Marketing is a golden tool any business owner should use to get notoriety and increase sales. Starting with a well-optimized website and ending with a creative Instagram page, any business that wants to thrive should pay attention to its online presence. Why? Because audiences have moved completely online, especially now. This is why businesses should use all the tricks marketing puts at their disposal.
Marketing is a wide subject, but let’s focus today on one of its branches, namely SEO. Yes, you might have heard about it from a person who has just launched a website. But what is SEO and how does it help your business thrive? SEO is short for search engine optimization and you can find out more on that note here: https://www.buildthis.io/growth/seo-for-dummies/.
What is SEO?
SEO technically implies optimizing a website so it gets organic traffic. This means that if some settings are done correctly, and a person is searching online for a particular thing you as a business are selling, you will be among the first ones to show up in Google as a result. This will automatically mean more traffic, more notoriety, and increased sales. But to get there you must go through a long road of research and work. Here are some of the most important rules for good SEO and online presence.
1. Use relevant keywords
If a person is good at SEO, that means that he/she is good with words. They can read the actions of the audience of a business and ”predict” what they will search on google. Look, this is not that hard. You just have to start from the type of business you have. If you are selling jewelry, for example, what would potential clients search for? They would use words such as bracelet, necklace, ring, gold ring, so on and so forth. So just assume what your potential clients want – you know what they want more than anyone – and pick the most relevant keywords for you.
Yes, keywords are a starting point, but you should remember not to overdo it. Why? Because stuffing a text with the same word will make it difficult to read. People will get bored or even annoyed with such content and leave a page as soon as possible. And Google does not like this. Google appreciates websites which make users stay longer and this helps with optimization. If you drive them away with keyword overstuffing, Google will help people stay away from your website.
2. Write unique content
Let’s go back to your jewelry business and website. If you want to make people stay, you have to make sure that you provide unique content – read more here. Why? There are two reasons you should take into consideration: users and Google.
To begin with, people do not appreciate thieves and dishonest people. So, if they read the content you are providing somewhere else, they will not be interested and leave immediately. With so much information on the web, people are in constant search for something different, something new and something innovative that will change their lives for the better.
You should also know that Google does not agree with duplicate content either. If you have 100 necklaces on your website, you should under no circumstance copy and paste the descriptive text of necklace one for one hundred times. Instead, you should create 100 different unique descriptions – using keywords, of course. Yes, this process takes time but you must do it in the long run.
3. On-Page optimization is very important
On-Page optimization is an entire story in itself. Let’s say that you also created a blog for your jewelry business, where you are sharing novelties in the field, collections and so on. A good optimization starts with a keyword, which should be used in the title, in one of the headlines – yes, good articles have several headlines, and a couple of times in the text.
On-Page optimization also includes a title – the title that will appear on Google once the article appears and the title should be customized to attract all readers. More than that, you should not forget to write the meta description, which is a short descriptive paragraph. It is like the summary of the entire article and must contain the keyword chosen for that page.
We should also mention here the importance of images. More than just adding an image to a blog post, you should also write the title, description and even alt text of the image. You should use the keyword in all the segments, but it’s ok if you do not include it in the alt text. Alt text is a descriptive text which has the role of telling you exactly what is present in the picture. It is meant to help blind people hear a description of an image.
4. Resort to internal linking
For Google, links are everything. This is why you must include links in the text of an article. People who read will be able to click it and go to another page of the website, making it even more valuable to Google because users spend a lot of time on it. You should know that search engine optimization is a great tool for your business.
Not enough knowledge on how to boost your visibility and increase your sales? Find out as much as you can about SEO and start applying all the important rules – find a relevant keyword, write unique content, create on-page optimization and use relevant links!