In last week’s blog we talked about the various things that can help grow your business, one of them being search engine optimization. We briefly touched on it’s importance, but let’s take the time to elaborate.
We know that the whole point of inbound marketing is to have people seek you out instead of the other way around. You can create the most amazing content on the planet, but it will mean absolutely nothing of no one ever reads it. That’s where SEO comes into play.
So here is Business 2 Community’s steps to great search engine optimization:
1. Keyword Research- SEO pretty much begins with keyword research. You have to figure out exactly what your perfect customers are using to search for your product. Optimize your content for these words.
– Seed Keywords: start with the obvious words that best describe your product/service. After you’ve done that, it’s time to delve a little deeper and find different combinations of your keywords. If you Google your keyword and then scroll down to the bottom, you’ll find additional combinations.
–Long-tail Keywords: These are compound terms that are searched less often, which also means less competition. Utilize Google Analytics in order to find your long-tail keywords. After this step, you must find your keyword phrases. These are the words that people use to search for your product. Find these on Facebook, Twitter, and even the comments on your blog.
–Keyword Tools: There are tons and tons of tools you can use to research potential keywords your customers are using. Google Adwords Keyword Tool is free– all you have to do is open a Google Adwords account. Other tools will cost you more but they provide a much more detailed analysis.
2. Use Your Keywords Intelligently- Be smart and use your keywords properly. Google now penalizing tactics such as deceptive doorway pages, lots of keyword stuffing, publishing a ton of meaningless content just to get traffic from search engines, and excessive link-building without regard to quality. This type of behavior is a no-go and the Google gods will get mad at you– and probably smite you… okay maybe not, but they will de-optimize you. And really, what’s worse?
3. Build Inbound Links- If you’ve created a great site with amazing content [plus your researched keywords], you’re only half way there. It’s true that Google places more emphasis on links than on anything else. If sites have links to your content or website, it’s logical that you provide valuable content/services– and it’s Google’s ultimate goal to provide consumers with quality sites. You have to be careful about the types of inbound links you build however.
–Hard Links versus Easy Links: It’s pretty simple really. Easy links are the results of comment spam and indiscriminate registration with directories that do not have any traffic. Hard links are the ones people actually use– they are from authoritative websites with loyal readers. You get these types of links by providing valuable and engaging content.
See, SEO isn’t scary at all? It’s not some monster under your marketing bed. You have to remember though that this is not a quick fix, it’s a long-term engagement. This won’t happen overnight– you have to work at it and earn the results… and you WILL see results.
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