It can be easy to think that SEO – and by extension, getting found online – is a simple process. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
The good news is, a lot of the time getting the basics right can be enough to put you ahead of your competitors and on your way to increasing the number of qualified leads you’re getting.
With that in mind, here are a few things to focus on when trying SEO for the first time.
1) Find Out What Terms Customers Are Looking For
The first step to getting found online is figuring out what your customers are searching for. The best place to start with this is just to think about what you would search if you were looking for your business.
For example, if you’re a plumber, you’d probably search something like:
- Plumber Gold Coast
- Plumber near me
- Gold Coast plumbing company
Figuring out these terms will give you the best place to start optimising your pages and Google Business Listing. From there, you’ll need to do a bit of investigation through some online tools to tell you if any of these terms have search volume (the higher the search volume, the more people are searching that term). This could also give you some additional keywords to focus on.
Once you have the keywords or terms you want to use, assign each page on your website one or two phrases to focus on.
2) Make Sure Your Keywords Are Included On Your Website
Once you know what terms to use, the next step is to make sure these keywords and phrases are incorporated on your website. There are a few key places that you need to do this.
First, make sure that you include the keyword you’ve chosen for that page in the main header of your page. It should also be included (as naturally as possible) in the content of the page, particularly in the first paragraph. This can sometimes mean turning your keyword of ‘plumber Gold Coast’ into ‘plumber on the Gold Coast’ as it flows more naturally in a sentence.
Then, you need to make sure each page has a correct meta title and meta description. If you use SEO plugins such as Yoast, it’s easy to modify these details in the snippet preview area. Here, you need to include the main keyword you’ve chosen for the page, your business name, and a location. In some cases, you can add a secondary keyword but you may not always have room. These meta details correspond to what your customers will see in the search results.
Here’s an example:
3) Remove Website Errors
Much like making sure your meta details are correct, there are other small errors you may not realise are on your website that could be impacting your performance.
4) Make Sure Your Website Can Be Found By Search Engines
Each page on your website should automatically be indexed by search engines – that is, they’re available to be found through search. Pages that aren’t indexed won’t get found online, so this is a pretty big one to double check.
If you haven’t already, make sure you sign up for Google Search Console. Here, you can submit your sitemaps (which you can also find through your SEO plugin, like Yoast), and make sure all of your pages are indexed. It might also be beneficial to repeat the process in Bing Webmaster Tools.
5) Create & Optimise The Google Business Listing.
Finally, you should make sure that you create your Google Business Listing. This will not only give you an additional spot to be seen in the search results, it allows customers to see details about your business at a glance.
Once you’ve created your listing, it’s important to verify it before you start changing any details (or they won’t match during verification and you’ll have to start again). Using the same keywords as the website, you can optimise the different sections of your listing (such as services and products) to ensure that they get picked up by a Google search. It’s also beneficial to post regularly about your services to give Google fresh content to look at when it’s searching.
If you can get all of these elements right, then there’s no reason that your business shouldn’t start to gain traction online. SEO can be complicated, so while this list may look easy, there might be times you run into trouble. If you’re struggling with any of these or need more assistance, check out the DIY Accelerate Local Leads course for a comprehensive understanding of how to get found online or contact our team today.
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