Why Isn't Your SEO Campaign Working?

How is your SEO working for you? If your response is, "What is SEO?" Then we're off to a bumpy start. Search Engine Optimization or SEO refers to how well your website content copy attracts a search engine. 

The goal is to get as close to number one status on that first search page as possible. To accomplish that you need to make some specific choices with regard to your SEO campaign.

 Top on the list of important SEO concerns should be:

• Finding the right keywords specifically geared for your business.
• Writing alternate title tags and Meta descriptions for all of your web site pages. Yes, all!
• Fold the perfect keywords into all your titles, subheads and links. Yes, all!
• Develop a plan to attract back-links to drive traffic to your site. Here's a hint: link out to other sites that have similar content.
• Develop a social media plan to share your content and increase link-building.
• Stay on top of your analytics to make current adjustments.

A strong SEO campaign isn't about programming technology. Instead, it should be about focusing on the following areas:

Informative Content

The foundation of all your website copy should be to inform your customers. That's what search engines will be on the prowl for because they want to inform their customers. There shouldn't be a scatter shot approach to your content. Instead, plot out an editorial calendar for each month. This can help you focus on informative themes and allow you to set consistent deadlines for updating that content.

Tracking Traffic

If it looks like that your online marketing strategy isn't attracting traffic, change it. That's why you're following your analytics! A simple test is to play the role of customer. Type in your target keywords and see what comes up. Why is one website above another? What are they offering their customers? Can you do the same?

Don't Stuff Your Content

There are plenty of so-called SEO experts trolling around who promise to optimize your content. Merely stuffing keywords into a couple of paragraphs is an attempt to fool the search engines. It's not going to work. SEO isn't about technology as much as it is about quality. Along with content, give you customers the chance to post positive reviews. Often those reviews are what pops up first.

Your website is your storefront. If you had an actual brick and mortar business you'd greet your customers as they come in the door, ask them what they are looking for and volunteer to help them find that. Now transfer that attitude to your web business. That's what will make for a successful SEO campaign. 

Top 5 SEO Myths That Need to Be Broken

As you enter into the e-commerce space, you're going to be learning all about driving traffic to your website. One of the first (and most important) concepts you should learn is about Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Simply put, the goal of SEO is to increase the rankings of your website when a specific search term or phrase is entered. Depending on the topic this can be a crowded field.

For instance, Google "locksmith" and your hometown. What you're sure to come up with are dozens of pages of locksmiths businesses. If your business is among those ranking on the first page you stand a much better chance of garnering that new customer. Along with understanding SEO you'll also run across some SEO myths.

You would follow these myths at your own peril because they might end up preventing traffic to your site as opposed to increasing traffic.

Here are the top 5 SEO myths that need to be broken.

You only have to optimize your site once.

Wrong. You might get lucky with your first wave of comprehensive SEO content and achieve that number one ranking but you won't be there for long. All of your competitors will be working on their own SEO strategies which can knock you off the top ranking at any time. This means you've got to consistently improve your SEO on a regular basis. Look at it this way: Would you only have one "special sale" for your business to attract customers? Of course not! The same can be said for SEO.

Links to social bookmarks aren't considered SEO.

Actually they are. Adding social networking bookmarks to your content are becoming an important and viable component to a comprehensive SEO strategy. Based on the findings of recent surveys, close to 14% of a website's ranking power can originate from sites like Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus. In other words, fire up those accounts and make sure they're part of your website.

You should always be posting content.

Yes and no. The myth is that without new content your site won't be picked up by search engines. The key issue is one of relevancy. Your content needs to be relevant for the search. If it is content for the sake of content then you're defeating the purpose. Making content relevant is at the heart of successful SEO and that will be determined by many factors both on your web pages and off those pages.

Forget title tags and meta tags; they don't work.

That would be a big mistake. This is where those on/off page factors come into play. A common mistake by webmasters is to title home pages as "home" as opposed to the keyword in title tags. Going back to the locksmith example, you shouldn't tag your landing page as "home" but "locksmith in Austin" (or wherever). Focus on a 160-character meta description of your content that will include a relevant keyword phrase and you'll come out a winner.

You can't have enough backlinks.

Yes you can. Backlinks link other websites to your site. It's a way of expanding the potential for traffic. However, once again it comes down to a matter of relevancy. You want to establish your website as a place of authority that means you want quality backlinks and not general spam. Linking to news stories and videos work but you'll have to occasionally go back and make sure those links aren't broken. 

SEO tips for your small business

As Google has changed how people access and consume information, so must small businesses if they want to compete effectively. The goal of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to drive traffic to your website and therefore increase sales.  It has become such an important of marketing that you can’t really ignore it and expect to be successful in business.  

Here are some tips that can help your site get better optimized so that you can increase your sales. 

·         Picking the right keywords: One of the most important components of SEO is selecting the right keywords as optimizing for the wrong keyword will be leaving money on the table. You want to make sure that you pick keywords that have high traffic but are not competitive. Pick the keywords that people might type in the search engine, usually they would be two to four words.

·         Use short and keyword- targeted titles: Make sure that your title tag is descriptive and reflects the keywords and content of the particular page. Your title shouldn’t be too long, up to 10 words, and should also include your business name or website.

·         Detailed meta description tags: While ‘Meta Keyword’ tags are a topic of debate in the SEO world, what has remained is the frequent use of something called a “Meta Description” tag. This tag should contain an overview of what the visitor will experience on your specific page. This tag should be no longer than a couple of sentences. Omitting the “Meta Description” tag will result in the search engine quoting unintended parts of the page in the search engine results page.

·         Use search engine friendly URLs and domains:  When you purchase a domain, make sure that you purchase a domain with keywords that your clients will type in the search engine. By matching the domain name to the search phrase, you have a higher probability of gaining more visibility.

·         Content freshness & age:  The reason search engines exist is to provide you with great information. If your site doesn’t have fresh content on a frequent basis, they will bypass you in favour of a site that does have recent and relevant content.  When you publish unique and interesting content on a regular basis, you get noticed by the search engines, who will place you

·         Obtaining backlinks: The more links you get from other high rank websites, the better it affects your SEO ranking. A way to get backlinks is to provide great content and have people share it. The only reason people will want to link with you is because you have something great to offer. Don’t just link only to the homepage, but also make sure that you can get links to other pages on your website if they are relevant.

 ·       Social media content and sharing: Recently, Google has changed some parts of its algorithm, called the Panda Update. One change that was supposed to help in search rankings was how many times people share a webpage or website through social media. Now, to get people to share, you must provide great content to be shared.  Also, have your customers post reviews on major sites like Yelp, Zagat, Facebook and link back to your website.