SEO is important for every business with an online presence. Without it, your business is just another website among millions that have no way of being tracked or seen by your ideal client or customers.
So What is SEO?
First, let’s highlight what it is and, how it can support the growth of your business. Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the process of optimizing your website so it becomes searchable. When people go to search engines, like Google, they enter the information that will ultimately give them what they are looking for. In order for your site to appear, you have to properly optimize your website.
Properly optimized websites have an opportunity for organic traffic. Your website is available 24/7. When you SEO your website you are able to create a marketing tool that will work for you in your sleep.
To get you started, here are 7 Steps to Attract Your Dream Clients Using SEO.
Who Are you Trying to Help?
Before beginning the SEO process, the first thing you should ask yourself is “Who are you trying to help?” The remaining steps will be hard to follow if you don’t have a clear message and a target audience.
When people are searching for answers they are searching one of three ways: informative, transactional, or specific.
Informative searches are when people are looking to learn or understand something. i.e. “how to braid hair”.
Transactional searches are when people are looking for an item. i.e. “pink beads for hair”.
Specific searches are when people are looking for a place or item and don’t have the actual website address. i.e. “hair braiding salon near me”.
When you understand the intent you can determine the type of searches you want to be ranked for. You will also be able to tailor your content to match the criteria people are looking for to be the answer to their problem.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is when you determine what words people are entering into the search engine. If you are a hairstylist and live in Chicago, then a potential keyword phrase may be “ hairstyles near me” or to be more specific “ hair braiders in Chicago”. The keywords should then be listed strategically on your website allowing those internet trawls to find your site every time some enterers those keywords.
Now some keywords are hard to rank for because there are a lot of sites already ranking for that keyword. This is where the research comes in, allowing you to find and test your keywords to get you the highest ranking. This does take time however, this step will determine your entire SEO strategy.
Copywriting
Your content should be clear and informative. Making sure to have a well-thought-out plan for your content makes the creation and the target easier to obtain. The goal is to make the visitor feel excited about finding the solution to their problem; the longer they will remain on your page… and bonus, look around.
You will also want to make sure you have your keywords strategically placed throughout your page. To make things a little easier for you, here is a list of areas you should target:
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The title
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The meta description
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The URL
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The H1 and H2 text
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The body text
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Image file names
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Alt image tags
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Anchor text links to other pages on your site
As long as you plan ahead, you can easily tailor your content around your keywords.
Content Strategy
Determining what content you will have for your website is how you develop a content strategy. Most content strategies include a blog. Blogs allow you to share informative information that will allow people to see what you are an expert in. For eCommerce (or product-based sites), you will want to take advantage of how you organize and promote products. Just because you are in eCommerce doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of blogs as well.
To create a successful strategy, try testing different types of content that represent who you are as a business. You will want to stay focused on your niche to avoid confusion when people visit your site. Test different keywords specific to your content. Another option for testing is creating a landing page that leads to our blog and seeing how well it performs. Flodesk is one of many great tools for creating landing pages.
Internal Links Structure
Another important item to include is internal links. Internal links are links that direct people to other areas of your website, such as services, products, or other informative areas of your site. This allows people and those internet trawls to see the value of your website.
Again, it should be relevant to the content already on your page. If you use unrelated internal links it will cause confusion as to why the link was provided.
External Link Authority
When choosing external links you will want to choose them wisely just as you do for internal links. External links are used to provide resources or additional information that may not be found on your site. It is also a great way to connect with other high-ranking sites which shows the quality of your content.
Loading Speed & Mobile Optimization
Now place yourself in the shoes of your target audience for a moment.
How frustrating would it be to go to a site with the information you are looking for and have to wait 5 minutes to load, if it loads at all?
Or, you are on your phone and the site is so tiny you can barely see it because it doesn’t adjust to mobile devices.
I’m pretty sure you have experienced this before. Not only is this a deterrent for visitors but, this also hurts your search ranking. Once you have that person on your site, you want to make it a user-friendly experience.
You can check the speed of your website by using Google PageSpeed Insights. You can also see how your business ranks for mobile applications by going to Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
Local SEO
Local SEO is not that far off from following the above steps. The key is focusing on your local footprint. You can do this by creating content around topics in your local area. Staying up to date and focusing on popular events in the news or newspapers. You can create content around these topics and create external links to the source of the topic. By doing this, you are able to rank higher in your local area while still climbing the ranks internationally.
If you’re looking for a quick guide to reference whenever using SEO on your website grab my free downloadable guide. Start using your websites full potential and attracting organic traffic in your sleep.
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