics
- Website Pages
- Videos
- Case Studies
We have found that listening to questions people ask about the problems they struggle with is very helpful in content idea creation. Social media groups and communities are a great resource for ideas.
Pro Tip: Use internal links to connect useful content thematically.
Use a Pillar Page to build internal links. "A Pillar Page is a comprehensive resource page that covers a topic in depth and links high-quality content created for the supporting subtopics."- HubSpot
Here are some examples of Pillar Pages:
International Standards Used In Calibration
Social Media
In addition to ideas for content creation, social media is an effective way to promote your content and improve SEO. Check out How To Monitor Social Media In 13 Minutes A Day to help you get started.
By familiarizing yourself with the basic terminology and best practices mentioned here, you can effectively manage your budget and get the results you want for your business. Better yet, with many of the tools we have recommended, you can already get started to improve your own SEO on your own "terms" (no pun intended).
Looking for a DIY solution? Download the Google Search Engine Optimization(SEO) Starter Guide
Lastly, an important point to remember: SEO is more than a one-time purchase or fix. It is a strategy that requires ongoing attention. At Analytics That Profit, we don't sell an SEO package; SEO is built in to our overall marketing strategy.