What Every Website Needs: Part 1: SEO
In this five part series of blogs, we’re going to talk about what your website needs. There is a lot more than five things that your website needs, but we’ll talk about five to get you started. These things will help elevate your website from just a placeholder and a business expense to a useful and productive part of your business that well help you GENERATE income.
1. SEO
Search Engine Optimization is always changing. Google wants to prevent people from gaming the system. So they don’t tell you exactly how to get the best results. A recent rollout has changed everything that we all thought we know about search, but one thing is absolutely clear. The BEST thing you can do for your SEO is to use natural, organic content that features the keywords, the questions, and the answers that people would be typing into a search engine to find you.
A) Beware the “Front Page of Google” promises. No one can guarantee that. If a gentleman stops in your store and hands you a pamphlet promising to get you on the front page of google, he’s offering you something he can’t promise. He MAY be able to deliver – but chances are just as good that he could fail to deliver.
There ARE things that those companies do that you can do yourself, or even pay someone to do for you. Those things will HELP you boost your SEO – but where you land on google can NEVER be guaranteed.
B) Content is king.
The latest google search algorithm actually is based on question and answer based search.
Take the time to think about WHAT QUESTIONS your TARGET CUSTOMER would be asking if they were looking for you.
“Where can I find sledgehammers in Phoenix?”
“What restaurants in Rochester serve shwarma?”
“Who sells homebrewing supplies in Harrisburg?”
As you are working on your site – find a way to work those questions and answers into your content. This is easy if you are blogging. You can simply ask the questions, provide the answers, and hit post. Make sure you write good copy – and include a call to action for each of those posts!
C) WordPress – there are a lot of options for your website – and wordpress is not for EVERYONE – but for MANY – it’s a fantastic option.
I find myself using the All in One SEO plugin, and the Google XML Sitemap plugin on every site that I build. These plugins will really help you interface with the search engines, and make it easier for them to index your site and locate the information that they need.
D) Backlinks – The degree to which other sites link back to your site is important. However – the quality of those sites, and their relationship to your topic matter as well. It won’t help if your site is only linked to unrelated sites. It will help if your site is linked to similar sites.
E) Social Media – Facebook and Twitter have excellent SEO. Set up a profile and link back to your website. We’ll talk more about social media in a few days.
F) Directory Listings – Yelp. Merchant Circle, UrbanSpoon, Google Places, and online Yellow Pages Listings are all golden.
Photo Credit: Ivy Lee