It’s Never Too Late: Setting The Stage For SEO

Whether a business is large or small, new to the online world, or just getting started, it is never too late to set the stage for SEO. One of the primary reasons many businesses fail to succeed within the online world is because they are unsure of where to begin when it comes to optimizing their online content. The tips below are designed to help any business owner improve their current SEO strategy or create a simple yet effective plan of action for any kind of web content.

Search Engine Optimization, Ranking algorithm

Naturally Incorporate Keywords

One of the first places to begin is to identify a mix of keywords which can be naturally incorporated into all online content. In order to be successful, keywords must be selected by a few different factors. Start by identifying industry-specific keywords that clients and customers are likely to type into a search engine when searching for the types of products or services a company provides. Keywords should be specific to a target audience, such as general information that a target audience may be looking for, or may find useful—even if not always directly related to the industry. Trending hashtags and topics are also useful when selecting keywords. This could be something as simple as tying content to New Year’s Resolutions around the first of the year, or calling attention to an upcoming charity event.

Keywords must also be evergreen — this refers to information that will always be relevant. While not every blog post will be evergreen, such as announcing an upcoming event or trending topic, the vast majority of blog post or articles placed online should be. This will encourage ongoing traffic for many months and years to come. Last but certainly not least, keywords must not be too highly competitive. Even those who are unfamiliar with how keywords work can typically come up with a few trending keywords for their industry without even trying. However, to maximize success, finding keywords that clients are searching for, but that are not over-saturated is the key.

While no keyword phrase or individual keyword will meet all of the criteria above, the goal is to naturally infuse keywords with at least 2 of the factors above—throughout website content, online articles, and blog posts alike. Point IT provides a step-by-step guide for how to identify successful keywords.

Optimize For Local SEO

Aside from researched keywords, another effective and often underutilized method of optimization is local SEO. Local SEO involves referencing the specific service area of a business in web pages, web content, and blog posts alike. For web pages this can be achieved by having a web designer add the specific cities served to the footer of each page—such as the Home page, About page, Contact Us page, etc.

In web content this can be achieved by ensuring that the content on each web page includes headlines such as “Proudly Serving Olympia, WA” or “The Best Pizza In Roanoke, VA.” If a business serves multiple cities, select the primary city and communicate that you also serve the surrounding area.

Blog posts can be given an SEO boost by finding ways to include the city and state, not only within the blog posts but also in the headings. Just make sure this strategy is not overdone, and aim to use the keyword no more than 1 or 2 times per blog posts. Blog posts are also an excellent way to speak more to the surrounding service areas.

Aside from the SEO tips above, consider rewriting or refreshing current website content, and increase the number of blog posts you post each week. Also, it’s important to link all website content and online marketing material back to social media sites, which are updated with new information on a weekly basis. Last but certainly not least, ensure that all content is relevant, informative, and engaging. Good luck!

Originally posted on February 23, 2015 @ 7:07 pm

General, New Media, SEO

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