All businesses need websites and all business websites need SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Quite simply, SEO is what separates you from all the others in your niche when potential clients/customers conduct a search.
Sound complicated?
It’s actually fairly simple: there are three main components to SEO: User Experience, On-page, Off-page.
User Experience includes many of the technical factors behind the website: Site architecture (is it easy to navigate?), load time, mobile-friendly, accessible to those with special needs.
On-page consists of content and how that content is presented. Can the search engines understand the main focus of each page? Is the content relevant and valuable to the user who is conducting the search? Keyword research and implementation of those terms through HTML markup are key in helping the search engines decipher what each page is all about. Do pages and posts link to one another to help the site visitor answer their query?
Off-page refers primarily to outside sites linking to your website. Good, quality links from others in your niche are considered “votes” by the search engines as to the quality of your content. Likewise, links from associations and organizations to which you may belong are valuable. Finally, top directories add value to your site. And don’t forget to claim your listing on Google My Business; the top directory of them all. Always make sure that the listing information on GMB matches the info on your website. Discrepancies cause doubt and the search engines don’t like doubt (and you won’t either when your site fails to rank for a relevant keyword.
Sound expensive?
It needn’t be. For many small to mid-sized businesses, a one-time tuneup is really all that’s needed. Of course, for businesses that rely on the web for their clients or customers, more aggressive, on-going SEO may be needed, centering primarily around competitor analysis (those ranking above you) for keyword ideas and backlink suggestions.
For more information, please have a look at the SEO offerings at Last Laugh Creative.