If you are running a small business or simply working for a marketing team, odds are you have struggled with search engine optimization (SEO) at some point in your career. A strong SEO strategy is essential in driving organic traffic to your website and broadening your customer base. Here are five easy-to-implement SEO strategies that you can begin today.
Quick Links
Use Long-Tail Keywords
70% of the links that Internet users click on are organic and not paid. This means that people can find you easily—and without your company spending marketing dollars—if you use strategic keywords in your website content. Long-tail keywords are more specific than your typical generic keywords, such as “sweater.” These types of keywords can drive your audience right to you if used correctly. If you sell a special type of product that does something that no one else does, make sure that you create a long-tail keyword, like “striped wool women’s sweater” and use it as frequently as you can (without overdoing it) on your website, in blog posts, and everywhere you publish content that web crawlers have access to.
Optimize Every Page on Your Website
When developing content for a website, some of the best small business advice is to optimize every page and not just your product pages. Pages like “About Us,” “Contact,” and even “FAQ” are still crawlable by search engines, so why not use this to your advantage? Put some helpful keywords into the content on these pages, and also perhaps add a call to action (CTA). If a potential customer stumbles onto your page because one of these less important pages is indexed, you want them to be enticed to go further into your webpage, and CTAs such as “Learn More” or “Free Trial” may do exactly that.
Do Competitor Research
Another important strategy is competitor research. Take the time to find out what keywords your competitors are using and be sure that you use them as well. Also spend time looking into reviews of your top competitors so that if there is anything that customers are unhappy with, you can ensure that you or your product does it better. Learn to accept defeat in some cases, though. If a competitor does something so well that you cannot possibly compete, focus your efforts on what you do best and expand on that. Don’t waste time trying to be a carbon copy of another company.
Become a Thought Leader
If you have an active blog (and if you do not, you should), spend some time writing on topics other than your company and products. If you work in the cybersecurity field, for example, write blogs that prove you are a thought leader in the field instead of just another company trying to sell products. Blogs on broader topics that relate to your industry will bring a wider range of people to your website. If they like what they read and find you trustworthy, they are likely to want to learn more about you and delve deeper into your site. Use your blog to showcase all of your knowledge and you just may sell more.
Keep Your Website Updated
This sounds obvious, but keeping a website updated involves much more than a regular refresh of content or adding more blog posts. Issues such as broken links can completely kill your marketing strategies, so check for broken links by running a broken link checker regularly. If a page that was once active returns a 404 or similar error, this may be a red flag to a potential customer who may be wary of working with a company that cannot keep something as basic as their website error-free.
SEO can be a tough concept to understand if you are just starting out. Use these simple tips and you’ll be well on your way to a successful SEO strategy that will bring lots of leads and interest to your company.