How to Get your Website Found Online
Just think about the last time you googled for something on the internet - did you look past the first page of search results? Probably not. And you should expect prospective customers to act exactly that way. They just want to find what they're looking for instantaneously, and that's exactly why it's so crucial to make sure your content rank high on search engines.
One of the best ways to check out how you're doing in terms of SEO is to get a marketing grader report which will give you an accurate assessment of your website's performance in relation to search.
An effective SEO strategy will get you a steady stream of organic traffic, which is better quality than search ads as it's more likely to convert (not to mention, it's free).
Getting good quality leads through SEO won't just happen overnight - it needs to be a long-term strategy that is part of a comprehensive inbound marketing strategy.
Decide on your keywords
Keywords are the lifeblood of your SEO plan. The first thing you need to do is decide on 25 core keywords which best reflect your services and products, and what your prospects are most likely to type in a search box when looking for what you're offering.
When selecting your keywords, consider the following criteria:
Search volume: There are two types of keywords to target; general keywords (one or two word phrases) have a high search volume but a large pool of competitors. Longtail keywords (phrases with five or more words) have a lower search volume but less competition so you're more likely to rank highly for those words. It is very important your SEO strategy has a good mix of both types to cover all bases.
Relevance: Make sure your keywords reflect your offering and the behaviour of potential customers. Put yourself in the place of your prospects: would you search the terms you are using to get found?
Competition: Assess how fierce the battleground is for your keywords. If you find you are up against big brands, you may want to choose long-tail keywords in those instances.
Optimise your website pages
If you are not optimising your website content with your choice of keywords, you won't get found and your competitors will attract all the business you could have had.
So once you've decided on your keywords, it is necessary to ensure they're being used
throughout your blog content. In this way search engines can find these keywords when indexing your website pages. The more effective use of keywords, the higher you'll rank.
Each page can be optimised for three to four keywords, include them in the copy, page title, meta description, header, and image and alt tags. If a page doesn't exist for one of your keywords, consider building a new one.
Once your pages are optimised, ensure you're taking part in onsite link building by including links to these optimised pages elsewhere on your site, through promotion on your homepage, callsto-action and related links at the bottom of other content pieces.
Engage in offsite link building
There are enomous SEO benefits to offsite link building, which means promoting your content via external sites.
The more genuine links to your website content there are, the more credible your content is deemed to be by search engines, which in turn, helps it to rank more highly.
When you create your next great piece of content, consider the following:
Is there a relevant blogger or journalist who would be interested in linking to this content?
Are there related publications in your industry that might want to reference this content?Can you use this content as a platform for guest blogging on other sites?
Is there another business that would promote your content in exchange for you promoting theirs? (Also known as link trading or reciprocal links
Even a quick mention on a big website can garner a huge number of hits, so keep in mind other external options for back links on other reputable sites.
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