Search Engine Optimization

September 30, 2022

SEO is not just a buzzword. It’s the approach you take towards optimizing your website and marketing channels so that they are easier to find by search engines like Google. SEO is an ongoing process, but the more effort you put into it, the better results you’ll see from your efforts.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing a website to gain visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). The goal of SEO is to improve your rankings in search engines so that your site appears higher on the list of results.

As a business owner or marketing professional, it’s important to understand that SEO isn’t a quick fix. It requires patience and consistency over time to see results—but it will pay off!

monitor screengrab showing increased website traffic

Why is SEO important for Marketing?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a way to get traffic to your website.

It can help you to:

  • Get more traffic
  • Get more conversions
  • Get more revenue
  • Get more visibility (rank higher in search results)
  • Build brand awareness and reputation

Define your SEO goals.

Before you start any SEO work, it’s important to define your goals. Why? Because you can’t measure the success of your efforts if you don’t know what the desired outcome is.

Here are some tangible examples:

  • Increase conversions on one webpage by 10% within two months.
  • Double the number of people who view a specific video in three months.
  • Get a certain keyword in the first three spots on Google search results for that keyword at least 50% of the time (i.e., go from having it show up in position 4 or lower to having it show up in positions 1-3).

Now here are some intangible ones: * Increase brand awareness by 5%. This might involve creating more effective marketing campaigns, focusing on social media platforms with large audiences or launching an online advertising campaign using display ads instead of text links at the bottom of articles underlined with blue text (you know what I’m talking about).

white and black labeled book page

Conduct an SEO audit.

The first step to optimizing your website is conducting an SEO audit. This should be done with a critical eye, as you will be examining everything from your site’s content to its accessibility.

  • Check for accessibility. When checking for accessibility, look at the following:
  • Text size and contrast ratio (it should be at least 4.5:1).
  • Images containing alt text that accurately describe what they are showing. For example, if you have a photo of a dog then “dog” would not suffice as an alt text; instead use something like “Happy brown Labrador retriever resting on grass in front yard” or something similar that describes what is going on in that image. This will help search engines understand why this image exists on your page and rank it accordingly for relevant searches related to dogs or labs (or whatever type of animal appears in that photo).
  • Check for speed and mobile friendliness. These two go hand-in-hand because they both can affect how many visitors stay on your site long enough to click through links and convert into customers/clients/subscribers etc., so do them together! Make sure they are optimized with fast loading times across all devices including desktop computers and laptops if possible since most people nowadays access websites via their phones while out running errands or commuting during their daily routine so it’s important to make sure those pages load quickly even when using slower connections such as 3G networks instead of Wi-Fi ones which offer faster speeds but don’t always work everywhere due to coverage issues like dead zones where there aren’t any towers nearby where people could connect without problems.”
Choose your words tiles

Research the right keywords.

Keyword research is a critical component of digital marketing, and you can use it to create content that’s more interesting and relevant to your target audience. Keywords are the words or phrases people use to search for products and services online—basically, they’re what people search for in Google.

If you have a website, this information is especially important because the keyword phrases people type into search engines can tell you what kind of content your audience wants from you. For example, if someone searches for “SEO,” they’re probably looking for information about SEO tactics like on-page optimization (e.g., title tags), link building (e.g., guest posting), or off-page optimization (e.g., social media).

You can also use keyword research to see what keywords competitors are using on their websites so that when someone searches those terms on Google or Bing/Yahoo!, they’ll find yours instead of theirs! The easiest way to do this is by using Google’s Keyword Planner tool, which tells you how many people are searching each month for specific terms across different devices (desktop versus mobile) as well as how much competition there is overall between all advertisers bidding on those same keywords during any given month (or over four quarters).

Check your website’s accessibility.

Make sure your website is accessible to search engines.

  • Check your website for broken links, missing ALT tags, missing titles and meta descriptions, missing headings, spelling errors or grammar errors (including punctuation), or broken images.
  • Use a tool like Gwebi to find broken links and verify that they have working redirects or 404 pages set up. DO NOT leave them as they are – this can hurt your rankings!

Create valuable content.

The most important factor to consider when building your website is the content you produce. You want to create unique and valuable content that your readers will keep coming back for.

To make sure that your site has great SEO, here are some simple steps:

  • Google Analytics can tell you what keywords people are using in search engines to find your website. Use a keyword tool like Keyword Planner or SEMrush to find out which keywords are most relevant for your business and optimize this content accordingly
  • Make sure that all of the content on your website is original, not copied from other sources (this includes images as well)
  • Use images, videos, infographics and other media elements in addition to text-based writing so that readers have something visually interesting in addition to informative words

Optimize for on-page SEO.

  • On-page SEO is the process of optimizing the content, structure and coding of your website to ensure that search engines can crawl, index and understand your pages.
  • It covers elements such as HTML tag use with regards to keywords, meta descriptions and metadata.
  • The importance of on-page SEO cannot be stressed enough in today’s world of digital marketing.

Optimize for off-page SEO.

Off-page optimization is the process of making your website more attractive to search engines. Off-page optimization includes all activities that bring in links and mentions from other websites, which then improve your ranking in search results. The three main types of off-page optimization are backlinks, content marketing, and social media.

Backlinks are links from other websites to yours; they help show the popularity of your site, which increases its authority in search rankings. Content marketing helps increase brand awareness and trust among prospects by providing useful information about your industry or business. Social media posts can give you a chance at being seen by influencers with high followings who could share information about you on their own social media networks at no cost to you!

man in black long sleeve shirt wearing black headphones sitting on chair

Prioritize technical SEO.

Technical SEO is the foundation of all SEO work. It’s the basic, foundational work that helps search engines understand your website and its content. Technical SEO also directly supports other marketing initiatives by making it easier for people to find your content on search engines, which in turn drives more traffic and leads for your business.

Technical SEO includes:

  • Content optimization (keyword research, writing a sitemap)
  • URL structure (URLs should be relevant to their content)
  • Schema markup (if you sell products or events, use schema markup)
person holding black phone

Make sure that your website is accessible and comfortable for users across all devices and platforms.

  • Make sure that your website is accessible and comfortable for users across all devices and platforms.
  • Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly.
  • Make sure your website is responsive, so that it adapts to different screen sizes.
  • Make sure your site loads quickly on all devices, regardless of their connection speeds or bandwidth capability.
  • Ensure that all critical pages are secure (https).

Measure what matters.

Measure what matters.

As a marketer, you need to make sure that you are monitoring the right things and measuring them in the best way possible. You want your SEO efforts to be focused on improving specific key performance indicators (KPIs) that drive business results. If your KPIs aren’t leading directly to more sales or traffic, then they’re not helping anyone.

So how do you make sure that your metrics reflect what they should? There are three basic steps: First, define clear goals for each KPI ahead of time; then look at what tools are available; finally, choose which tools will help achieve those goals.

Get Started

SEO is a complex process, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can implement an effective SEO strategy that drives traffic, conversions, and revenue for your business.

We can help. Warblr Marketing prioritizes Search Engine Optimization for each of our clients. Having a beautiful website is not worth much if no one ever sees it. We ensure all that effort isn’t wasted. To learn how we can help you get your website attention that leads to increased sales, Click the Learn More button below, or hit us up on chat.

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