Drive website traffic
If social media marketing is one of the pillars of online business, another is undoubtedly SEO. SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimization’ and is the process of creating a website and its content in such a way that Google ranks it high and ranks it at the top of search results for a large number of different searches.
These days, most people interested in using a service or buying a product will Google it. If you can get listed in those search results, then you can drive tons of traffic to your website. This means that it is not just the right market, but the right time. This is what you call ‘susceptibility’ in marketing and it’s a very powerful factor. The good news when it comes to SEO is that you can actually do it yourself and that means it’s potentially free. Do a little work up front and you can be set up for years to come with a steady stream of traffic and customers. The bad news, though, is that SEO is tricky, complicated, and never guaranteed. That said, there are a few things you can do to improve your chances…
The basics of SEO:
To identify which websites should be shown for which search terms, Google will apply an algorithm to its web indexing. Nobody knows about this algorithm and it’s changing all the time, so there’s no way to guarantee that what you’re doing is going to work. However, we know some basic concepts. To begin with, Google will look at the content of a website to find out what it is about and if it offers value to the reader. It does this by searching for keywords that will match the search terms. So if you want to get started, you need to identify what specific keywords you want to ‘rank for’ and try to incorporate them into your writing organically. A while ago, people repeated keywords over and over in their text to get to the top of Google. However, this was off-putting to the reader and Google took notice.
Instead, the best strategy now is to repeat the phrase multiple times (around 1-2% density throughout the text), but also include lots of related terms and synonyms. This is what is now called ‘Latent Semantic Indexing’. You don’t need to know too much about it though, just try to write naturally on the subject and flex that vocabulary! Another key factor in deciding a website’s ranking is its ‘inbound link profile’. In other words, Google looks at how many other sites link to your site and examines the variety and quality of those links. Links not only help Google discover your website in the first place, they are also seen as testimonials – the logic being that if someone is linking to your site, then it must be good!
However, paying people to link to you is against the rules (and you can face serious penalties if you get caught). Instead, you can use two strategies:
• Guest posting – which means creating content for other blogs for free, in exchange for a link to your site.
• Link baiting – which means writing content that is not only of excellent quality, but also designed in such a way that it encourages people to link to you. Resource articles, for example, are good link bait.
Guest posting should be done sparingly, while link baiting should happen organically. Ironically, the best way to get people to share (and therefore improve SEO) is to forget that search engines exist and simply write the best content for the reader. Finally, it is also important to think about some technical aspects of your website that will have an impact. Google now requires all websites to be mobile-friendly, for example, and you’ll be penalized if your site loads too slowly. Using WordPress and a custom theme is a good way to ensure your site runs smoothly and reliably if you’re not a professional web designer yourself.
Your SEO Strategy Described:
The secret to success in SEO right now is to write a lot and write well. SEO and ‘content marketing’ are pretty much the same thing at this point, with Google advanced enough to see your writing almost like a human would. It will only get smarter over time, so there is no point in trying to cheat the system. What you can do, however, is generate lots and lots of content around your chosen topics. The more content you create, the more “long-tail keywords” you’ll find and the more you’ll reinforce the theme of your site. Long-tail keywords are keywords that you unintentionally rank for.
When someone writes: ‘Why is my rabbit limping and smelling musty?’ at Google, Google has to get something out. So this is most likely a random website that used a lot of those words, even if it’s not an exact match. The website was purposely not ranked for that phrase, but having a lot of content increases the likelihood that vaguely relevant searches will accidentally land on your site. So if an article gets one hit a day like this and you have a thousand articles… then that’s a thousand hits. Do you see why this matters? The more content you have, the more likely it is that searches will find you. Many bloggers write only once a week or even fortnightly and then wonder why they don’t increase their traffic. If you want this to be your full time life then you need to treat it like a full time job with full time hours, simple as that! And quality is just as important. Not only because every time someone views your content, they have the opportunity to post an organic link on a forum or even your blog, but also because Google looks at factors like the time people spend reading your page when judging its quality. If you continue to consistently do high-quality work, people will start talking about your brand and it will start to gain momentum. There are no shortcuts, although you can of course outsource this process if you can find a high-quality, reliable writer. In addition to this, you still have to keep in mind a few keywords that you will keep coming back to. These should form the backbone of your content and will guide your decisions on which articles to write and how to set up your web pages (you can use keywords in your filenames and image tags, etc.). Again, keep it subtle but make sure it’s there. Search for ‘keyword tools’ to research which phrases related to your niche have the most searches without too much competition.
Guest Post:
The goal of Google’s algorithm is to find out what is really popular and high-quality, and therefore the company doesn’t want you to try to game the system by posting links to certain places in large numbers. If you only have links on high-quality blogs, this will look suspicious. However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use guest posting, as this is really the only proactive means you have of accessing websites that have a high ‘PR’ (reputation in the eyes of Google). Instead, shift the focus here from quantity to quality. Try to find some really important blogs and then focus all your efforts on getting a link from them. If you do it right, a single link can take you to the top of search engines, can generate more likes and shares, and can bring you hundreds of thousands of visitors directly. If you can get a link on the website of a major blogger in your niche, this can set you up for years to come and transform your earnings overnight. This is a growth hack known as “influencer marketing” and it’s an incredibly powerful tool. However, the route to getting your links on these big sites might involve starting with smaller targets. Big sites are likely to ignore you at first, so use sites a little ahead of you to build your own reputation bit by bit until you’re ready to go after those few crucial links. Still, guest post with a purpose and don’t just increase as many low-quality links as possible.
Tip: Don’t underestimate the importance of real-world networks. If you can meet a great blogger in person, then you have a much better chance of making a real impression that could lead to a link.
Local SEO:
In addition to ‘regular’ SEO, using local SEO is incredibly important if you have a local business. Local SEO essentially means taking your regular keywords and then adding your area to the end of them (“buy Santa Monica hats”). At the same time, you need to make sure your business appears on Google, including location.
The best thing about local SEO is that it doesn’t involve being a small fish in a huge pond (as is the case with normal SEO). Instead, the only people you will be competing with will be the few other companies in the area that are in your industry. This makes it much easier to get to the top of Google and means you’re not competing with the likes of Amazon. Local SEO is great even for ‘non-local’ businesses. Facebook actually started life as a tool only available to Harvard students. This meant that by the time it branched out, it had already conquered that small demographic and was off to a good start. You can do the same with your eCommerce business: start locally, then expand further and further. Note: A lot of local traffic comes from mobile devices, so it is even more important to have a mobile-friendly website with a responsive design.