7 minute read
Get More Leads & Conversions
UTILIZING A SOLID Your SEO Strategy
You’ve no doubt heard the term “SEO.” But, what the hell is it exactly? Is it a person, place, or thing? (That’s a noun), Is it fire, water, earth, metal, or wood? (that’s some Chinese thing). Is it the 90’s movie with Gary Oldman and Bruce Willis with hair? (I think it is) It stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” What that means is SEO increases the quality and quantity of your website traffic through non-paid—i.e., “organic”— search engine results. Like effing magic–but it’s not. It’s a lot of HARD work, planning, and time/money. Better search results improve how your website ranks, meaning users see your website on the first page of search results in at least the top three to five non-paid positions. The higher you rank in web search results, the easier it is for potential customers to find you. The easier it is for users to find you, the greater your brand awareness, the more leads you obtain, and the greater likelihood these leads result in conversions (that’s SEO talk for people who buy what you are selling).
There’s a lot that goes into getting SEO off the ground. It begins with your website. It results in more leads and conversions. In between is your SEO strategy. Let’s take a closer look at the seven (not fifth, like the movie poster) key elements of your SEO strategy.
- The Quality of Your Website
- Page Speed Optimization
- Keyword Selection and Relevance
- Level of Competition
- Content Quality and Optimization
- Link Building and Off-Page SEO
- Continuous Monitoring and Adaptation
1 – The Quality of Your Website
The whole point of SEO is to drive potential good-fit customers to your website. So, the first thing we look at is the quality of your website. Is it easy to navigate? Does it NOT look like shit. Does it effectively tell your brand story? Does it look and act the same on multiple devices? Equally important is whether the underlying code, as well as the content itself, contains the necessary keywords (we’ll get to those in a minute) that search engine web crawlers can easily identify. Content also needs to be COMPELLING. Not some rehashed thin AI content that everyone is regurgitating. Google is onto that crap.
Maybe your website just needs a little tweaking. Maybe it needs a major overhaul. Maybe it’s somewhere in between. Updating a website, adding pages, getting client approval for those updates, and adding pages all takes time. Lots of it. Like a full-time job kind of time. Your website is the foundation of your SEO strategy. We first have to make sure that the website is up to speed well before you are likely to see speedy SEO results. Great site gets great results. Shitty site gets shitty results.
2 – Page Speed Optimization
Page speed is now a huge ranking factor in Google. The geeks at Google are sick of the slow bullshit. They are rewarding sites with higher rankings for faster speeds. Page speed optimization aims to increase the speed at which your desktop and mobile websites load. If you’ve ever been on a slow-loading website, you’ll know that the longer it takes for you to see content, the quicker you’ll give them the boot. There are a number of factors that create slow-loading pages:
There are too many big large images.
Too many third-party plugins, apps, or other third-party scripts, notably JavaScript.
Pages contain large files.
Issues with your website host – Slow shared servers – Godaddy equals Mcdonald’s. Fast servers equals Morton’s. Where would you rather have a Steak at?
Page speed optimization looks at these and other technical issues to improve your site’s resource utilization so your website pages load faster. This means visitors don’t disappear because they get tired of waiting.
3 – Selection and Relevance
Keywords are the words and phrases (which are specifically called “long-tail keywords”) entered into search engines. If your website contains sufficient relevant keywords entered by your target audience, the better chances you have that your website ranks high in the search results.
It sounds simple, but there’s actually a lot of research that goes into determining the best keywords. The best keywords are not only those most likely to be used in conducting searches but also those that distinguish you from potential competitors. In SEO, you want good-fit, high traffic, and low SEO difficulty score but a high cost-per-click. A high cost-per-click means that the keyword is in demand and that it’s most likely a high-intent keyword. The whole strategy is built on data. Not what you “think” is a good keyword. Nobody cares that you rank number one for a keyword that nobody searches for or is bad contextually with your business. That being said, you also can’t put a gun to the end-user’s head and say, “Search this keyword term to find me, or you die, you filthy animal!”
START WITH AN EFFING SEO SITE AUDIT
4 – Level of Competition
The level of competition within your industry significantly impacts the time it takes to see results from SEO. If your niche has numerous established competitors, it takes longer to outrank them and get noticed by search engines. On the flip side, if your industry is antiquated, and they don’t have their shit together, it may be easier to rank for. Analyzing your competitors’ digital footprint and finding ways to differentiate yourself is crucial for SEO success. And since your competitors are doing the same thing, it’s an ongoing process to target the best keywords that get the best results compared to your competition. Bury them sons-of-bitches. Some industries, such as insurance or retail, are cutthroat. It’s tough to rank for industries that are spending billions against you. Another reason why SEO is so important. It levels the playing field. Google is a local algorithm. If I search for “best damn taco’s near me,” I get the local damn guy down the damn street with the best damn tacos. Not Taco Bell’s national headquarters in California (with the damn worst). With SEO, you can be BIG in your own backyard. A backyard bully if you will.
5 – Content Quality and Optimization
Creating high-quality, optimized, keyword-rich content is essential for driving leads and conversions from SEO. Investing time in keyword research, writing engaging and informative content, and optimizing it for both search engines and users increases the likelihood of attracting qualified leads to your website.
This is never a “one and done” kind of task. No one-pump-chumps here. As much as adding new content is important to SEO, so is re-evaluating existing content and optimizing it. Over and over and over. Like Groundhog Day. Continuous SEO review of your content looks to evaluate whether the keywords have resulted in significant search volume, whether the heading structure needs tweaking to make it easier for search bots to find, and whether the topic needs updating, among other considerations. Whether you are ranking up, or down for a specific keyword term. This is called “rank tracking.”
Don’t even bother with AI content. Google has been there and seen that. All AI does is scrape the internet like dog shit off of a sidewalk and regurgitate the same thin boring content that already exists. It fails to interact with your target audience and resonate with them. Be funny, be witty, be a complete smart ass (like me, be a jerk (also like me)). Do what it takes to engage with your audience and keep their attention. Howard Stern founded his whole career on it. People who hated Sterm were more engaged than people who loved him.
6 – Link Building and Off-page SEO
The process of acquiring backlinks, also known as link building, plays a significant role in improving your website’s authority and visibility. Backlinks are links from a reputable website to a page on your site and then links back to that reputable website. Full circle. By reputable, we mean a website search engines consider legitimate with a high domain authority (DA) score. Search engines consider backlinks as a kind of endorsement of a website’s relevance and quality. Pages with a high number of relevant backlinks tend to have much higher organic search engine rankings.
Building a solid portfolio of high-quality backlinks can help accelerate your SEO efforts. However, link-building takes time and requires a strategic approach to ensure organic growth. Done incorrectly, it can actually penalize your SEO results. Especially from low-quality crap-tastic link farms.
7 – Continuous Monitoring and Adaptation
SEO is an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring, analyzing, and adapting to changes in search engine algorithms and user behavior. Like Bruce Lee said, “Be water.” Staying updated with the latest trends and implementing necessary adjustments is vital for maintaining and improving your website’s rankings. It’s important to remember that SEO is not a one-time effort but rather a long-term strategy. Your strategy also needs to be fluid. You can’t get all butt hurt when you have to switch gears. Testing is part of the process.
Expecting overnight success with SEO efforts is unrealistic. Depending on various factors such as website quality, level of competition, speed, keyword selection, content optimization, link building, continuous adaptation, and all the crap we’ve discussed in this article, it can take 3 to 6 months (or even longer) to achieve significant results and hit your goal. However, by implementing effective SEO strategies, consistently creating valuable content, and staying committed to your efforts, you will gradually see the fruits of your labor—a steady stream of leads and conversions that fuels your business’s growth. You don’t want to be the fat kid who loses 5 pounds and then quits before losing a hundred. You have to STICK WITH IT. Whether you spend a penny or a million pennies (which is $10,000), it’s a waste of money if you don’t see it through to your goal.
Tag Marketing offers affordable SEO pricing packages, anywhere from a penny to a million pennies, that get your business leads and conversions. Request an SEO audit and consult by filling out our short form, and we will connect with you to discuss your needs, goals, timeframe, and target audience. We will pretty much pick, poke, and prod at the zit that is your current page ranking (or non-ranking) for keyword terms. Then, we will send you on your happy way with an SEO roadmap along with actionable deliverables (not invisible gypsy magic) to reach your goals.