Why SEO & How Do We Use It?
Welcome to Day 2 of diving into SEO. Today we will be talking about why we should use SEO and then how to use it. If you missed yesterday's post on talking about what exactly SEO is, I highly recommend going back and reading up on that first. We want to be as prepared as you can be!
Why do we use SEO? Some people think SEO is just some long complicated thing that web designers, copy writers, coaches, and other service providers say businesses need so they can make a profit, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
When you Google ‘Haircut near me’ what pops up? A list of places in your area to get a haircut right? How do you think Google chooses which of those places to advertise, and more importantly, the order of them? Why are you recommended Sally’s Salon, which is 15 minutes further away, over the Haircut Place that’s just down the road? Because the Haircut Place is on page 2, and most people don’t go past the first page when searching for something. The same thing applies to service providers. If someone is looking up a newborn photographer in the area, wouldn’t you want to be one of the top, if not the top result?
If that didn’t convince you, maybe this list of other good reasons why you should use SEO will…
It gives your customer the best experience they can have when visiting your site from any device.
It’s one of the most effective strategies that can be used to get leads.
It builds brand credibility.
It improves website speed.
It’s free and will save you money in marketing and advertising.
It gives you a competitive edge over other businesses like yours.
You can get updates on how your SEO is performing so you know what you need to change or fix so you can maximize it.
It promotes your website every day at every time.
Now that you have a good understanding of why we use SEO, let’s get into how we can use it. In yesterday's post I mentioned the 3 types of SEO and those are going to come into play today when we talk about how to implement them. The first thing I would do is figure out what all your website builder platform offers for SEO. Not every platform offers a wide variety of tools to help you with SEO. Regardless of where your website is, having a blog attached to your website can greatly help with SEO.
Let’s start with Technical SEO which deals with the technical components of your website. Here are 3 things you can do today to implement technical SEO.
Decrease Website Load Time - You’d be surprised at the amount of people who will abandon a website just because it’s taking too long to load. I’m sure all of us have done it at one point, whether we’re in a rush or just don’t want to waste our time on a loading screen. Something you can do to help with that is making sure your images are compressed. If you have a ton of large files all over your site, it’s more likely to run slower since it takes more energy to load.
Get Rid of Broken Links- You’re probably thinking “duh”, but most of the time it goes unnoticed. I like to use Google Search Console to help me detect any broken links or things that need to be patched. You can also use other programs like SEMRush or LinkMiner.
Eliminate Duplicate Content- I find this to be more of an issue for E-Commerce sites since they usually have shipping information or other text that they want on every product listing. For that issue, I recommend just having a page for all of that overload of content. You just easily link it in the description, and it saves space and helps with SEO while still being easy for the customer to navigate and find.
Let’s move onto Off-Page SEO which is an umbrella term for indirect SEO-related actions that occur away from that website. Here are 3 things you can do to implement off-page SEO.
Social Media Engagement- You might already do this now, but sharing your website link on Social Media helps with SEO. Every time you’re in a Facebook Group talking to other business owners and you share your link to your freebie or your products/services or just about anything, you’re helping yourself with Off-Page SEO.
Guest Content- Think about collaborating with someone. Both of your businesses will benefit, and it’s something that any style of business can do! If you sell products, think of another product focused business that goes along with your products (hot chocolate + mugs, socks + blankets, personalized shirts + personalized bags.) If you’re a service provider, think of someone that your clients usually work with (web designer + copywriter, photographer + videographer, hairdresser + makeup artist.) The possibilities are endless for who you can collaborate with, and sharing each other's content will boost both of you!
Create Shareable Content- This is where having a blog comes into play! Let’s say you post once a week, you have one more link that you can share around and another link that people can click on and pass around every week. The more clicks you get, the more traffic you get, which will help with everything! I think just about any business can have a blog, whether it’s talking, discussing the importance of a business's products, or even interactions with clients on their wedding day.
Lastly, we have On-Page SEO which is the practice of optimizing your web page content for search engines which usually include things like internal links, title tags, content, and URLs. Here are 3 things you can do right now to implement on-page SEO.
Do Research into Keywords- There are tons of YouTube videos, articles, and blog posts on keywords that you can use that will help your SEO. Having keywords that appeal to Google will make Google want to advertise your site more. The first 100 words matter the most so make them count! Also, the amount of times you use those keywords matter. Let’s say you sell novelty socks, you’ll want novelty socks several times throughout your website. You don’t want to overcrowd those words to the point that the customer is annoyed that they’ve read novelty socks 20 times but the more Google see’s what your website is about the more confident they feel in pushing it.
Optimize Your Links- This is such a simple thing that I think a lot of people overlook. Change your links to match your pages. If your website is beautifulmindphotography.com and your client is on the investment page make sure your slug says investment. Having something that makes sense there over random numbers or letters is helpful for not just SEO but professional appearance.
Descriptions and Tags- Another super simple thing that people over look is customizing the descriptions and tags of your website and blog post. Do some research for what your specific website builder offers and how to locate it, but if you can customize it, do it! When you’re creating these title tags and descriptions keep in mind your keywords. You don’t have a ton of room to get your point across to Google, so you’ll have to get a little creative with your words.
I like to think of SEO like a word puzzle for your website; Next up is our last day where we will be talking about even more SEO tips. I hope you will join me; if you want to stay up to date this week, sign up for my newsletter in the footer below! If you’d rather leave the SEO to the professional, I offer amazing SEO in all of my packages which you can easily view on the ‘Services’ page. I will see you soon!
Cover photo shot by: Dorothy Louise Photography