Why You Need A Solid SEO Strategy And A Way To Measure Results

 Why You Need A Solid SEO Strategy And A Way To Measure Results

Trying to get traffic to your website without a solid plan is a bit like driving around with a vague destination in mind, but no directions on how to get there. You may eventually make your way to where you want to be, but it will take a lot longer and require more effort than if you had your route mapped out.

The same holds true with website traffic in general, and search engine optimization in particular. With a solid strategy, you will have a goal in mind, and a plan for what to do to get there.

Even if you’re new to SEO and you don’t quite understand what it will take to get a certain keyword ranking, or even what a realistic keyword goal is for you, it's good to have a plan. You can always tweak and adjust both your plan and your strategy as you go along.

When you have a workable strategy with defined goals, and a way to track the results you are getting over time, it becomes easy to determine if your strategy is working. Without either of those, you're guessing at best, and that's not a good business practice. Search engine optimization takes time and effort. And if you're hiring someone to help you, it can involve quite a bit of money.

So where do you start? Learn the basics of how SEO works. Set up a good Website Analytics program so you can start to measure what traffic you’re getting now and where new traffic is coming from. Google Analytics is a great program that will grow with you. Install it, look through the reports, start to learn to use it and expand your knowledge as you go along.

Your next step will be to formulate a strategy. This should be a five-step process that includes:

1. Determine your ideal target audience.

2. Figure out what they are looking for and what keywords and key phrases they use.

3. Generate high-value content around those terms.

4. Implement on page and on site optimization.

5. Track results and adjust as needed.

From there you can expand on what’s working, identify more audiences, more terms, and create more content, and slow down on what isn’t working. One important thing to keep in mind is that search engine optimization takes time and that you’re building your site’s reputation with the big search engines over time. Don’t give up on your strategy too soon and whatever you do, don’t throw in the towel.

Improve Your SEO with Online Directories and Google My Business

Just about every business today has a website, and just about everyone wants to increase their page rankings for that website. To do this, they have to optimize it to make it easier for the search engines to find. In order to do that they have to employ different search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. Online directories are a great way to do this.

Online directories typically have a higher page authority than other websites. This authority allows them to appear on the first page of the search engine results page (SERP), typically in one of the top spots. When a business is listed in that directory, they and their website also appear in the top spots of the SERP. This is one of the best ways online directories help improve a business’ SEO.

All directories will allow a business to place their website address somewhere within the listing and that is simplified very much by Google My Business . This link in the online directory or your Google My business’s link will count as a vote for that website. The more votes a website has, the higher it will appear in the SERP.

When businesses have multiple listings across different directories, each listing is then essentially considered a vote, because it contains the link to the business website. This can help the website appear higher in the search engines, even when the user is not looking in a directory.

The amount of SEO benefits your online directory listings bring to your business will depend on the directory you use. Some are ranked higher than others, and some are ranked so low creating a listing there could actually hamper your SEO efforts. However, just having a listing on Google My Business is said to increase a website’s ranking by 1.5 points.

SEO may not be at the top of every business owner’s mind. For those with a website though, it should be. Creating listings in online directories is one of the easiest ways to improve it.