SEO is Search Engine Optimization. Sounds intimidating? Don’t worry; we are here to guide you on this ☺
In simple terms, it’s the process that search engines like Google or Yahoo use to determine which website would rank higher or first on the search results. So, when people search for specific products or services, the business offerings are shown to them accordingly in the order of the different ranks.
This is why it is important for your website to rank higher in search results so it can gather more attention and interest from prospective customers, thus get more sales!
Related Keywords
Keywords are the royalty of SEO. A big part of this game relies on how attractive your content is to the audience. However, keep in mind that just because certain keywords are trending doesn’t mean you can use it on your site.
If war for example is a trending topic, a beverage brand cannot use a celebrity to write an article on it, change the site’s homepage to generate ads and use it as a campaign to generate peace; this will end in you not having only a disastrous PR stunt to fix, but also a very unrelated content for the search engine to see.
On the other hand, if you were a stylist and know that a certain celebrity is trending and they also happen to be your client writing a page about it (with permission of course) would be a gold star move.
Conversational Keywords
Before you write your content, make sure that you think based on how your audience talks and does their searches. Most of the time, brands write in a way that will present their offerings in the best possible way, but unfortunately not in the way their audience converse online.
So for instance, instead of using a broad and self-serving title for a skincare topic like “Our New and Improved Skincare formula,” you can rather consider some titles like;
- How to treat acne fast?
- Oily skin? Here are 5 skincare products you shouldn’t miss.
- 3-minute skincare routine
See the difference? ☺
Transactional Keywords
Transactional Keywords are more on your call-to-action statements to your audience. Use this lightly and do not bombard them in every single page or your site will look like a hard sell and spam-my.
Here are a few examples of how certain keywords can be attractive to certain audience groups. Bargain hunters for instance, are typically interested in words like:
- Sale
- Bundle
- Promo
- Freebie
Luxury lovers are usually attracted to terms like:
- Premium
- Quality
Eco-friendly and animal lovers usually look for:
- Not tested on animals
- No plastic used
- Vegan materials
These are just some of the transactional keywords that can make your audience more inclined to buy depending on their interests.
Internal and External Links
Let’s start with Internal links.
These are links that you place in your site that will direct your audience to another page within your site. For instance, you created a blog about redecorating your home. One thing you can do is to find related content on your site, content then use that link in this particular blog post. It could be an article about where to buy new and affordable pieces for your home or color trends that you can use as inspiration for your home.
This allows search engines to see that your topics are connected with each other.
Another simple strategy is to direct your audience to your set a meeting page or directly to the products or services related to the blog you published.
External links.
These on the other hand, are links that you place in your site that will bring your audience to a completely different site. One practical use of this is collaborating with other brands that are related to your business, but are not your competitors.
For instance, if you were a baker focusing on French pastries and you collaborated or did an interview with a French cook. Publishing this project on your site as a new page or as an article with your partner’s website is one of the things you can do to up your SEO game.
In return, you may also request the French cook to include your site link in their site when they publish your project together. This way, search engines like Google would know that you two trust each other’s sites making both of your platforms more credible to the algorithm.
Mobile Adaptability
Surprised? If you think that SEO is just all about the words that you have in your site, then you definitely have to re-do it!
Almost 60% of browsing happens on mobile phones and tablets according to Broadband search, which makes website adaptability on top of the priority of business owners.
Making sure that your website looks good, accessible and easy to navigate across all devices will allow the audience to understand what your business is about!
Images that are cropped and texts that cannot be clearly read are just some of the things that the audience may experience when you don’t make your site adapt.
Loading Time
Another neglected area of SEO is making sure that your site does not only look good, but also loads as fast as it could. Google even made an official announcement that speed highly impacts a site’s ranking on the results. This is because loading time affects the audience experience and if your site is loading a bit slower than their standards, it will definitely be bumped off the list.
Slow loading websites tend to have high bounce rates or in simpler terms, there are more people leaving the site right away before seeing much content. Once the search engines see this, your site will be ranked lower.
A few factors that make a site slow include old themes, widgets, videos hosted by another platform, widgets and even images.
Let us guide you more on this as most of the time; experimenting can cost you more money than you know!