How SEO Can Help Local Prospects Find Your Business Online
If you’re trying to help local prospects find your business online, it’s going to be pretty difficult without a strategy for search engine optimization (SEO). Want some help? Let’s go over the basics of SEO and how businesses and marketers use it to generate leads through organic search.
What is SEO?
SEO is the process of improving the quality and quantity of leads your business receives by increasing your website’s visibility on search engine result pages. When done correctly, SEO can ensure your company’s website shows up prominently on Google (and other search engines) for people in your area who are searching for your products and services online
How SEO Works
Google and other search engines use complex algorithms that analyze various elements of a website to determine how it should rank in the results pages. In general, search engines are looking for websites that:
- Provide relevant, high-quality information.
- Are fast and mobile-friendly.
- Include content that captures your target audience’s attention.
While it sounds simple, pulling off those three key indicators of a “good” website can be easier said than done, because of many different things impact SEO. The process includes:
- Keyword Research | When someone searches for your products or services online, what words are they using? Part of SEO involves an in-depth analysis of your business, industry, competitors, and audience in order to discover the keywords that will drive the most traffic to your website. You must then optimize your site structure, content, and calls-to-action based on these keywords.
- On-Site SEO | Search engines crawl through every component of your website to determine your ranking in key search results, from the content on each page down to the very structure of your site. Everything must be optimized to provide a user-friendly experience.
- Content Marketing | Sharing fresh, unique content on your website on a regular basis is not only attractive to your customers, but it’s also good for your SEO. Effective content marketing helps attract high-quality traffic to your website, improve your rank in key search results, and establish your business as an industry leader.
- Link Building | When crawling through your site, a search engine’s goal is to determine how relevant your content is to its users. If your site provides relevant, unique content that other sites are willing to link back to, search engines are more likely to see it as a quality, trustworthy site. Therefore, building high-quality links is another important component of SEO.
- Local Optimization | For a lot of small businesses, growth relies on reaching people within your local community. If that’s the case for your company, being found online by people who are too far away to purchase your products or services is pointless. Using several tactics to optimize your site specifically for local search can increase the odds that your business will be noticed online by the right customer at the right time.
- Directory Management | Once upon a time, being listed in the phone book was all you needed to help customers find your business. But, as consumers increasingly turn to the internet to find products and services, it is necessary that businesses keep online directories updated with accurate information. Search engines also place a great deal of value on online directories, so outdated and inaccurate information could negatively impact your ranking in results pages.
- Social Media Marketing | Social media marketing is an effective tool to help your business reach its target audience and improve SEO. While it’s true that the links you share on Twitter, Facebook, or Linkedin aren’t seen by Google as a ranking signal, creating engaging, branded posts that attract interest in your product or service can drive traffic to your website. In essence, SEO and social media marketing work together to achieve overlapping goals of increased visibility and organic traffic for your business.
- Online Videos | When done correctly, online videos can make a significant impact on your overall SEO strategy, in more ways than one. Creating high-quality videos can help your business attract links naturally over time, generate social shares, and increase conversions.
- Reputation Management | Online reviews have become one of the main resources potential customers check before making purchase decisions. Beyond promoting your company in a positive light, generating reviews from happy customers improves your SEO by showing search engines that your business is reliable and trustworthy.
SEO has the potential to help bring qualified visitors to your website and accurately track how many new customers are gained from your organic search results. But as you can see, there’s a lot that goes into SEO, so it can take a lot of time and effort to successfully implement and maintain a strategy. Leave it to the experts so you can focus on your business! At Triton Commerce, we provide our clients with a complete team of industry experts who specialize in SEO strategies. Learn about our process and get a free proposal today!