Search engine optimization, or SEO, is known as one of the most effective ways to reach a target audience online. Through SEO, you can increase your search engine rankings when your target audience completes a query for a specific keyword or phrase that you have targeted. This can be a free marketing avenue in some cases, but some people will incorporate paid services for freelance writing, marketing consultancy and more to boost their results. If you are thinking about getting started with a search engine optimization campaign, follow these steps to get the ball rolling with a bang.
This sounds easy enough, but it is one of the areas that many people struggle with. You need to think about keywords and phrases that your target audience may be most likely to search for. At the same time, think about phrases that your competition is not using. For example, if you are in the mortgage business in Philadelphia, there may be dozens of firms that are targeting “Philadelphia home loans.” There may be fewer that target suburbs in Philadelphia, such as “Conshohocken home loans.” In addition, people who look for information on home loans may also be looking for interest rates, so you could target “Philadelphia interest rates.”
After you have selected your keywords, it is time to incorporate them into your marketing material. Create static text on your website that incorporate these words into it, but avoid stuffing the keywords. Placing the phrases you have selected in the text approximately every 100 to 200 words is often highly effective. In addition, make the content fresh and relevant for your target audience. You want your content to be updated regularly, so update your website’s static content periodically, and consider adding a blog or article links to your website. These pieces can be written to provide helpful tips to your clients, to introduce new products and services and more. Some will hire a freelance writer to prepare these pieces, and many freelance writers have knowledge of SEO.
Search engines pay attention to how relevant your content is and to your keywords, but they also focus on how old your content is. This includes content on your website as well as content that is linked back to your website, such as off-site articles. The algorithms change periodically for search engines, so the exact timing regarding when you should ideally update content is not understood. However, some experts recommend that you update content with a fresh blog post or other piece approximately every week. As a side note, you can boost your SEO efforts by increasing your blog’s following and sending email announcements to your mailing list when you update the article.
Getting the ball rolling on your SEO campaign is easy to do when you put these tips into action. Spend ample time working on each of these steps for the best overall results, and take time to become a veritable SEO expert as you work through these steps.