When it comes to marketing, there are two things you can never have too much of: time and money. Whilst there isn’t too much we can do about the former, there are numerous tactics you can employ to side-step the fact that your budget may not be as hefty as some of the bigger brands out there. Boosting your SEO is one of them.
Paying close attention to SEO is particularly beneficial for those start-ups and smaller businesses with a limited customer base, resources and revenue for the very reason that it is one of the most cost-efficient marketing strategies out there. Yet it seems that not everyone is doing it right as according to research from Hubspot, 65% of businesses named generating traffic and leads as their biggest marketing challenge.
Well, guess what? SEO can help with this. Whilst it may not be that transparent as to how Google’s search bots will crawl your content or how its algorithm likes to function, there are a few things you can do to boost your SEO strategy rather than sitting on your laurels and waiting for Google to pass judgement. Here are three ways you can update your SEO strategy and consequently boost your page ranking, drive more traffic and generate that all-important buzz around your brand.
1. Look for the informational queries
A recent article by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) noted that searchers use one of three main types of key phrase: navigational (to find the best path to a specific brand or experience); transactional (to make a purchase); and informational (seeking answers to a question). Focus your optimisation efforts on the informational key phrases rather than the other two which indicate a searcher is looking to complete a direct task and then could move on. Informational key phrases connect when the consumer is taking the time to research, thus gently drawing them into your sales funnel, ripe for discovering the dazzling value you offer.
2. Ensure your key phrases are in the right places
Location, location, location – it’s just as relevant in SEO as it is when buying a house. Identifying the right key phrases is SEO 101; take it up a gear by ensuring they are positioned in the right places within your content to make it more valuable to Google. It’s safe to say there are five crucial areas to tend to when positioning your key phrases: page title, header, body, meta descriptions and page URL. Of course, the golden rule when it comes to utilising keywords effectively is to ensure they sound natural and to avoid over-stuffing. The bottom line is, the keywords can help you become more visible, but if a user clicks into your content and isn’t satisfied with what they discover, they won’t stick around and are highly unlikely to bear your brand in mind for the future.
The CMI article suggests additionally boosting relevance for the broader topic your content refers to as opposed to just the key phrase itself. In other words, include key phrases that are related to the target key phrase. Google Suggest can help pin down popular related queries which can help shape your content or even inform further pieces. If people are searching for it, you want to be talking about it to stand any chance of inching your way closer to the Holy Grail of the front page.
3. Brush up your internal links
External links get quite a bit of attention in the world of SEO, but internal links can also boost your rankings if handled correctly. Essentially, including internal links which help users navigate through your web pages not only offer a cohesive user experience but serves to distribute ranking power from one page to the next. So, if your home page has a number of internal links pointing to it, flagging up its importance, it’s possible to distribute this power to other pages you’d like to give a rankings boost. Identify which pages need a good boost and send users that way with appropriate natural anchor text.
Good SEO teamed with quality content is a match made in marketing heaven. However, producing that content is often easier said than done when time, money and patience runs short. Why not just let the professionals take care of this for you?