When you own a business, the number one thing you want is to watch it grow. However, knowing how to develop your business and gain more clients can be a little more complicated. The Internet is full of strategies that claim to help you expand your business, but SEO is one of the best tried-and-true strategies for successful business growth.
What Is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization, more commonly referred to as SEO, is a tactic used by businesses and organizations to get onto a search engine’s top search results. SEO is an efficient way to promote your business using keywords and direct answers to commonly asked questions.
Why Is SEO Important For Your Business?
SEO is a long-term successful strategy for many businesses. It is important to utilize SEO techniques in order to obtain organic traffic to your website. Organic website traffic is one of the most essential factors that contributes to a successful business.
How To Create An Effective SEO Strategy For Your Business
Each SEO strategy will look different for every business. If you are unsure of where to start, here are some important steps to take in order to create an effective SEO strategy for your business:
- Understand your current SEO performance- There are organic research tools available online to help you understand your website’s traffic and what keywords you use often. Take note of the sections of your website that are successful and what sections could use extra work.
- Take a look at what your competitors are doing- Looking at your competitors’ websites can help you understand what is working well for their business and what could be improved upon. From there, you can implement the improvements on your own website.
- Identify keywords specific to your business- Your business probably has a niche that it falls under. Topics or keywords that you find yourself using or other businesses that are similar to yours are important to take note of and expand upon. For example, if you are a law firm that specializes in personal injury, you may want to create blog posts and other content utilizing keywords relating to personal injury law such as wrongful death or medical malpractice.
- Improve SEO on your website- In order to make your website more SEO-positive, it is important to make use of headers, tags, and meta descriptions. It is also essential to check any external links on your website and make sure that they are all active and accessible.
- Be active on social media- Social media is a great way to connect with potential clients and post content relating to your business. If you use social media correctly, it can drive more traffic to your website.
- Track your SEO- After implementing the above SEO strategies you will need to track any changes that you see. Maybe one area is doing better while another is plateauing. Monitoring these changes will help you better adjust and improve your current SEO practices.
- Adjust your SEO practice- SEO practices are always changing and updating as the years go by. The practices that work for your business now may become ineffective down the line. Staying up-to-date on current SEO practices will help your business stay relevant on search engines.
How To Improve Your SEO
There are many steps that a business can take in order to improve its SEO strategy. Some of the most common methods of doing this are:
- Utilize Google tools- Google has a variety of free tools that are targeted towards businesses. Some of the most popular are Google My Business and Google Ads. Creating a Google My Business profile will allow your business to appear more professional. You input your information into Google and the search engine will create a profile for your business. Here, you can monitor customer reviews, add your business’s hours, and list the location of your business. Google Ads allows you to come up with words or phrases that Google will turn into an ad for your business. You can also monitor your ads at all times.
- Encourage customers to leave reviews- Online reviews have been proven to be effective and crucial for the success of a business. It is estimated that around 85% of people base their opinions of a business on its online reviews. You can encourage people to leave reviews in person and respond politely and professionally to other reviews online to foster further engagement.
- Create content specific to your area- A big way to get featured on search engines is to talk about current events or local happenings around your area. When people in your area search for this event, your business will come up in the search results. It may be a good idea to write a blog post or create a deal for the event.
- Create backlinks- Backlinks are links from one website to another. To create a backlink you want to create content that encourages others to repost it. If you are looking for other ways to create backlinks, you could contact a social media influencer and ask them to share a link or be a guest blogger on someone else’s site.
- Place your business in an online directory- Adding your business to an online directory will place you in the public eye and allow the business to become more visible in your area. There are many online directories that you can place your business on, however, one of the most popular is Yelp. By creating a page in this directory, Yelp will conveniently promote your business to local clients directly through their app and website.
Remaining consistent with your SEO practices can become an entirely different job and take time away from your business. If you are feeling overwhelmed by any of these SEO strategies and improvements, it may be better for you to contact an advertising agency that specializes in SEO to assist you. NOVA Advertising has been helping businesses in the Washington Metro DC area with their SEO practices for years and has a portfolio full of satisfied clients. Contact the experts at NOVA Advertising if you would like experienced help with your business’s SEO strategy and implementation.