When it comes to doing business online, many people turn to a search engine to find what they are looking for. In many cases, consumers will scroll through the first page or two of results to see if what they want comes up. If not, they may rework their search terms to find pages that suit their needs. Having a strategy for search engine optimization means there is a better chance that your business gets to be one of the first that people come across. Here are 5 ways you can improve your search engine optimization business strategy.
Plan for Search Engine Questions
Many people who look for information are also looking for products or services. Potential customers start their journeys in the forms of questions that they will type into a search engine bar. Gather key questions your customers have about any things you do or goods you sell. Put a small FAQ section at the bottom of any page on your site that is appropriate. Doing this step can optimize your business for question-based content.
Curate Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO focuses on links that lead back to your site from somewhere else on the web. Having great backlinks can increase your customer base, but it can also build trust. New businesses need the trust of search engine algorithms in order to rank as high as possible. Off-page content from respected corners of the internet can foster this trust.
Building backlinks is the hardest part of any SEO campaign. It is also the number one ranking factor in the Google algorithm. This is why quality backlink building is such a coveted service that many agencies offer. Here are a few tips for building backlinks to your website.
- Create a quality asset on your website. This can include a long-form blog post, a calculator, or a scholarship. The purpose of creating an asset is to have something worthwhile to link back to. A strong website will not link to you if you don’t have something valuable to their audience.
- Once you have your asset on your website, you can start your outreach. If you don’t feel comfortable doing your own link outreach, then consider hiring a white label digital marketing provider. They will be able to select domains to reach out to and negotiate a backlink to your website.
Every company should have some sort of backlink building strategy. If you don’t currently have one, then reach out to a local marketing agency that can give you a free consultation.
Coordinate with a Marketing Team
Optimizing a business for search engine parameters can involve several technical fixes. However, marketing is at the core of SEO. You need to focus on the areas that your business covers and cater to your customers. A professional digital marketing company can analyze how best to reach your customer base and expand your options, leaving you free to focus on the daily operations.
Check Your Codes
Most big search engines care a great deal about the nuts and bolts of a website. The engines look at the codes that structure and present the site to readers. If the technical side of your business is lacking, it could drive down your rankings even if your content or services are exemplary. So be sure to check your website codes and see if they are muddying your SEO strategy.
Measure Your Successes
No strategy for SEO will get very far if you don’t have a way to see if what you’re doing is working. There are several metrics you can use to see what is going well and what needs refinement. Different businesses will have various requirements. Consider creating monthly virtual dashboards to log organic traffic to your site.
At its heart, having a strategy in place for SEO is about content creation. Business owners or managers have products or services they want to sell, and a large part of SEO is crafting content that leads straight back to the source. Write articles, create tutorials, and answer questions to create content that will bring consumers directly to your business.
Brooke Chaplan is a freelance writer and blogger. She lives and works out of her home in Los Lunas, New Mexico. She loves the outdoors and spends most of her time hiking, biking, and gardening. For more information, contact Brooke via Facebook at facebook.com/brooke.chaplan or Twitter @BrookeChaplan