You’ve worked hard to design your website, learned everything you can about your target market, and built your overall branding strategy.
However, if you don’t develop a strong SEO strategy, all of your efforts will be for nothing.
But what is SEO, and how does it work?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.
In a nutshell, it means taking certain SEO tactics to make sure that your website ranks as high as possible in the search engine result pages (SERPs) for short. But it’s not only about getting on the first page of Google.
It also helps to get your website’s content — and the products and services you offer — in front of the people who are most likely to buy or book.
When you use a billboard ad, for example, you just hope that someone who happens to be interested in what you’re selling drives by. But in SEO? You’re directly targeting people who are actively looking for what you have.
This means more growth, higher rankings, and of course, bigger profits.
Read on to learn more about the top SEO tactics that you can implement today.
Many professionals don’t fully realize the influence that website design — and more than anything else, website speed — have on their search engine rankings.
If your website takes even longer than one second to load, users are going to click away from it. This increases your site’s bounce rate — and search engines take that to mean that either your website isn’t well-designed or that it doesn’t offer useful information to consumers.
This means your website will fall in the search engine rankings.
In addition to focusing on intuitive, clean website design, you also need to make loading speed a priority.
To do this, always enable browser caching, enable compression, and minify your HTML requests. You should also limit the number of website plugins you use. You may even decide to work with a content delivery network (CDN) to ensure that your site loads as quickly as possible.
By the end of 2020, roughly half of all searches will be conducted via voice.
This means that Siri, Alexa, and the Amazon Echo are your new best friends. It also means that you’ll have to adjust your keyword strategy to fit with this sudden rise in voice search.
Don’t worry — this essential SEO tactic is much easier than you think.
Focus on keywords that mimic the way people actually speak, not the way the type. For example, it’s pretty common for someone to type a phrase like “best shoe shops Malta” into a search engine. But no one would say that out loud.
Instead, try to adjust the keyword phrase to include “who, what, where, when, why, and how.” So, a voice search-optimized option of that same search query might be:
“What is the best shoe shop in Malta?”
Include that phrase and others like it in your written content, and you’ll have a much greater chance of being featured in the snippets. This means your content will actually be read out loud.
It’s no secret that local SEO is one of the most important parts of your digital marketing plan as a whole.
But the definition of the word “local” — at least, as it relates to SEO — is changing.
It’s no longer “local” enough just to list the country, the city, or even the region where your business is located. Now, you need to choose keywords that include the names of other businesses near your location, local landmarks, your street name, and the name of your neighborhood.
This is known as “hyperlocalization,” and it’s absolutely the next big thing in the world of local SEO.
One of the top things you can do to boost your SEO strategy is to claim your third-party business listings.
These are things like Google My Business, TripAdvisor, Yelp, and even pages in an online community directory.
Countless consumers read reviews of your company before they decide to do business with you — and third-party listings allow consumers to write about their experience with working with your brand.
They also list your hours, nearby transportation options, accepted payment methods, and even include photos of your storefront.
It’s not just about choosing the right keywords — it’s also about making sure that you put them in the right places on your website.
You should absolutely use keywords in your page and post titles. But make sure that you also use keywords in your headers.
Doing so won’t just give your site a boost in the rankings. It also breaks up your posts and pages, making them much easier for readers to digest.
Be honest: would you really interested in reading a wall of text?
We didn’t think so.
If you want to understand how SEO works, you need to realize that search engines don’t just look at the keywords you use and the websites you link to.
They also look at the frequency with which you post.
Even just dashing out a quick blog post tells search engines that you’ve “updated” your website in some way. Search engines have been programmed to “think” that sites that have been recently updated will provide the most accurate and most up-to-date information to users.
So, sites that are marked as frequently updated or recently updated will rank higher in the search engine results.
We understand that it can be seriously tough to post every single day.
That’s why we strongly suggest creating a content calendar. Come up with blog content ideas, dedicate a weekend to writing them (or hire experts to do your content writing for you) and then post them throughout the month, not all at once.
While you’re doing this, also consider creating a social media posting schedule.
How does SEO work?
In today’s world, on a mobile-first scale.
Since more people now use mobile devices than desktop computers to access the Internet, search engines look at how well your website loads on things like tablets and smartphones to determining your ranking factor.
In short, how well your site loads on mobile devices is now more important than how well it loads on desktop computers.
To optimize your site for mobile, get rid of pop-ups and banner ads. Ensure that buttons are large enough to be clicked on mobile devices, and that your content loads quickly and completely on mobile.
You may even consider creating a mobile app for your brand, or at least enabling Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to improve the mobile user experience.
Google Maps is six times more popular than all other navigation apps combined.
In short?
Chances are pretty high that your target market is using Google Maps to help them find out the best way to get to your store from their current location.
That’s why it’s so important — especially when it comes to local SEO — to include a Google Map on every page of your website (the homepage alone isn’t enough.) This is also a great time to ensure that you have your contact information on every page of your website.
Visitors don’t want to have to comb through your entire site just to find your phone number or address.
One of the top quick and easy ways you can boost your overall SEO score and get more targeted traffic to your website is by optimizing your URL.
We’re not just talking about your actual website address — though of course, that matters, too.
Instead, we mean including keyword phrases in your actual URL structure.
For example, let’s say the keyword phrase you wanted to target was “best dive shops in Malta.”
You’ve written a blog post ranking the top 5 dive shops in Malta, and you want to make sure those who are ready to book a dive ASAP see it.
Instead of just a URL address that’s a bunch of random letters and numbers, try a URL for the post like:
www.YourWebsite.com/blog/5-Best-Dive-Shops-in-Malta
This is an awesome way to get the right kind of traffic to your site and to increase your conversions (AKA, make more sales) in the process.
Many people struggle to understand how SEO works with their brand’s social media profiles.
The best way to think about how your social media accounts direct traffic to your website, increasing your ranking as a result.
This is why it’s so important to include links to your website in your profile’s bio or even in specific posts.
Embrace the “shoppable posts” trend by allowing your followers to click on social media images directly to be sent to the page of your website where they can buy them.
Share blog posts on your Facebook account to encourage followers to read them on your blog.
Remember the power of dark social, too. If users share links you’ve posted on social media in messenger apps, email, or even through text messages, you’ll still get a boost to your overall SEO score — even if these shares are a bit harder to track.
One of our easiest search ideas?
Optimize your images for SEO in every way. Begin by using one of your keywords as the image’s file name. Include keywords in a caption underneath or alongside the image, as well.
Use JPEG image files whenever possible, as they’ll still look great even when resized.
You also need to consider how the size of the image will impact your SEO score. Compress images to decrease their overall file size without compromising the quality of the pixels.
In general: just stay away from oversized images whenever possible. Usually, the picture doesn’t really need to be that big to get your point across.
These tips will also help you to understand how to optimize your images.
Remember that popular SEO tactics — and even search engine algorithms — are constantly changing.
The same goes for the ways in which people search for things they need online.
To ensure that you’re keeping up with the times and that your current strategies are still effective, you need to constantly monitor your website.
Look at your most and least popular pages. Be aware of the average amount of time a user spends on your website. Check your site’s speed and mobile-friendliness by using tools like this one. Ensure that links are still functioning and that the keywords you’re trying to rank for are still the best options.
Remember, it’s not just about getting to the first page of search engines. It’s also about staying there.
This post has given you an excellent understanding of some of the most important SEO tactics you need to implement in order to outrank your competitors and make more sales.
But here’s the thing.
Most companies — regardless of size or industry — don’t actually have the time to implement all of these SEO strategies on their own. They have to make meetings, pitch clients, go to industry events, and create and test new products and services.
But even if they do have the time, they often don’t really have the expertise needed to succeed.
That’s where we come in.
Reach out to us today to start creating an SEO and overall digital marketing plan that will give your company the results it deserves.
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