Business owners ask us about SEO on a regular basis. They “know they need it”, but they aren’t sure what they need exactly. This article breaks SEO down into broad categories based on different types of businesses: Basic SEO, Local SEO, Advanced SEO Strategies, Content Strategies and even Paid SEO. My goal is to help demystify and simplify what can feel like a confusing process. Use this as a guide to determine which type(s) of SEO make sense for your particular type of business and website.
What is basic SEO?
Basic search site optimization (SEO) includes researching keywords, copywriting and technical changes to your most important web pages. These changes will be made where you can see them on the pages (the headlines and words), but also on the backend where you won’t be able to see them. Some of those hidden backend words will be what show up in the search results as the free “ads” that people click on, so they are really important!
Think of Basic SEO as work done to the core pages of your site that don’t change very often, such as your home page, product/service pages and other evergreen pages. Each page provides an opportunity to try to rank for a couple of keywords. This means that the more pages you have on your website, the more opportunities you will have to get search engines focused on specific groups of words.
I like to break keywords into two main groups: branded and non-branded keywords. You should expect to rank highly for your brand name, but ideally, you will also rank for your most relevant general keywords. Your ability to rank for the general keywords will depend almost entirely on how competitive your industry is and how “useful” Google rates your content related to those keywords. If it is highly competitive, you may require advanced SEO strategies to even appear in the top 50 positions. If you have a wide range of products or services, you may even need groups of words with unique website pages built for each group.
In addition to keyword research and strategy, the technical part of SEO requires making sure the site is meeting search engine requirements for speed and usability. Otherwise, search engines may demote you in favor of other websites that create a better user experience. The technical set up also includes making sure that the page templates for the site have the correct headline structure and other back end code that search engines look for in their overall evaluation of a site. As part of our technical set up, we also install tracking code to run reports that monitor the effectiveness of SEO efforts.
Once you have done a basic SEO setup, we recommend running SEO reports quarterly to make sure rankings haven’t slipped due to technical issues caused by site updates, algorithm changes or a new competitor gaining traction. There are usually some things that need to be adjusted on a quarterly basis. Some SEO providers will create monthly contracts that are really a means of financing the set up and ongoing check-ins, so be sure to ask what services are being performed under a monthly contract.
The goal of basic SEO is for people all over the internet to be able to find your website. But what if you don’t sell to people nationwide? If you have a brick-and-mortar business or a local or regionally-focused business, you may need some of the additional strategies listed below.
Local SEO strategies
Local SEO is almost the same as basic SEO, with the addition of local keywords, location landing pages and technical code added to call out the local addresses for search engines.
These on-page tactics are important, but probably more important for local SEO is what you need to do on other websites! It is important for local businesses to be listed in places that people use to search for local businesses. A lot of that happens through Google and through map applications. You need to make sure that your map listings in Google, Apple and other search engines are all claimed and properly set up with accurate information. Google has a whole suite of tools for businesses from “Google Business Profiles” to “Google Map Packs.” Apple has a competing map product that is native to iPhones and used with CarPlay and Siri searches.
Outside of the map applications, there are also places people can review and rate local businesses and directory listings: Yelp, Chambers of Commerce and other industry listing sites. If you search for your services in your local area and a directory or review site comes up at the top of the search, you should look into the listing requirements (many are free) and properly link back to your website. If people are actively posting reviews of your business on play platform, you will want to make sure you “own” or have “claimed” those listings and ensure that they are managed and correctly linking back to your website. Developing a presence on these high-ranking sites will drive traffic, but will also serve as cues to search engines that you are a locally-anchored business. The search engine’s algorithms will follow the listings you have created and it will help them properly rank your website.
Once these localization tools are set up and you are showing correctly on maps and in directories, you will want to keep a close eye on them. We recommend monthly review for local SEO strategies, and more frequent monitoring of review sites.
Do you update your website every month?
If you change the content on your website regularly, it is important to update SEO right along those changes. The hidden free “ads” and keywords should be updated to match the content changes you are making on the visible portions of the site. Additionally, pages that move around and URLs that change need to be identified through a process called “redirecting,” which is required so that users don’t come to a broken link from a page that no longer exists. Especially important is resubmitting your sitemap to Google every time you make a change, so that it knows when your site has been updated. Google will automatically crawl your website every 30-60 days, but if you are making updates more frequently, it helps to resubmit the sitemap each time a change is made. This demonstrates to Google that you are actively adding content.
In addition to content that is regularly changing, yet another strategy must be used for sites that are constantly growing and adding pages.
Content strategies – How blogs, news, case studies and new content can help SEO.
If you generate new content every month, in the form of blogs, case studies, news items or other new pages, there is yet another SEO strategy you will want to add on to your toolkit.
Generating content regularly can help expand your base of keywords and audiences. Using additional types of posts that can be consolidated in groups such as news, media, resources or blogs keeps your main web pages more focused and the site organized while adding SEO opportunities to the site with each new page.
A content strategy can be very helpful for businesses that offer more than one product or service or businesses that sell the same thing to different audiences. Every new page or post that you add to the website is a new opportunity for additional search engine rankings, which could mean more search words, different types of words or even different “ads” that appeal to different audiences.
The people creating your content can benefit from SEO research in advance to help focus their topics. As they develop new content, layering in the technical and back-end best-practices for each new page will help increase the ranking results. Additionally, a regular review of the page rankings will show which new pages are ranking the highest, and that can help inform new pieces of content.
The more pages and keywords you add to a site, the more challenging it can be to track and quantify the results of these efforts. This is where advanced reporting tools can be very helpful to track keyword groups, landing page effectiveness and competitive rankings.
Other Advanced SEO Practices that May Apply to Your Website
E-commerce Websites – There are specific technical markups required to get listed in shopping results. Making sure your category and product name match high volume key phrases will help your product serve higher for users searching for those products.
Catalog websites – Similar to an ecommerce site, but without the shopping listing opportunity, each individual page of a catalog is an opportunity for a search as long as the site is technically set up correctly, and the necessary copywriting is done to add keywords to the front and back end of the site.
Thought Leadership – If you have experts on your team who are recognized in your industry or among your audience, you should optimize for them in addition to products, services and other brand names.
PR as an SEO strategy – If you have regular media coverage, there are things you can do to strategically boost your SEO! Each PR mention is an opportunity to provide a link to your website with keywords that will help improve your rankings for those words.
If You Can’t Beat Them Organically, Try Paid Search
Paid search can be a great way to jump to the top of the search listings without having to wait on Google’s organic algorithms, but we do not recommend paid search programs for every type of business. For example, if there is not a lot of active searching going on for your keywords, paid will definitely not make sense.
Also, paid search is complex to set up, and Google’s algorithms guarantee that Google will take your money. Management of paid search is not a set-it-and-forget-it type of activity. It requires continual monitoring and adjustments, so there is a minimum cost of entry that requires a commitment. The time and effort to administer it can overshadow the results.
When does it make sense?
If there is a lot of active searching for your keywords, chances are, there are competitors already running paid search ads to try to capture some of this traffic. People who are searching for products or services are considered further along in the sales funnel than a cold lead because they are actively showing “intent”. Paid ads receive prominent positioning above the organic search results, and they can be a great way to literally get ahead of the competition.
A useful activity you can try on your own – type your search phrases into search engines and see if your competitors show up as “sponsored”. If you see giant competitors prominently featured, you might need a large budget to compete for the primary keywords. But don’t let competitors scare you away – there are strategies to work within smaller budgets.
Get Started with SEO
This is by no means an endless list of SEO strategies, but it covers most starting points for a small business. I hope this helps you understand what might be appropriate for your business and makes you a little bit curious about whether SEO (in some form) might be something to explore.
If you are interested in some SEO straight talk, please reach out for a consultation. We love to help businesses identify their most effective marketing strategies and would be thrilled to help see if SEO (or some other strategy) is right for your business.
