SEO is vital if you want your site to be found on Google. Optimizing your website the right way will boost your rankings in Google which will give you the upper hand over your competitors.
However, you should understand that good SEO practices always takes time, and that is why many businesses opt to hire a professional for their SEO needs. In order to better understand how SEO works, what it involves, and why it’s important, here are some of the SEO basics that you should know.
Knowing Your Target Audience
Knowing your target audience includes determining their age, sex, needs, geographic location, and other important aspects. When you have identified these points, then it will be easier to decide what keywords and type of content will be relevant to your audience.
There are many different tools and software available for this purpose and that are used in determining the best keywords for different purposes, services, and products.
Keyword Research and Planning
You can plan your keywords with the help of a free keyword planner tool like Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest. Make a list of the keywords and long-tail phrases you find and then divide them by priority and search volume.
Instead of just using keywords and repeating them throughout the page, write some other jargon words and synonyms of your keywords as well because users will be searching for your content, service or product through various terms.
Applying Keywords to Your Site
You should insert high and medium priority keywords that correspond to at least one page on your site. However, avoid keyword stuffing in titles and text body as this can hurt the SEO.
Target keywords should be added to various areas of your site, including the URL of each page, the title of each page, the ALT descriptions and filenames of images.
Building Authority and Back-Links Through Quality Content
Quality and informative content such as blog posts, articles with lists, easy-to-save infographics, guides, etc. are fantastic for SEO. This will help you build authority within your industry and give you the opportunity to showcase your knowledge.
Through quality content you can also build links, i.e. earn backlinks to your website which can give more credibility to your site. By including high ranking outbound links, you can help boost your page rank.
Creating, Building, and Maintaining Social Media Presence
All small businesses should have a social media presence with at least one social media account/page because it serves as an additional platform where consumers can find them. It also helps to garner more backlinks.
By adding a social media share button to your site, your audience can share your content which contributes to your SEO.
Progress Tracking
It is essential to understand how to read and process the traffic and conversions to your website so that you can continually improve it and introduce the needed changes for optimal performance.
Google Analytics is a great tool to use for this purpose.
Conclusion
SEO trends and practices are always changing and evolving. It is a complex process and therefore it is usually better and easier to hire an SEO professional who will optimize your website in the best and most effective way, ranking it and maintaining it high on the first page of Google.
Matt Jacob has been in the marketing business since 2008, working exclusively with roofers for more than 5 years now. He has come to know all the tricks of trade inside-out and he is committed to helping roofers by sharing some of the most important ones. Find out where your best opportunities lie, as well as which challenges lurk out there for roofers – all in his detailed blogs.
