Why You Should Implement a SEO Management Strategy
You may have a basic grasp of what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is and how it’s a valuable tool. However, you may be at a loss or overwhelmed by some of the complexities behind it or be fully utilizing its strengths.
What you must understand, SEO is not a one-time project. SEO is a long-term practice that should be implemented in your overall content marketing strategy. It’s a process that, over time as you produce more content and gain more clarity in your message, your continual SEO efforts will pay off.
How Does SEO Help You?
- It makes your website more visible, giving your more opportunities to convert prospects to clients.
- It builds trust and authority by establishing your brand at the top of the search page.
The entire function of SEO is to increase your visibility, your web traffic, your authority in your niche, giving a great end-user experience, all of which leads to one thing: growth.
SEO management is such a beautiful tool that works nonstop for your coaching or consulting business. There are several elements that all tie together to make it sing. You don’t have to be overwhelmed or mystified by the process.
Let’s break the concepts down and take a look at the basic elements:
Keywords
Keywords are usually the concept most people understand. Keywords are informative words that reveal the overall content of the post (article, document).
You need “short-tail keywords” that your audience would likely be searching for, like “goals.” Then, “long-tail keywords” within your blogs will also trigger searches, like “your goals can be actionable items achieved throughout the month.”
You can even work these into your blog titles, other areas within your pages, even your URL (slug).
Content
Your content needs to be relevant to your keywords. When someone clicks on your link while searching, your post should match up with the concept of the keyword.
Good content example:
Let’s say you’re a professional organizer. Someone searched “closet organizers” and found your article that gave good tips and thoughtful insight about cleaning out and reorganizing closets. Your reader could then turn to you about purchasing one of your closet systems or hire you to organize for them. You’ve given them a great user experience.
Bad content example:
Let’s take that same someone searching “closet organizers.” Instead of finding information about tools and tips about closet organization, they found an article that had nothing to do with closets, but instead information about lawn maintenance. What a bad user experience.
Don’t ever misrepresent your article’s content to try to boost traffic. Ultimately that will be detrimental and have the opposite effect than what you’re looking for.
Think of your content as the vehicle that transports the prospect from researching to purchasing.
Your content vehicle can be blogs, podcasts, videos, social media, white papers, ebooks, and so on. There’s no need to be launching every vehicle out there. Whatever vehicles you choose should be informative, engaging, educational, and easily shareable.
Backlinks
The third piece to the SEO puzzle is building your backlinks. This is known as off-page SEO external optimization.
This can be achieved by links from external sites (not your own) by influencer guests in your podcasts, blog, or videos sharing your site on their platform.
You may also have high-quality infographics that can be downloaded or easily shared.
When someone else links back to your content, it’s like a vote of confidence that your content is credible. Never fall for offers where you pay for backlinks as too many backlinks from unreliable domains can hurt your SEO ranking.
The best practice is to continue to focus on quality content that people will want to refer to and share. When creating your own content, make it a practice to link to other content that you find credible and informative. Share the backlink love…just do it genuinely.
Local SEO
If you have a brick-and-mortar office, local SEO plays a big part as well.
Say you own a diner right on historic Route 66. Local SEO is key to your survival.
You’ll want to reach people searching and finding you not only in the town where your diner is located, but also people traveling Route 66.
This is where Google My Business and Google Maps come into serious play. The majority of Internet searches are done by phone (57%) and half of those searches have local intentions (think, find restaurants near me).
Adding the Google features, as well as location-specific information, and any local directory listings will greatly benefit how your page is listed when people search for your type of business. This means, you’ll top the page when travelers are searching for great diners along Route 66.
Tips improving your website:
- Make sure to inspect the backend of your website as well as the user-end.
- Stay on top of trends as there are changes and new developments do occur. You’ll need to be (or whomever you delegate) tapped in to know the latest web user’s behaviors.
- Debug your site often.
- Check for broken links and duplicate pages.
- Update language on your site to keep it fresh and relevant.
- If you use WordPress as your website platform, we recommend using Yoast SEO plugin to help you optimize each of your posts.
Overall, SEO is one of the most important technologies to take your business to the level you want. It’s a long-term practice that builds on itself over time.
SEO management is certainly a case where little habits over time gain big results.