What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is a process and a combination of strategies that improve the quantity and quality of traffic or leads to a website from search engines. Proper SEO techniques will increase organic traffic, which is unpaid traffic.
There are two basic types of Search Engine Optimization: Onsite and Offsite.
Onsite SEO | Search Engine Optimization
Onsite SEO is everything done on a website, starting with what is obvious, such as well-written content, images, videos, charts, and the appearance of the content. There is quite a lot of behind-the-scenes SEO on a website that most people are unaware of, but that is what the search engines look at to see what is relevant to a search query.
Some strategies or techniques for Onsite SEO include the following (not exhaustive):
- Well-written content – written for people
- Proper Keyword Strategy for each page on your site
- Heading Tags formatted correctly
- Image Alt Tags – the descriptions of each image. These are not captions.
- Image size matters – large photos slow down the page load times.
- Video on your site – viewers like to watch videos!
- Freshness – Content added or updated regularly
- Internal links – clickable links to other pages on your website
- External links – clickable links to content on other relevant web content, on sites with authority.
- Reading level – that is consistent with the target audience.
Your goal with a website is to get people to stay and browse your website long enough to make a buying decision. You need to attract people with images and quality content.
Offsite SEO | Search Engine Optimization
Offsite SEO is everything done outside of your website. Anything created by you or someone else that points back to your website will help your overall online presence. The more vast the links, the better for you.
These links help to build trust and authority which will increase your chances of ranking high in the SERP or search engine results page.
Some strategies or techniques for Offsite SEO include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Citations.
- Quality Backlinks. Not all backlinks are created equal. The wrong ones can cause your site to be put in “time-out in Google’s sandbox,” for example. It’s not easy to get out like a car stuck in the sand.
- Social Media links pointing to your website.
- Your website points to your social media sites.
- Articles and Blog posts on sites other than your own.
- Videos – YouTube, Vimeo, Rumble, etc.
- Directory listings.
- Articles linking back to a page on your website.
- Keywords – your keyword strategy is not just Onsite but should be used in everything you post online. So, if you have a keyword phrase on one page of your site that you are ranking for and you have a social media post with that exact keyword phrase, it should link to THAT PAGE, not just your home page.
- Having a Google Business Profile.
- And more…
Other strategies and techniques within the strategies will help you rank higher in the SERPs.
Are you getting overwhelmed?
It’s okay. Contact us and we can help you. That’s what we do.
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Keyword Strategy
What is a keyword strategy?
It is all in the planning of your business and Online presence, which includes your website. It starts with knowing your products or services and knowing who your audience is. Then, research how people search and what they look for.
Example: You may be selling Widget ABC, which solves three problems for your customers. But they may not know your product exists. So, your keyword would be the real benefit to your customer.
Once you have a list of keywords or keyword phrases, you want to plan your website, blogs, social media posts, videos, etc., around those. Each page on your site should have one to three keywords that relate to one another. Then, they need to be naturally incorporated into the content.
Take a look at the name of this page in the URL. A part of my strategy is to put this page’s keyword in the URL, as well as the heading tags, which I used naturally throughout the text. You know what this page is all about, but more importantly, for you to find this page, Google and other search engines know what this page is all about. Even my image caption and AltTag have the keyword.
Is it starting to click?
So, the Strategy has to do with Research & Planning. It’s really a part of your business plan.
Note: Knowing your audience is knowing who your ideal customer is, also known as a Customer Persona. Here is a link to my copywriting page. Scroll down to the Customer Persona.
Keyword vs Keyword Phrase
It used to be that a keyword was just a word, maybe two, like “coffee maker”. But what we call a long-tailed keyword phrase are whole phrases that people search for. The more specific your product or service is, the better. So a keyword phrase might be, “Kitchen Aid Drip Coffee Maker”.
But the World Wide Web is HUGE!
Yes, it is!
But the cool thing about the Internet is you can optimize and target your local area. Geo-targeted Keywords are used.
I’ll use this website as an example. I can literally do work in any English-speaking area of the world. I am better equipped to target the USA and maybe Canada. But I have geo-targeted Colorado, and a few towns and counties more specifically.
Now, if someone from my home state of New York were to ask me to build a website, would I accept? If I thought it would be beneficial for both of us and I could serve them well, yes, I would.
Especially in your advertisements, you want to geo-target your ad so you don’t spend a fortune on people clicking your ad that you cannot serve.
One last note about SEO
SEO is not a one-time fix. It takes time.
If you are talking about an article or a webpage, then yes, that can be optimized fairly quickly. Or to optimize your website, depending on how many pages and how much work needs to be completed, it could take a few days to a month.
Of course, if you have 100 pages on your website, it will take longer.
But when it comes to an SEO Strategy (mostly off-site) we work for a minimum of 6-months, unless you are in a larger city with high competition, then it could take longer.
We will discuss the details on the Discovery Call. We don’t have a one-size-fits-all approach. We design a plan specifically to meet your needs to grow your business.
Now What?
This is how this works…
It all starts with a Free Discovery Call with Jimmy. We will discuss what you want to accomplish, and what you need to accomplish your goal(s). See the Contact tab above or click the button below.