What if your website could present itself in the exact moments that online searchers are actively looking for the products and services you sell? Search engine optimization can help you do just that.
With more businesses turning to SEO as a must-have in their digital marketing tool kit, the organic search landscape is as competitive as it has ever been. But when done right, your website can break through to earn high-quality, targeted website visitors.
Follow these five tips to get started with SEO.
1. Use Google’s free tools
Subscription-based SEO software can provide a lot of in-depth intelligence, constant website monitoring, and organic keyword tracking. But before you commit to a paid tool, see how far Google’s free resources can take you. Even if you already have a paid SEO tool, these Google resources are worth checking out for added utility.
- Google Analytics: An indispensable tool to track user behavior on your website and measure goal conversion
- Google Search Console: Quickly diagnose issues impacting organic search performance, submit sitemaps, and more.
- Google My Business: Setting up a verified GMB profile is a strong signal of legitimacy to Google and gives our business better visibility to local searchers.
- Google Trends: Learn about your target keyword’s popularity by location and time of year. A great tool to guide keyword selection and content idea generation.
- Chrome Lighthouse: This Chrome extension gives a quick overview of some of the most important SEO metrics, including website performance, accessibility, best practices, and a light SEO audit.
- Google PageSpeed Insights: Identify issues that are slowing down your website load speed, an important variable in organic rankings.
2. Perform competitive intelligence on the right competitors
Your main business competitors may not be your biggest SEO competitors. Look at the search engine ranking pages (SERPs) for the top keywords you want to rank for, and do competitive intel on them. These are the sites you need to beat out to earn top-of-page-one organic rankings.
Look at technical SEO metrics and on-site elements that influence organic rankings, including:
- Domain Authority / Page Authority
- Total inbound links
- Linking root domains
- Followed vs. nofollowed links
- SEO metadata (title tags, meta descriptions, headers, etc.)
- Website size and structure
- Online resources (thought leadership content, blog, etc.)
- Social media profiles and activity
3. Amplify your content
Some marketers are afraid to publish content outside of their website, fearing that the publishing website will take all the credit for their thought leadership. But some of your content has to live outside of your blog to get noticed. Put another way, would you rather have great content on your blog that nobody reads, or great content on someone else’s site that gets thousands of views?
In addition to building content on your site and building external backlinks to it, consider publishing content on high-quality, authoritative blogs in your space, earning media coverage, securing interviews, appearing on podcasts or webinars, paying for social media promotions, or running sponsored content syndication campaigns.
These are all great ways to get your content in front of pre-built audiences that will be receptive to your message.
4. Remember that SEO is a long game
Embarking on SEO is a long-term, strategic online marketing decision. Depending on the state of your website, SEO can require an overhaul of your website copy, layout, structure, and metadata and can even necessitate a complete website redesign.
Your website is the foundation of every SEO effort you will make, so it has to be solid. Beyond a sound website, SEO requires a dedication to creating quality, informative, and educational content both on your site and off (see #3 above), in addition to everyday monitoring.
SEO is not for the faint of heart or for those lacking patience. If you want immediate results from search engines, try pay-per-click advertising. Better yet, use them both in tandem for better results.
5. Choose the right partner and stay involved
If you don’t think you have the time, resources, or knowledge to manage an SEO campaign effectively, consider outsourcing to an SEO specialist. Be cautious when selecting an agency. If you hear anyone guarantee rankings, promise organic search traffic, or mentions “link networks”, run the other way — fast.
Once you find a trusted SEO partner, be sure to stay involved throughout the entire process. Appoint an internal resource to manage the relationship and have regular check-in calls. Be proactive in reviewing SEO goals, monitoring reports, and holding the agency accountable.
