When Luck Isn’t Enough
March may be the month of luck, but when luck isn’t enough you can’t rely on that alone when reaching for the top rankings of Google. The biggest attribute you can have is good SEO and with the ever-changing web, keeping up with SEO best practices has never been more important.
First, it’s important to note there are two different types of SEO: On-page SEO and Off-page SEO.
On-page SEO are techniques applied to your website content, design and HTML code so Google can easily crawl your site and find information that is pertinent to the user’s search. The content on your site should not only be engaging, but also include valuable keywords. Keywords are the main words or phrases that your consumers use when searching for you or your services. When deciding what keywords to use, think of what consumers would type in to find you, your services, or ask a question that you can provide an answer for. Then perform searches using these keywords to see what results currently appear. If you see that some shorter keywords have a lot of competition within your business category, you may want to consider using long-tail keywords (between 2 and 5 words) as well. The longer the keyword, the less competition you will have, but you don’t want to make only long-tailed keywords as you could lose your potential customer all together. In terms of design and HTML, you’ll want to make sure your website is responsive so it is user-friendly on all devices, includes quality images, loads content and images quickly, has a secure URL by applying a SSL certificate, includes title tags and meta descriptions, and integrates your social media sharing buttons.
Off-page SEO are measures implemented outside of your website. To prove you are a trustworthy and reliable business, Google looks at who else online links to your site, the consistency of your business information on directory sites such as Yelp, Angie’s List or Localsolution.com, the age of your website’s domain, and positive reviews (real not fake). Being up-to-date and active on your social media sites and having people link to your content are also steps you can take to help with your Off-page SEO.
SEO doesn’t have to be scary or intimidating. And as luck would have it, there are many companies out there who can help you with your SEO practices. If you’re looking for someone to help you get the most from your website, contact a Marketing Strategist at Pinnacle Marketing Group today!
