As you are more than likely aware, SEO can play a vital role in the future success of your business. We discuss why you might want to consider paying attention to SEO in a previous post.
Improving your website’s rankings is a little bit like investing, it may not pay off immediately, but over time it can provide great returns for your business.
One of the hardest things to do when it comes to Search Engine Optimization is to get started. The internet is full of content that covers every minute aspect of how you can improve your website’s search engine rankings, so today we’re going to take it back to basics.
Generally, there are three steps you can take to start moving up in the search results. Those three steps are:
Conduct SEO Research
Optimize Your Website
Improve Your Internal Linking
We will cover all three of these topics in more depth later, but today we’re going to focus on conducting SEO research.
Research is the most crucial first step in your SEO journey. This phase of Search Engine Optimization is going to lay the foundation for the future of your strategy.
Researching before diving in and making changes right away has a couple of benefits:
-It will allow you to determine which of your competitors might also be focusing on SEO.
-It can show you which keywords are very competitive and which ones you might be able to win quickly.
-It will help you determine whether SEO is a strategy that you want to continue to pursue or not.
To begin simply start typing keywords into a Google search that you would use if you were a prospective customer trying to find your business. Keep track of the keywords you are searching for in an excel spreadsheet or google doc and keep note of the website that is ranking 1st for each search term you enter. You can also look at the different titles that are appearing on Google to get an idea for more keywords that your competitors may be targeting.
Once that is done you’re going to want to determine which keywords are too competitive and which ones you might have a shot of ranking for quickly.
There are a staggering number of tools you can use to conduct SEO research, but a simple and free way to begin is to use Google itself. Sign up for a Google Ads account (Make sure you let google know you’re not a beginner as you’ll need to use one of their advanced tools). You’ll need to enter a credit card number, but you won’t be charged as long as you aren’t running any ads.
When your account is up and running navigate to Tools and Settings>Keyword Planner. Next you will be presented with two choices, get new keyword ideas, which is helpful if you need more ideas, and get search volume data. Click on the search volume option and enter the keywords you’ve collected.
Google will look at the keywords and give you an estimated search volume and a gauge of how competitive the keyword is. Generally speaking, keywords with higher search volumes are going to be more competitive, so one strategy that many companies employ is targeting “long tail keywords”. A long-tail keyword is pretty much what it sounds like, a longer search term.
As an example, maybe you’re a landscaper based in Colorado, but instead of trying to rank for the keyword “landscaper in Colorado” you may have more success starting with something like “back yard landscaping tips in Colorado”.
Targeting longer, more niche search terms can help your website gain more traction and begin ranking more quickly than if you try to target a more difficult search term right away.
And that is basically it. You can get as in-depth with your research as you’d like, but the important thing is to come up with a strategy and begin working. You will undoubtedly encounter obstacles, and you will likely make adjustments to your campaign as you learn and grow, but progress is going to be your friend.
If you are interested in SEO but aren’t sure where to start, or if you’re ready to start working and want to hire a professional reach out to us at https://www.jsxmarketing.com/ to learn more!
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