If you are an online business owner or entrepreneur, you have without a doubt read about or heard about the importance of search engine optimization (SEO). However, SEO is a complex subject made even more complex by the algorithms that determine which sites rank on search results and which ones do not.
Considering the fact that the success of your online business rides on being able to generate organic traffic, you need to know how to successfully implement a variety of SEO techniques on every page that you publish. With this in mind, it is understandable that knowing where to begin is almost as difficult as learning the intricacies of SEO.
That said, SEO does have certain basic components that can get your site optimized and increase the chance your pages will rank well for certain search requests. Additionally, depending on your website, you can pick and choose where you want to begin, ensuring that certain parts of your site perform well and help increase revenue as the rest of your site catches up according to your schedule.
Your Business
1. Domain Name
Although domain names that match keywords are not as influential as they once were, it does not hurt if your domain name matches the searches input by searchers. For instance, if people are searching for “quality tennis shoes,” it might help your search results if you name your website “Quality Tennis Shoes.” This is not a requirement, but if you are just planning your website, you should consider whether the name of your company might also serve your SEO requirements.
Content
2. List Your Keywords
One of the best places to start for an online business that already exists is for the owner to make a list of all the keywords related to the company’s primary product or service. It is important to note that you should write down all the keywords that are related to the things that make you money because it is important to know two things.
First, the things that are related to what makes money for your business might actually draw more traffic than the actual products and services.
Second, people search for all sorts of things using all sorts of terminology. By naming things that are related to your products, you can often come up with keywords you had not at first considered that match what people are searching for.
For instance, if you sell shoes, things that are related to selling shoes include where to go hiking. If you write content about where to go hiking, you can include the best types of shoes to wear while hiking. Hiking does not make you money, but this particular activity is related to things that do make you money. Consequently, targeting keywords related to hiking is a good place to start when you want to cover the basics of SEO.
3. Match Your Keyword List To Regional Searches
A marketing firm that focuses on SEO in Cincinnati can help you with your SEO because an SEO professional has access to all the data you require to properly optimize your online business. However, you can do some preliminary research on popular keywords used in your region. For instance, you can research Google AdWords to see how many people are searching for products or services in the communities where you conduct business. Sticking to the previous shoe example, you can research all the different ways that people are searching for shoes in your region.
Some people, for instance, might be searching for sports shoes or hiking shoes while others might be searching for “shoe stores in Cincinnati.” You need to match all your keywords on your keyword list with how searchers are searching for your product.
4. Write Content That Overlaps With Searches
When you prepare your content, it is important to not simply write about your products and services. Instead, you need to write content that does two things.
First, the content needs to sound natural. Second, it needs to be written such that it includes the keywords that people use when they search for your products and services. If you simply write content that describes your products and if that content does not match the keywords searchers use, search engines will not match your content with search requests because the engines will not know your content actually matches what people want.
In other words, a website that sells shoes cannot simply be about shoes. Instead, it needs to be about the topics important to searchers–as described by searchers. If people want climbing shoes or shoes with tough traction, you need to write about climbing shoes or shoes with tough traction.
5. Keywords Versus Phrases
When you are writing content, a good place to start is understanding the difference between a keyword and a phrase. Keywords are general words that many people search for. Primarily using general keywords will not help you rank high in the results of a search page because every other site will be using similar general keywords.
Instead, you should try to be as specific as possible by weaving popular search phrases into your content. For instance, a phrase consists of multiple words, and these multiple words combine to create the thing that search engines attempt to match with content. For example, if someone searches for “wedding cake bakers with delicious icing,” the content that best matches this long phrase will be matched to the search request. More specifically, the content that best matches this hypothetical search request is exactly what you might guess: “wedding cake bakers with delicious icing.” If you can find specific things that people are searching for and write your content accordingly, you can prevent a lot of wasted time spent on writing content that will never match anything.
Related: 5 Benefits of Using People Search Engine
Social Sites
6. Unlocking The Power Of Pre-Built Websites
When you are first starting out, it is important to post to social sites because quality sites are the ones that get listed on the first page of Google or Bing search results. With this in mind, if you post something on Facebook and if you match the keywords in your post to how searchers are phrasing their searches, your post has an increased chance of being listed as an option for searchers.
This is important to understand because you can post the very same content on your website and never have a chance at being listed in search results because your site cannot compete with Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram when it comes to how search engines rate quality. That said, you can leverage the quality of these sites to get your content listed in search results. In doing so, people will find out about your website, and your monthly traffic will increase.
7. Basic Types Of SEO Content
In order to take full advantage of SEO, it is important to use social sites. To do this properly, you will need to become adept at using keywords and keyword phrases in your posts to describe the primary type of content that fits different sites.
- Twitter: photos with captions, video with captions
- Instagram: photos with captions or brief paragraphs that tell a story about the photo
- Facebook: photos and video with descriptions
- YouTube: video with summaries
For instance, if you are based in Ohio, you will want your site’s SEO Cincinnati to be able to attract local customers who read Facebook or visit YouTube. To do this using YouTube, you will need to simply post different types of engaging videos and write video summaries that include keywords and keyword phrases. Once the search engines see that your YouTube summaries match search requests, they will list your YouTube page on the search results, which will increase the amount of organic traffic to your YouTube page. Once people visit your YouTube page, they might very well visit your actual website, which is how website owners use SEO to build their websites via social sites.
