SEO Spring Cleaning: Freshen Up Your Strategy
Most businesses are familiar with the term Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. It is the process of optimizing your website for the purpose of showing up on the first page of Google. When was the last time you reviewed your SEO strategy? In this article, we’re going to review the importance of SEO and provide three key points to freshen up your site for success with SEO.
Why is SEO so Important?
SEO is how people find you online. When a user searches “marketing for small businesses,” Google provides them with search results that best match that phrase. Your goal with SEO is to appear within the first page of Google's search results.
Some marketing efforts require advertising or sponsored content that forces its way in front of consumers. SEO is unique, as it seeks to build organic traffic to your site, targeting users who are searching for a solution to their problem. A problem you solve.
SEO Spring Cleaning
There are entire companies and professionals who specialize solely on SEO. How can you cover the basics during your spring cleaning? While not comprehensive, we’ve narrowed down the complexities into three major points you can focus on to improve your SEO.
Step 1: Identify or Review Your Keywords
Keywords are not the only part of SEO, but they are a very important part. A key part, if you will. Your first step is to identify the best keywords for your business. Hopefully, you’ve done this before. Keywords communicate what kind of website you are. What is your industry? What problem do you solve? What do you sell?
Reevaluate your current keywords to ensure they still accurately represent who you are and what you do. Businesses evolve over time, change what they sell, and service new clients. To identify or re-identify your keywords, ask the following:
What problem do we solve?
What would someone with this problem search for?
What is our competition using as keywords?
After you’ve answered these questions, refer back to your current keywords. Do they match? Are they different? Do you need to add new keywords into your site?
Step 2: Inserting Your Keywords
Now that you’ve identified your keywords, it’s time to put them to good use. Here is where you should put your keywords:
Sales landing page
Home page
Blogs
Services page
Another place to put keywords other than your website is your meta description. Your meta description is the title and short description that show up on a search engine results page, or SERP. This is what a consumer will skim through to determine whether or not your website holds the answer to their query. You want this title and short description to summarize your page clearly and entice searchers to enter your site.
Step 3: Build Your Backlinks
A backlink refers to any time another website links back to your website. For example, if you have a helpful blog about “How to Use Instagram Polls,” someone may link to it in their blog titled “Instagram for Businesses.” Backlinks tell Google you are a reliable source of information. In other words, it builds your reputation as a domain authority.
Building backlinks is a long-term ongoing project. We’ve listed 3 ideas below to get you started:
Guest blogging
Sharing on social media
Curate unique content that others want to share (consider infographics, industry statistics, other helpful research others may refer to online)
A Few Simple Steps for SEO Success
Search Engine Optimization is an ongoing task. You must constantly keep your keywords lined up with your evolving business. Create fresh content with these keywords. Ensure every meta description contains the right keywords and entices users to enter your site. Build your backlinks by becoming a great resource for others to refer to. Follow these 3 steps during your spring cleaning to guarantee your business is on the right track for a successful SEO strategy in 2022.
