Is your website optimized for search? You may think it is. Search engine optimization has been talked about for a long time. If you think you can tell by searching for your business on your business computer regularly, you’re relying on the wrong information. You can find you easily.
But what about customers?
Search engine optimization is a many-faceted view your company must have of its website so that it’s easily found by anyone who would be looking for what your business provides. It’s not hard, but it’s definitely not simple.
SEO is not a once-and-done deal. Becoming optimized is one thing, staying that way is another.
Here’s a refresher, and if you need more help, give us a call at 920-257-4944.
Keywords and Phrases
SEO involves a realistic understanding of the keywords naturally associated with your business, thoroughly researched to be sure they’re being used by searchers and not overly saturated by your competition. Often the terms a searcher uses are not the same terms a business believes are being used.
Once keywords are determined, their placement will have a lot to do with your success. Stuffing them willy-nilly into your site won’t help at all. The trick isn’t getting certain words into your site. The trick is making sure clients call you once they’ve seen your business online. If visitors aren’t converting, what’s the point? For more information, call 920-364-0261.
Your website content should be focused tightly around your core keywords and a handful of supporting phrases naturally written into your pages. Each page should be knit around one core keyword or phrase, using it craftily in header (h1, h2, & h3) tags, body and link text.
Use them sparingly. Use them with secondary terms that help the page read well.
Interlinking Pages
Robots only frequent pages that visitors frequent, so although you want robots to easily crawl your site and navigate through it, it will only matter as much as your visitor is willing to do it. Convincing them to check out more is so important.
That being said, make sure you have a site map set up on your website, and easy navigation on each of your pages. Check for duplicate content errors that are easy to produce accidentally in title tags. Make sure you don’t have any global settings turned on that would impair a natural crawl.
Every page on your website should be accessible from each page. Clear anchor text should take your reader from one page or post to another that compliments the reason they came to your site. Analytics tools will show you what phrases they used to show up on the page. If you review your site and see negligence in your interlinking, it’s never too late to improve it.
Take extra care to be certain that landing page you worked so hard on is being linked to from posts within your site, pages, and newsletters.
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Did You Satisfy Your Visitor?
Was your message easily understood; did the page present what it offered in the title? You must be clear, both with the overall message, and then with the call to action. It seems funny that you need to tell people what you want them to do, but truly, you do! Be exact.
I think that’s a great exercise for anyone. You need to go from page to page and really think about what you want your visitor to do on each page. Think about why you want them to do it and what the next stage will be. Then develop calls to action that are appropriate for each page to guide them through the process.
As you progress, you’ll need to find time each week to update your website so that it’s useful to you. In the sidebar, I’m sharing short tips that you can implement easily to improve your website performance. Yeah, there’s more. Stay tuned! You don’t have to fully understand everything before you start, but you need to get started now.
For more information about our SEO services that make your phone ring, contact us today.