It doesn’t matter how awesome your website is – if no one can find it, it won’t do your business much good.
There are many tactics you can use to drive traffic to your website, but one of the most fundamental and impactful is search engine optimization, or SEO.
Optimized websites show up first when someone searches Google, so potential customers see those businesses listed before their competitors. It’s easy to understand the value of SEO, but it’s harder to find time to learn about this complex – and constantly changing – branch of marketing.
Don’t worry: while truly optimizing your website for search engines is a big undertaking, addressing the basics will make a big impact and can help your search ranking considerably. Below, Sinclair’s senior search analyst Joe Mann explains the basics of SEO and details specific – and simple – steps you can take to help your website rank better in search engine results.
Q. What is the most important thing to know about SEO?
A. Google tells us a simple way to understand how search results work: it attempts to show results that are high on an EAT scale; Google wants results to be Expert, Authoritative, and Trustworthy.
- Expert has to do with how the contents of the page line up with the words written in a search. For example, an expert page for the search “repair leaky plumbing” will have those words and close variants or synonyms in the headline or title and within the contents of the page. If other pages on the site use those words in various links, it appears to be even more “expert.”
- Authority has to do more with other sites and pages that link to the one in question. Almost any page that links to another lends some authority. The more that the content links to the target page in question has to do with the subject being searched, the more authority it demonstrates. For example, a page of plumbing contractors linking to the “repair leaky plumbing” page adds to its authority based on that one word.
- Trust is measured in large part by how the public interacts with a site’s social media posts, its press releases, and so on. Social engagement indicates a level of trust.
Finally, it is important to note that SEO heavily relies on mobile traffic. 70-80 percent of searches happen on mobile devices, so a website that is not mobile-friendly is heavily penalized in search results related to mobile devices.
Q. How exactly does SEO work?
A. Simply put, SEO aims to improve search results. It does this by aligning the content of the page with a search phase, and various sites compete to “win” various search positions. For example, to “win” a search for “repair leaky plumbing,” you need a page that fully explains how you offer leaky plumbing repair services. There are also actions that can be taken on other sites, as well. There is already a google plus page, managed through the Google My Business service, for most businesses. Claiming, improving and actively managing that page can help with the authority portion of the search results formula (the Google directory is considered highly authoritative) as well as the trust portion (Google Plus is considered a sort of social media).
Q. How many keywords should users target in their titles, content, and so on?
A. One keyword phrase should be aimed at one page – so the number of phrases targeted need to align with the number of pages on the site – and each should aim at its natural content. A page that introduces a company’s staff can only be aimed at a search like “meet the staff of (the company).” For website owners who can freely add and edit content, one page should be created and optimized for each search target.
Q. How does one know which keywords are better than others?
A. Don’t overthink keywords. Describe your business in abstract terms (plumber, plumbing contractor), as those are important terms to “win.” Name the most important services, products, lines in your business (repair leaky plumbing, bathroom remodeling, new water heater). Aim at your most important and profitable lines.
Q. How important is it to integrate internal links on your own site?
A. It is extremely important – and often an overlooked portion of SEO. Internal links are one of the easiest ways to tweak the expert portion of the results because the words used in the link juice up the expert “score” of the page they link to the target page.
Q. How beneficial are captions and titles in SEO?
A. Image captions, tags, and titles are another useful tool in the SEO toolbox. For one, image results are often returned in searches, and they are ranked by a separate search engine which, for the most part, only evaluates these tags. So, in essence, you may be able to win an image result on a regular search results page for a phrase you are not able to win (yet) in regular, organic search. Secondly, the text in these tags improves the “keyword density” of your page, especially for target keywords, which does impact regular organic search results.
Q. Anything else we should know?
A. Monitoring and continued efforts are critical. Tons of people play at SEO, and Google frequently tweaks its formula, so results change continually. Watch your competition and keep pursuing improve results. Additionally, adding a word to a search you find you cannot win may help you identify a phrase you can actually win and get profitable business from. So for instance, if you cannot win “new water heater,” adjust your target to “new Maytag water heater.”
These general best practices will help boost your search engine ranking but to achieve the most impact, you’ll need a more nuanced strategy that considers your industry, points of differentiation, key audiences and long term goals. Click here to learn more about how Compulse can help boost your search engine ranking to drive site traffic and attract new customers to your business.