The world of marketing is vastly different than it was even twenty years ago, back when the internet felt like a neat novelty, but not that big of a deal. But it’s now something most of us use every day. That means that marketing agencies have all had to shift to focus on the digital side of things. This also means that smally businesses have to learn a whole new set of rules, tricks, and techniques to get their name out there. This can be frustrating and intimidating. Luckily, we at Avant8 have worked with plenty of small businesses and know just what you need to know about modern marketing. The biggest thing that you need to address when handling your own digital marketing (other than making sure you have an attractive and functioning website) is making sure you have good search engine optimization (SEO). There are many different methods of boosting your SEO and also many ways you can accidentally hurt it.
So, we’re going to go over with you what you definitely should and definitely should not do with search engine optimization. But first, let’s define it, shall we? Search engine optimization sounds complicated when you’re first faced with it. But it’s surprisingly simple. It has everything to do with how search engine work and the best way to set up your site so that they notice it before any others. Let’s just start by making sure we’re all on the same page about what a search engine is. A search engine is anything you use to look things up on the internet. Google is the most famous one, but there are many others out there two. Search engines work through keywords. These are what ever word or phrase that you type into the search bar. The search engine takes that keyword and looks all over the internet for sites that have that keyword mentioned. The organize the results by how many words are used in the context that the keyword is in, how many times the keyword is used, and how useful the information seems, along with a few other criteria.
So, search engine optimization is essentially making sure that you have certain keywords used in the best way possible to make your site stand out against all the others. Good SEO means that you are on the first page of a search. Because, if we’re being real, no one goes beyond the first page. It seems like most people are more willing to reword their search or give up entirely rather than go to the second page. Now that we have a definition laid out, let’s talk about how you can make SEO work for you. Let’s start with the stuff that you should do that could make all the difference with your SEO. Pick some keywords. This is always the first thing that you should do. Think about what your company is. What words would best describe it? Choose some keywords doing that. Another helpful thing to do is to use an SEO ranking program to find out what you and your competitors rank highly for.
Are there keywords that you should be doing better on, but your competitors are beating you on? Double check your website. This is something that surprisingly often gets overlooked. It is always a good idea to make sure that your site has your keywords scattered throughout it. It can be in the body text, meta text, alt text, or basically anywhere that you can put text. This will help search engines single you out. Start a blog. Most website builders allow you to add on a blog to your site. This is a great way to give your SEO a little boost. Write informative blogs using your keywords as a focus and a jumping off point. Make the blogs at least 1000 words long, but the longer the better. Keep up your social Top Source Media LLC. When making new posts for your company’s social media accounts (which definitely exist, right?), be sure to include keywords in the posts. This can be as the caption, the hashtags, or both.