How To Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) To Get More Eyeballs On Your Brand

What Is SEO?

First, let’s get this clear – SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Put simply, having an SEO-friendly website means that your content includes keywords and commonly searched for phrases and has been indexed by Google so your site shows up in potential customers’ search results..

The benefit of having a keyword-rich site and niche content containing even more key phrases is that your site content gets displayed in the search results anytime those target words are typed in on Google, Bing, or other search engines.

Think about it this way – People type their burning questions into search engines. Your content provides an answer to their question.

So, when your site has authoritative, comprehensive, helpful information on the topic and has appropriate keywords throughout, Google will display your site in response to that person’s question.

That visibility is achieved through strategically placed, targeted keywords and phrases, resulting in more organic traffic to your website.

Sidenote: While SEO means “search engine optimization,” with Google being the current leader, the term “Google optimization” is often used instead.

How Search Engines Work

Search engines collect information from every website and provide a ranking factor that decides the order in which they will appear when particular keywords are entered.

You may have heard the words ‘indexing’ or ‘crawling’ used in reference to getting Google to scan your site, noting keywords and other ranking factors such as images, headers, alt text, and meta descriptions. Some people refer to this as search engine spiders – bots that crawl from site to site gathering information.

There are so many websites and so much content going up daily that it can take months to get search engine crawlers to index each new piece of content before it shows up in someone’s search results – yet another reason why content creation is a long game—more about that below.

SEO Tips To Improve Your Visibility

In a nutshell, you want keywords and phrases throughout your website that potential clients would type into Google because that provides the greatest chance your content will display in their search results.

The more search engine friendly your site is, the more traffic you will have, which means more potential clients’ eyeballs on your content!

SEO tip #1 – You need monetizable keywords.

This is where your main focus needs to be. These keywords can bring organic traffic to your social media page, mobile site, and blog content.

One magical target keyword is “best.” You know it’s true – all of us at some point have searched for “best —.” It could have been “phone with the best camera,” “best meatloaf recipe,” or “best budgeting app.” We’ve all searched for “the best” of something.

Another great target keyword is “vs.” People search for comparisons constantly. “Hulu vs. YouTube TV,” “Spotify vs. Pandora,” and so on. It’s common to see “review” come into play alongside “best” and “vs.” When looking for the “best budgeting apps,” search queries are met with a list of apps and a review of each one.

Any time you use pricing, “pros and cons,” or “advantages and disadvantages” in your on-page SEO, your organic search traffic has the potential to increase.

Monetization comes into play when you can strategically compare your product or method against someone else’s. For example, a financial advisor might also write comparison blogs highlighting asset classes, online brokerages, or the differences between the portfolios of two people with opposite risk tolerances. These articles are informative, answer people’s questions, and can include a call to action for the reader to book a call.

What are some niche-specific comparisons you could talk about?

SEO tip #2 – Create your content using those monetizable keywords.

This is where an effective SEO strategy comes into play. Once you’ve identified the keywords and phrases your audience is searching for, it’s time to create the video, audio, or blog content, submit it to Google Search Console, and ensure you follow these technical SEO tips:

1. Use your target keyword(s) in the title tab.

2. Ensure the URL contains the keyword(s)

3. Create a catchy headline (H1) containing the keyword.

4. Mention the keyword in the first paragraph of your new content.

These four simple SEO tips can organically boost your visibility across various search engines since featured snippets and meta descriptions are also often generated from these key spots.

SEO Tip #3 – Get those clicks.

Your content creation goal should always be to inform, help, or entertain the audience, no matter which type of content you’re creating. You want your page title, blog post, and your site, in general, to invite your potential clients to click on your internal links to book a call and ultimately purchase your products or services. Ah, inbound marketing!

This is the entire point of creating content, right? Digital marketing is creating some form of online content to generate traffic. When done well, that traffic contains a high percentage of people ready to become your best customers.

What Type of Websites Does SEO Help With?

Strategic SEO tactics can help you get more traffic to your website through each blog post, your social media page, your YouTube channel, your podcast, or your eCommerce site. Even your long-form content can benefit from using targeted SEO tactics.

By practicing SEO strategies in numerous areas, including your page titles, and producing relevant content consistently over time, your sites/pages will rank higher, thus giving your site a better opportunity for a featured snippet on the first page of search engines’ results. Featured snippets are the quick answers which appear near the top of the page after a search query – an amazing spot to be!

How Do I Start on the Right Foot with a Solid SEO Strategy?

So, you’ve decided to use the SEO tips above to increase your search rankings. That’s great! Before understanding how SEO really works, embarking upon a journey to increase your site rankings can feel a bit daunting. I promise it’s not that bad! It’s just like anything else, it takes time, consistency, and patience.

Here are a few tips to get your SEO journey started on the right foot:

• Find some sound resources to help explain technical terms. Simply having some clarity of the terminology will be a great help. Knowledge is power! Once you understand what terms mean and how they work, your SEO will be more effective.

• Dive in and start testing the waters. Take a few minutes to implement little SEO changes into your existing content. Add internal links to pages you’ve already published. Incorporate keywords into your long-form content. Use attractive images to enhance your content.

• SEO practices are NOT impossible to learn or implement, even for the busiest small business owner. There are plenty of helpful SEO tools online, but before you dive in decide how much time you or your VA will allocate to this project.

Can I Improve My SEO On My Own?

Yes, you can! There are many ways to improve your SEO on your own. Here are a few SEO tips to help you:

Start by conducting keyword research. You can utilize Google Autocomplete or Related Searches to find real-time search queries to aid you with content ideas. Start typing slowly, and you’ll notice the keywords and phrases that are searched most often are auto-filled in an attempt to complete your sentence. This alone is one of the best SEO tips out there. Use it to your advantage!

Use those suggested key phrases to compile a list of important topics, questions, and potential client needs based on your business.

Understand that search intent is as important as the search results themselves. What are site visitors actually searching for? Think about the answers you have looked for in the past, and consider the search intent you had. Use your own past experience to help guide you in the right direction.

Be creative with your keywords. While a target keyword is great, similar relevant keywords are often used, so be sure to think outside the box.

Tweak your on-page SEO by adding the keywords you’ve found to your existing content. Make sure the keywords are only inserted where it makes sense. Random placement of keywords in odd spots or where a sentence doesn’t naturally flow containing that word (keyword stuffing) will make your site seem like a robot wrote it and will actually drive people away.

• Increase your site’s authority. You need quality, informational content that helps website visitors find the answers they’re searching for. Sometimes you can increase your site authority by offering to write a guest post on someone else’s highly-ranked site. Having external links from other sites leading to your page is an effective way for site visitors to see you as an authority in your field.

• Have searchable keywords. It’s important to remember that just because you have a specific keyword that places you at the top of the results page doesn’t always mean traffic will be directed to your site. If no one is searching for your keywords, you won’t get traffic.

• Utilize long-tail keywords. The strategic use of long-tail keywords throughout your content provides an advantage because these keywords are very specific and generally result in a higher conversion rate. For example, if you’re looking for a great pair of running shoes, are you going to simply search for “running shoes,” or are you going to search for “best running shoes for women with pronation”?

• Don’t forget site speed. Make sure that your pages load in a timely fashion. Most visitors will click away before actually visiting your site if they have to wait too long for a page to load. You can optimize any images displayed on your site by reducing their file size and format. Perform a site audit to ensure you don’t have any broken links. Anytime you delete or move pages, there is a possibility of your links not performing correctly, thus slowing down your page speed response time.

• Pursue external link building. Link building is the SEO strategy of acquiring relevant links from other sites. In other words, if you generally receive referrals from a family law attorney whose website has a high authority, your site’s ranking will increase simply because you’re featured on their ‘recommendations page’ with a link to a well-written piece of content. External links create more influence on a search engine ranking factor because it causes a vote of confidence or popularity.

• Establish an internal link-building strategy. Internal linking simply means that your blog posts, podcast episodes, website pages, and other content contains links to your other relevant content. A solid rule of thumb is that each piece of content should link to three other pieces of content. This ultimately can improve your overall page ranking because a strong internal linking strategy helps make you the authority between your site’s pages.

• Google ads don’t directly help your SEO. We’re not saying that Google ads don’t help you at all. What they can do is help expose your sites to more website visitors. This in turn can improve the possibility of people clicking or sharing your content. This can effectively generate desirable backlinks.

Does It Cost Anything to Improve My SEO?

Improving on-page SEO doesn’t have to cost anything. For the DIYer, there are plenty of SEO tools available. Some require a fee or subscription.

Here are a few tools to consider:

Google Analytics is a great tool that provides you with statistics for SEO and marketing. This is a free service as part of the Google Marketing Platform. Anyone with a Google account has access.

Google Trends is a free tool for discovering trending keywords and specific local variables.

Keyword Surfer is a great free basic keyword research tool for finding volume data in search engine results pages.

Hire search engine optimization help. For those who prefer to outsource the task, I’m happy to create a custom package for you. I’ve heard plenty of ‘terrible experience’ stories about SEO firms, but that doesn’t mean they’re all bad, which is why I don’t really openly advertise that I “do SEO” even though much of our content creation work can have a significant impact on your site’s ranking.

We’ll review your site, check for relevant content, and find out how your pages rank in a Google search. Once we determine your overall SEO performance and meet with you to find out your goals, we can provide keyword research advice and help you generate content ideas that can create more traffic. Then, my team of writers gets to work tweaking existing web copy, podcast descriptions, blog posts, etc. while simultaneously creating new content to boost rankings.

SEO Strategies to Improve Search Engine Results

Some of the best search engine optimization tips are fairly simple to implement. Here’s what you can do right now to start improving your search rankings:

Start with your existing content. Optimize keywords within your content to be more visible to potential site visitors.

Structure content for featured snippets. Add keyword jump links (table of contents with links) at the top of your page. Not only does this engage your viewer, but it also allows search engines to see what your content is about easily.

Optimize your images. If you have graphics or images in your content, the best practice is to have JPEG files that load quickly, with alt tags, image titles, and file names. Ensure the images you use are yours or that you have permission to use them (royalty-free images are recommended). Remember that your images need to be relevant to your topic.

What is Google Search Console And How It Can Help Your SEO

Google Search Console is an SEO tool that can help improve your visibility in a Google search. This free service helps you understand how your site is viewed through Google’s eyes.

Anyone online can and should use this tool to assess how their pages rank.

Google Search Console shows you the traffic data of your site. It can show how often your site shows up in searches, what specific queries are made that make your URL appear in search results, and the frequency your links are clicked. Google Search Console also contains features to help you write meta descriptions for your page.

What is a meta description anyway? A meta description is a tag that gives a brief, relevant summary of what a specific page is about. It’s a featured snippet that shows users a preview of the particular content on a page before they click through.

Business owners, podcasters, bloggers, YouTubers, entrepreneurs, real estate investors, financial advisors, and small business owners can all benefit from SEO efforts.

One of the most important SEO tips to remember is to incorporate your searchable keywords into your titles, subtitles, and content. Use SEO on every page of your content to boost your search results.

You’ve Got The SEO Tips. Are You Ready To Create Your Own SEO Strategy?

Now you’re armed with SEO knowledge. It’s time to put that knowledge to work for your business!

Strategically create content that connects with your audience. In turn, you’ll generate engagement with your brand and rank higher in search results. Take all those important SEO tips and use them in your inbound marketing, your social media, and your on-page SEO.

Depending on the quality of your existing content, try to determine which SEO tips, once executed, will be the most impactful. Then, perform your keyword research and create your very own sustainable plan for implementation. In about 6 months’ time, your search engine optimization efforts should begin to get you the organic traffic you’re looking for!

If you need help with any of this or you’d prefer to have an experienced site manager working behind the scenes for you, I’m happy to help!