Search Engine Optimization is an ever changing and rapidly evolving animal. Even the people who make it their business to keep up with the changes are sometimes at a loss to explain what they mean to your website and your online business efforts.
Even so, there are still a few time-tested strategies that work now and probably will continue to work for the foreseeable future. However, it’s still critical that you keep up with the latest strategies, or at least hire someone knowledgeable enough to do it for you. You might even have someone on your staff who is not intimidated by technology, and who would be willing to learn the skills necessary to accomplish some ongoing SEO tasks for your company’s web presence. But, if you’re an ambitious do-it-yourselfer, here are a few tips that should prove fruitful.
- Learn how to target keywords that are actually within your reach. If you are an accountant, it would be almost impossible to rank in Google for “accounting.” On the other hand, you may be able to rank for “Atlanta accountant” with the right SEO tricks up your sleeve. Ranking for several “low-competition” keywords will usually be more productive in the long run than obsessing over a very competitive one.
- First, focus on your on-page SEO efforts. What does this mean? Basically, you need to have the right keywords in the right places on your website. You need to use tags, a certain keyword density, captions, meta descriptions and other things to get your site to rank and keep it there.
- Be consistent with your social media efforts. Spend some time each day interacting with your followers and fans. Build rapport and relationships as they will serve you well for years to come.
- Devote significant attention to mobile marketing. More people are using mobile text messaging as a marketing medium. Done correctly, mobile text messaging can far outshine email marketing. Also, be sure your site is compatible with as many mobile devices as possible. Over 40% of web searches come from mobile devices.
- Use video on a regular basis to promote your site and your business. Take advantage of the video revolution. People are watching videos all day long, so put some of yours in front of them too! YouTube is the second largest search engine on the web.
- There are technical things you can do to decrease your page load times on your website. Make sure those things are in place because people simply won’t sit there and wait for your site to load. It makes you look “behind the times.” These include not weighing down your page with unnecessary graphics, video, and photos that will slow down your load time.
- Finally, it is critical that you are posting content on a regular basis. Make it good content! Don’t just post for no reason. Find the questions your prospects and clients have, and answer them. Be their problem solver.
SEO does not need to be arduous or expensive, but it does have to be ongoing and regular. You need to make SEO tasks a part of your normal routine, and be sure to attend to them on a consistent basis. A few tricks accomplished every day or two will begin to add up, and you will start to see a snowball effect. Good luck.