SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a method used to make any website easily and organically findable through Google. ( I refer to only Google because I love their products and because other search sites wish they were Google, so if they ever catch up this would apply to them anyway.) SEO is something every business owner must consider Whether you own a brick and mortar store or an internet business you must play by the rules because you can actually be punished by trying to trick the system, Google’s complex algorithm.
STOP HIRING SEO SERVICES
You have seen them, there are many who sell you promises of becoming the top search result for a price and many of you write them blank checks for it to then eventually realize is only a short lived result. I have encountered many “SEO experts” and website owners who claimed to have cracked Google’s algorithm and a few honest experts who will assure that you will not be able to sustain long term high ranking with SEO services.
INSTEAD your goal should be the same as Google’s: How do I make sure that a website, my website, is considered legitimate by search engines and by those searching?
Imagine a website being the same as your brick and mortar store… When picking a location you consider things like foot traffic, accessibility, nearby businesses and competitors as well as the demographics of the community…A website is the exact same thing just on digital format and the same way you build exposure and community of customers for a brick and mortar store is the same as for a website, focus on community engagement.
Improve your SEO (page ranking) in Google by doing things like:
1. Creating multiple YouTube videos for your business, and describe them with what you would expect a search to type as title (maximum of 3 minutes)
2. Brevity- in marketing this is key. 140 characters in Twitter is too long, aim for 110. Put your business in Google maps with specific descriptions. Same goes for Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ (always sign off with a link to your site in each post)
3. Add full length descriptions to images used in your site. Visits to any website often result from the “images” results rather than text results, but they are ranked the same.
4. Create blogs only if you are willing and able to commit.
5. Engage with your readers and thank them for their engagement and or lessons learned from them.
6. Constantly update your website with key words and relevant information.
7. Have relationships with other business, particularly websites that are also legitimate and have a link to your site in theirs as well as from yours to them.
8. Don’t jam too many keywords in your website’s content, instead sprinkle key words throughout your different platforms.
9. Be creative for mundane efforts, when hiring use sites like OppenUp.com rather than Monster.com.
10. Use Facebook not as social marketing platform but as a free, public and easily found micro-blog page used only for customer complaints. (this sounds weird but it works, make your problem solving and ordinary business troubles public as marketing for your company culture)
Maintain a highly effective website that generates you sales by committing to relevance and community engagement, not get SEO rich quick schemes.
Happy Marketing
Humberto Valle (www.unthink.me)
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