If you want more organic traffic to your website you need an SEO (search engine optimization) strategy. This procedure involves planning, outlining and implementing steps meant to improve your search engine ranking. SEO is constantly changing as search engines continue to update their algorithms. So too must your strategy. The following are some simple ways to build a strong SEO strategy.
- Know your keywords: Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into search engines to find what they’re looking for. Keyword research is the first step in improving SEO. You need to discover what words your target market is using in relation to the product/service your company provides. This can be accomplished through the use of keyword research tools (Soolve, Jaaxy, Google Search Console, Ahrefs Keywords, SECockpit, Google Keyword Planner, etc.).
- Create quality content: Quality content increases your ranking. It needs to be engaging, answers your customer’s questions, provides insights, educates and contains your keywords. Make sure your content is error, grammar and spelling-free. Use short paragraphs, mixed sentence length, sub-headings, bullet points, images and screenshots. Prevent overwhelm by breaking up large chunks of text with supporting media (photos, videos, graphs). Refresh old posts with updated information and extra content.
- Use keywords in your URLs: Focus your URL (uniform resource locator) on the most common and most searched keywords.
- Consider title pages: Create engaging and interesting titles for your web pages, titles that will grab the attention of your target market. Make them short and use strong words. Be certain to include a keyword or two.
- Check pages for keyword placement: Look for additional places where you can naturally place keywords.
- Improve UX (user experience): Search engines place emphasis on sites that deliver quality user experiences across platforms and devices. Your website should be quick to load, easy to use and intuitive to navigate. Each link should work, taking your visitors to the information they’re looking for.
- Increase your website speed: Speed can make or break your site’s performance in search results. There are a number of tools to help improve site speed (PageSpeed Insights, Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, Test My Site, etc.).
- Design for mobile first: 46% of smartphone users in Canada have made a purchase from their mobile devices making it important that you design your website for mobile usage.
- Consider voice search: 27% of the online global population is using voice search on mobile. Since voice search and text search are used differently, you need to optimize for voice search.
- Utilize local listings: 46% of all searches on Google are from people looking for local information. This includes local shops, opening hours, telephone numbers and addresses. Search engines rely on these data aggregators. If you have a brick-and-mortar business you need to list with internet directories (Yellow pages, Google my Business, Yelp, etc). Be sure to include important details like extra locations, your latest opening hours, and what forms of payment are acceptable.
- Measure SEO performance: To understand what content has appealed to your customers/clients, what portion of your website has UX issues, which page has the most/least visits, which SEO changes resulted in higher rankings and what style of keyword you should focus on, you need to monitor, report and analyze your results.
- Hire an expert: To ensure your SEO is truly optimized, hire a digital marketing agency. They can audit your site, determine how it is performing, provide you with a prioritized list of action items and help you implement them. They can analyze results and make appropriate changes. A digital marketing company can take you to the next level of SEO optimization.
SEO is rapidly evolving. Businesses have to adapt fast! Understand and develop your search engine optimization strategy and you’ll see a difference in your click-through rates, engagement and rankings. It’s worth the time and effort.
Need help with your SEO strategy? Want assistance with your marketing campaigns? Call us at (403) 456-0072 or email [email protected]. Allow us to be your very own marketing department! Connect with our tightly-knit team of knowledgeable digital-first consultants, each eager to help your business grow. Contact us today.
