Search Engine Optimization – The Confusing, Awkward Middle Child of the Digital Marketing Realm.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a confusing beast. Where do I tag this text? What bot is crawling my website? Why does what text is in my URL matter? All of this and more makes up the tangled web that is SEO. A few short years ago – this field didn’t even exist. Now it is one of the fastest growing segments of Digital Marketing due to the ever changing way we interact with Search Engines. Don’t even get me started on what the in-home search systems have done to change it – (Alexa, Google home, even Siri).

So what is SEO? SEO is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or web page within a search engine, such as google or bing, without having to pay for your page to show up at the top.  In short it is the way to ensure that when you search for “iPad” that Apple’s website is the first thing that comes up.

So – how do you win the game? Well – you can’t. Because it is always changing. There is no one clear cut way to win at SEO. But, there are a few key ways to ensure you are doing it correctly and your website will reap the ranking rewards.

1. On Site Structure.

   1. Making sure that your website has the appropriate blueprint to help you succeed and gain more rankings – Header tagging, URL Structure, and Title Tagging are some of the ways to help this. All of this in the end will help SERP’s. (Search Engine Results Pages)

2. Keywords – Keywords – Keywords!

   1. When searching for a specific term – say “Bicycle Repair Shops” – Google and Bing will attempt to provide the most accurate and locationally beneficial links that have that information in the website content. By optimizing your site correctly with the appropriate keywords for your business that will deem your site as an “authority” on the subject matter that is being searched – and cause your site to rank better. Don’t put information on your site that doesn’t pertain to your business to try and just gain viewers. It doesn’t work that way anymore. (Algorithm updates and such).

3. Local Submission and Business Listings

   1. Ensuring that every piece of information across the internet about your business being correct. Your “NAP” score – Name – Address – Phone number – should be consistent across all your business listings. Whether it be a link in a local advertisement, your Google Business page, or your Facebook business page. All of that information needs to be consistent as to not cause confusion to the viewer.

4. Social Media Consistency

   1. Search Engines are now using Social Media as links to provide quicker information about a business as well. How many times have you Googled your business and your LinkedIn page has come up higher than your own website? That’s because LinkedIn – in most cases has a higher “domain authority” than the average small business site. What that means is that LinkedIn provides more accurate information on specific topics than some websites do so it will rank higher and higher. (FYI – LinkedIn.com’s domain authority is 100 out of a 100 possible score.)

5. Keeping your site Fresh – So Fresh!

   1. By continuously adding content, images – that are appropriately tagged – and updating your site on a frequent basis, Google and Bing will continuously crawl your site and see that you are trying to keep up and make it better for the end user. That helps with rankings as well. So don’t just let your site sit stagnant! You’ve invested the time, money and effort into this site. Make sure you are putting it to work!

6. Backlinking

   1. You just donated $1,000 to the local animal rescue charity and they are adding a link to your website on their website! HOORAY you just got a link! Links like that, but also links that are relevant to your business – local Association websites, publications on your specific subject matter, and accreditations all help give Search Engines that information that you are an authority on your subject matter. Thus, increasing your rankings!

Some of my favorite SEO resources are SEMRush.com, and Moz.com. Disclaimer – Some of the tools are free for use, but to unlock the full potential of these sites there is a monthly fee for each. If you have the budget – use it! It will help keep an eye on your rankings, and give you an idea on what your competitors may be up to as well.

To talk more SEO strategy and get more information on how to optimize your site, call Grindstone Consultants today for a consultation.