Getting found online through SEO

Now is the time to spend on search engine optimizing (SEO) your website and getting your business found online.

While people are stuck at home – whether that be through furlough, working from home or homeschooling – you need to make sure your business is found, when they reach for the only tool available giving them access to the outside world.

Up until now, many businesses have discounted the necessity to have their online presence optimised and be searchable; especially those who had bricks and mortar stores with a high street presence. It was considered, if a business had a website and social media account they are over achieving. In reality (in that past world of going to the shops) it was probably more than was needed.

However, while we’re restricted to only leaving the house for exercise and essential shopping. Retail is completely missing out.

Whilst social media does give you the ability to display your products, it isn’t a very effective way of selling. Social media is more about branding and relationship building.

A static website which provides information about the types of products you sell and where you are based is great, but an ecommerce site where people can buy your products or even check stock is paramount when people don’t have the luxury of going out to shop.

But it isn’t just about retail. How many times would you ‘in the normal world’ ask someone in the pub or at another social activity for recommendations for services or where to buy items? Now all of this activity is happening online and through Google.

If you haven’t optimised your website and online presence so that search engines recognise what you offer and how you can assist the ‘Googler’, then you are never going to appear in the search results.

Especially not in the top 10! and who honestly looks past the top 5?

I seperate SEO into 2 categories –

1) the techie stuff in the backend of your website. For example how it is built, how the information is organised, headers, meta tags and descriptions, keyword focus etc …

2) the content, which I then separate between

a) on your website – ie blogs and articles which focus on your ‘keywords’ answering the search criteria of the ‘Googler’.

b) the content which points to your website – guest blogs, backlinks and social media.

Clearly, I am not attempting here to provide a complete overview or instructions of SEO and how to optimise your website. Instead I hope to highlight a few areas that you might consider in your marketing communications.

Here are some top tips for your SEO and content creation.

Website Content

Articles that answer questions that you are frequently asked (aka FAQs/Frequently Asked Questions) are a great way of creating content with your target market in mind. If your customers and prospects are asking you these questions, there will be others Googling the same. Publishing these articles on your website and guest blogging on these topics, establishes you as an expert in your field. Bringing you a step nearer to appearing in the top search results.

You are also then able to send links to these articles, to the people asking directly – Instead of rewriting the answer each time. This in turn provides the opportunity for them to spend time on your website, finding out more about you and continuing to build a relationship with you. Stickability is a measure of a successful website, defined by how long people stay on your website and how many pages they visit.

Backlinks

Guest blogs and directories are great ways to build backlinks – which direct people to your website. The higher authority the website has, the greater impact those links will have. Featuring on respected websites will provide you extra credibility. However, it’s not recommended to buy backlinks and link farms. Google became wise to this many years ago, and will penalise you if you’re caught. But building links amongst your community of like minded businesses is a great way to start. Think of customers or suppliers who would be happy to link to you, partners and others you collaborate with; are there community groups or business associations which you can align yourself with?

There is a friendly ongoing argument between me and a networking friend. He disputes the need for SEO. However, when I list out the variety of tactics which can be implemented, he re-directs them under other business headings. For example guest blogs; he would dispute is actually the role of public relations or branding. Whichever hat you give it, having content out there on other websites, explaining who you are, what you do and how you can satisfy your customers’ needs is optimising your online presence and absolutely something you should be doing, especially during this time!

Sayers Solutions works with the Effective Group to deliver SEO and Google Ad campaign work.

You will receive a free no obligation audit of your website. This will highlight what you are doing well and what needs fixing, as well as how to fix it.

We don’t stop there! In a consultation session we run through and explain the report. We establish the keywords and what you want to be found for. (Including location – which surprisingly can be very much overlooked by others!). Armed with this information, we then conduct further research, which results in a proposal for the work we can undertake.

Sometimes people who go through this process are not ready to move immediately. Some need the information to factor into their overall business plan. Others need to make changes to enable them to respond effectively to results of the campaign.

We don’t work with just anyone. The Effective Group don’t want to simply increase visits to your website. We are commercially focused and so our remit is to enable you to convert more sales online. And with that said we generally find that our customers receive, on average, a 6-fold return on investment.

So, if you are reviewing how you can make your business flourish during this time; Whether you’re assessing your business model or physical location or wanting to accelerate the referrals and conversions you would normally receive from from your personal connection network. Even though you might not be ready right now, it might be worth having a chat and seeing what work would be involved and what impact it could have.

If this is of interest please contact me on 07790705223 or email merewyn@sayerssolutions.co.uk

Thanks for reading

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