SEO: 3 Things YOU Can Do to Boost Your Search Engine Rankings

Search Engine Optimization is for EVERY Business

Most people use search engines. It’s a fact. I could bore you with the statistics, but for the sake of this post, let’s just say that ALL people use search engines (nearly all people do). What this means is that showing up high in search results when someone searches for the products and services you offer is important.

How important? Well, about 28% of search engine clicks go to the first organic result on the page. The second organic result gets 16% of clicks. The proportion if traffic received declines further from there with each additional spot. To put it another way, the first search result has a 10x higher click through rate than the tenth result.

Okay, we’ve established that showing up high in search results will lead more people to your business. Now, what exactly can you do to improve your chances of success?

SEO Basics: Create Content

People who use search engines want to get great search results, so search engines want to sort through all of the sites on the Internet and give searchers the best list of results to match their query every time. The number one thing that search engines rely on is the content on your website. Is your content thin? Does your website only have a few pages? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you’re not doing your website any SEO favors.

So what sort of content do you need to create? Here are some things to consider:

• Create More Core Pages: Create a page for each service, a page for your testimonials, pages showing off your work.
• Write Blog Posts: Write blog posts showing people that you are an expert in your field. Share you knowledge.
• Ensure You Content Isn’t Thin: Make sure pages and blog posts have at least 300 words each.
• Use Important Keywords: Do you sell widgets? Make sure you mention widgets often in your text (without making it sound unnatural).
• Update Old Content: Make sure your pages have up to date information. Has something changed? Have you added something new?
• Create New Content Consistently: Can you write a blog post each week? Can you blog every day? The more the merrier.
• Provide Helpful Links: If you’re producing new content regularly, go back to old posts and update them to include internal links to relevant new pages.

SEO Keys: Solidify Your Online Presence

Putting a website on the Internet won’t automatically get you seen. You need to have a presence on other websites as well. Making sure that online business directories have your information is a great start. Looking at all of the business affiliations you have and seeing if there is a way to include a link to your website on theirs is a great second step. Establishing a presence on every social media platform that makes sense for your business is critical. Here are some websites that you should establish a profile on immediately:

• Google Business
• Bing Places
• Yelp
• Facebook Pages
• Twitter
• LinkedIn Business Pages
• YouTube

This list is short, but there are literally hundreds of websites where you could create a listing for your business. There are also solutions like Neustar Localeze that allow you to submit listings to multiple directories at once for a low annual fee, and Reputation Management to take control of your online reviews.

SEO Staples: Put Social Media to Work

One of the criteria search engines use to score content on your website is the value it offers to real people. With the proliferation of social media, search engines now have huge amounts of data to indicate whether a page on the Internet is popular or not. The more likes, retweets, pins, comments or shares your content gets, the more favorably search engines will view your content.

So how do you make this work? Here are some things you should be doing with your content:

• Evaluate Your Content for Impact: Does your content help people answer a question? Does it help them improve something they are working on? Does it make them laugh? Make sure your content provides actual value for your audience.
• Share Your Content Across All Networks: Make sure you share a link to your newly updated/created content on every social network you have access to. Share it on your business Facebook page and then turn around and share that post with your personal friends.
• Pay Attention to Insights: If and when people get on board with the content you are sharing, data provided by social media sites will tell you.
• Encourage Interaction: Ask people to comment and provide an opinion, ask them the share with their friends. Give people a reason to want to engage.
• Refine: As you create and share new content, take what you’ve learned and improve upon your previous efforts.

If you learn and commit to these three core SEO principals, you will achieve results. This website went from nonexistent to the second page of Google results (when searching for “Digital Marketing Firms New Haven CT”) in less than 30 days by using nothing more than the above SEO tactics. A couple more blog posts and we could be on page one within another 30 days and well on our way to the number one position in six months.

Consider Bringing in an SEO Expert from Xponent21

You wear a few hats, we get it. If you don’t have time to learn and commit to the above search engine optimization strategies, but you understand that being in the number one spot will mean more customers spending money with your business, investing in SEO would be a wise choice. Let us do the research, create a plan and execute an SEO strategy that will lead to measurable results in your business. Learn about our search engine optimization service, or complete the form below to get started today!