As a business owner, you know that being visible online is imperative to success. It’s what gets you out there to your customers that know about you. And it helps potential customers “find you” online. That’s where SEO comes in to the picture and this article will help in deconstructing SEO so you can use it to your advantage.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a solid and stable way to earn long-term organic traffic. Growing your blog or website’s SEO can be daunting and mystifying, but it doesn’t have to be! Without you e even realizing it, you may have found this post due to SEO that’s been implemented specially for it.
In this blog post, we will deconstruct SEO into manageable steps that you can start implementing today.
What is SEO?
Let’s start with the basics. What is SEO? It’s the methodology of optimizing content on your website for Google’s search engine algorithm. The goal is with better SEO, your website will earn higher rankings on search results and increased organic traffic.
You can do this by using relevant keywords throughout your content so Google’s internet crawlers can easily find and index your site. Once customers type these keywords into the search bar, you want your site to appear as one of the top search results.
Aside from staying up to date with the changing algorithms (which we will get into later), SEO is evergreen. This means that it does not require paid ads or other temporary fixes to maintain high search result rankings. That being said, dedicating time and resources into understanding how SEO works is necessary for any business that wants a long-lasting online presence.
Types of SEO
On-Page SEO: Refers to all measures that can be taken directly within the website in order to improve its position in the search rankings. One of our favorite tools for this is listed below. One-page SEO includes technical aspects such as server configuration, site structure, as well as content-related aspects like meta tags, titles, anchor texts and content.
Off-Page SEO: Consists of all measures that can be taken outside of the actual website in order to improve its position in the search rankings. These include social signals such as likes, shares and followers as well as link building.
One could easily argue that link building is actually the most important aspect of growing a blog. There are so many great resources available, but our favorite is this article on Backlinko by Brian Dean. He knows his stuff and has so many great tips in this area.
SEO Tools
Google Analytics: Free tool offered by Google that provides detailed statistics about the visitors on a website. It lets you see how users found your site, where they are located, what device they used, how long they stayed on your site, etc. You might not think all of these details are important, but finding your niche market or customer is. Use these details to ensure you’re still reaching the people you want to reach.
Google Search Console: Another free tool offered by Google which allows you to check how often your site appears in Google searches. As an added bonus, it also shows you which keywords are used most. With that information, you can reword landing pages or blog posts to better target potential customers.
Site Kit by Google: Of course it’s easy to explain what Google Analytics and Google Search Console are, but it doesn’t leave you with the information needed to actually implement those. That’s where Site Kit, Google’s official plug-in, comes into play. We personally use the plug-in on every WordPress install. It allows you to easy install these tools on your website and even create/set them up if you haven’t already.
Yoast SEO: With everything we’ve shared so far, this tool is definitely the “best for last” in our arsenal. This plug-in has both a free and paid version. In our experience, the free one does a great job in its own right.
Once installed, each page and post of your website gets a SEO score and a readability score. Make them both green, and you’re in a great spot for that page or post. And if you’re not sure what to fix, there’s a running check list at the bottom of the post or page.
Closing Thoughts
By now you should have a better understanding of what SEO entails and some of the tools available to measure success. Stay tuned for a future blog post where we will go more in depth about on page optimization techniques!
And remember, if optimizing your website still feels overwhelming, consider working with an agency that specializes in digital marketing. Gidds Media offers custom tailored packages including Search Engine Optimization services designed to increase visibility and ROI for businesses of all sizes. Contact us today for a free consultation!
