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Develop a strategy for SEO in next year's marketing plan
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I'm sure you've heard of the term SEO which stands for Search Engine Optimization. You want your website to rank higher in organic search results so that your website is more visible to your potential customers who are searching for your type of products or services. But did you know that SEO is more than just optimizing your website? It really entails utilizing Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategies to draw visitors to your website. So, how do you do it and how can you be successful at it?
1) Stay away from paid search until you really understand what SEO is all about.
2) Switch your outbound marketing strategies to inbound marketing strategies. Not to say that traditional marketing doesn't work in some industries, but inbound marketing is the best way to get your potential audience to find you.
3) Make sure your website is optimized for search engine crawlers such as Googlebot. There are several websites that will do a free analysis of your website and make recommendations for improvement. One that I like is
Website Grader from HubSpot.
4) Choose the right keywords for optimization. Sure, you want that all important keyword for your industry but if you have a huge competitor you most likely won't rank very high. Better to rank higher using a long-tail keyword, which is more descriptive than trying to rank for the most popular keyword in your industry.
5) Remember that content is the key to SEO success. Without great content on your website you won't be able to drive traffic or engage users. The more content you generate and the more pages you publish to your website, the higher you will rank on the search engines. Blogging is a great way to keep your website fresh with new information. You can also create unique offers with landing pages or create specific product pages. So keep updating your website with the most current information about your products, your industry, or other topics of interest to your customers.
6) Develop a SEO strategy as part of your overall marketing plan for next year. Don't ignore this just because you are not comfortable or feel knowledgeable enough about the subject. Make a commitment to add at a minimum three objectives to your marketing plan for next year relating to SEO. That could be to add pages regularly to your website, starting a blog, or creating a certain number of landing pages.
7) Make sure the photos/images on your website have Alt tags. Since search engines cannot index images, by creating short tags of code describing the product or whatever the picture is referencing you will ensure that search engines will be able to index the text.
8) Include links on your web pages to other pages within your website. By using anchor text rather than the URL, you can easily link a keyword or phrase that references another page in your website. For example, if you are making a special offer, you may have a landing page explaining that offer in more detail. Try to use a keyword or phrase that the search engines can index that will refer back to item 4 above, Choosing the Right Keywords.
9) Know who is linking to your website. The search engines like to see a large number of inbound links. So, it's not only who you link to but really who links to you that counts. The more websites that link to your site, the more "authority" the search engines deem you have. But don't pay others to link to you. And even though reciprocal links are okay and not prohibited, they aren't as good as a one-way link directly to your site. Links from advertisements don't count. So, use some of the PR websites to get news out about your company.
10) Use social media to spread your content. Every time you write a blog article you can post it on your company's Facebook or Twitter account to direct your followers to your content. E-newsletters are also a great avenue to get the attention of potential customers. But, don't always make everything promotional. People are craving information. So, provide them excellent content that will be of interest to them.
