SEO – Search Engine Optimization
Every company that creates a website wants it to be attractive to web traffic. And not just traffic for traffic sake but to be attractive to active potential customers. In order to get search engines like Google and Bing to find your website, we rely on an inexact science called SEO or Search Engine Optimization. When these search engines were in their infancy, they sent out spiders or programs to search the entire internet and find keywords. In the early days, the idea was to have cornered the market on the most relevant keywords for your customers.
What is relevant to customers? Search engines like Google have been asking the same question. The simple answer is relevant content. Content really is king. Determining what is relevant to customers is part of the magic that search engines have been working on for decades. The systems are quite sophisticated. In simple terms whatever your customer will find valuable, you will find that the dozens of search engines like Google will also find relevant. Today it is so much more than keywords.
Your job is to determine what your customers might think is relevant and put it on your website. If your customers find it relevant so should Bing, Yahoo, and Google. Making a website that is valuable to your customers has the bonus of ranking higher with search engines.
One of the keys to what is relevant is also what is new. If you have a website that is updated annually with one big project you may not be seeing the web traffic you want. The sites that consistently rank at the top are providing new content daily. If you are actively updating your website you can improve your SEO standings.
One way to keep things relevant is to add news to your site. Adding content that customers may want to come back today after day not only keeps your customers coming it is also attractive to search engines.
What kind of product information would your customers like? Can you put operating instructions or maintenance manuals online for customers to download? You can put them in an online store or even better provide them for free.
Another way to be helpful to your customers is to have an active blog. A blog is a group of relevant articles that you write and post on your web page. Some people write blogs daily. Some annually. The most important part is writing things your customers will find valuable. Posting gibberish or rants daily probably will not help. The more the better but, it has to be relevant and useful.
Links are good too. Having a site that has links to other sites like social media is important. You should also have active social media posts that link to pages on your site. Your social media posts should drive customers to your blog posts. Providing links on your site to industry associations, companies you collaborate with, and even to your customers can be beneficial.
You can have an events calendar that calls out what you are doing in the marketplace. Put articles about what trade shows and events you are planning to work on your site. These events should have links to the event’s pages so that customers can easily register for the event. Best if you can supply a discount code for their registration. Most trade shows offer exhibitors discount codes for their customers.
Even if you do not have a PR firm you should work on issuing press releases when you have relevant news to share with the marketplace. When you introduce a new product, you should have a press release. The press release should include high-resolution and web resolution photographs that are relevant to the product. The press release should contain links to the proper pages on your website that relate to the topic. If all works out one or more news outlets will pick up your press release and put a link back to your site in or after their article. Not only will you drive customers to your site but the added link from the publisher’s site will show the search engines that other people think you are relevant too.
All press releases should be on your website. Your social media can reference the press release and have links back to your site to drive more traffic. More traffic and more links are all good.
More tips for relevant content involve more than keywords. An old cliché is a picture is worth a thousand words. The same goes for promoting your website. Beautiful compelling photos are very important. Photos attract customers when used in your social media. They also improve the look of your website and of your SEO score. If photos are good, videos are even better. You will find that videos work better than keywords. You should have a title to the video or photo that represents what is in the media. It should also relate to what we would consider keywords that might be used in your customer’s search.
The bottom line is, make your website active with content that appeals to your customers and your search engine scores will skyrocket.
If you can use help with your content, social media or website let’s get started. Let’s Get Started
Best
Rick