When Woody Allen told us "80 percent of success is showing up," he
may not have been talking about internet search results. But if he had,
he would have been right. Websites don't serve as effective
communication tools if they are not adjusted regularly for strong search
results. Fortunately, business owners and marketing professionals can
follow a few guidelines to ensure your website shows on the first page
in online search results, also known as search engine optimization
(SEO).
OPTIMIZE FOR MOBILEGEDDON
With 60 percent or more of the search market, Google's algorithm
changes cause marketers to sit up and notice. If you aren't a marketer,
you might have missed a big announcement last month from Google — its
new mobile device algorithm, Mobilegeddon. Don't feel badly, Google is
constantly making changes to its algorithms — as many as 50 each year.
Some of these are tweaks that go unnoticed. But Mobilegeddon is a game
changer since it penalizes websites that are not optimized for mobile
devices causing them to not perform well in searches on mobile devices
(smart phones).
More Info
1. Be responsive2. Build strong links
3. Plan keyword-rich text
4. Use a blog
5. Use social media posts to build inbound traffic
6. Optimize location
7. Claim your Google+ page
Making sure that websites that are optimized for mobile devices show
as most relevant is consistent with the heart of Google's search motto —
they simple want the user to have the best results possible.
Terry Baker, marketing coordinator for Hullco Exteriors, knows this well.
"We made it a priority to begin working on a new responsive site as
soon as I came on board in November," he said. "This is a very
competitive industry, and SEO plays a huge part in our success."
' Why it matters: Most sites marketing to the local market see
35 percent or more of their visits come via mobile devices (low
compared with more than 75 percent of traffic from Europeans and Asian).
Hullco website analytics reveal that 44 percent of visitors come from
mobile, 16 percent from tablets and 40 percent from desktops, according
to Baker. For businesses looking for local traffic, this means a high
percentage of potential customers may not find your site easily. If they
do find it, chances are they can't see it well and will bounce (leave),
translating into lost sales.
' Best strategy: Opt for a responsive site, as Baker did, that
serves all devices using fluid and flexible grids that reposition based
on the device, giving users a single experience across multiple
devices. This is Google's recommended configuration for SEO. Best of
all, these websites are generally built on open source platforms making
them more affordable than ever and easier than ever to maintain with
great WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors that function
similar to a WORD document.
A secondary option is a mobile site, a stripped-down version of the
main site. While a second site may dilute SEO, if your mobile site is
primarily a contact page or a way for people to find you on the go, it's
unlikely that this will be much of a problem. One caution — Google
penalizes mobile sites with faulty links so test regularly.
BUILD STRONG LINKS
Not only does Google value your text, it values your links — both
internal and inbound. A good rule of thumb is to check them regularly to
ensure they are working. For added value, add anchor text, or link
titles, to hyperlinks throughout your site to ensure the landing pages
rank well.
When thinking about your inbound links (often called "back links"),
think quality over quantity. Links from reputable sites work. It's
helpful to think through civic and not-for-profit relationships for
these and make it a regular practice to ask for an inbound link for
sponsorships.
WRITE GREAT TEXT
All search results still focus on text that is crawled by search
engine spiders. If your site is built in images rather than text, you've
been losing for years. As you work with your website developer, plan
for these important types of text —
Meta descriptions still matter so make them comprehensive including
all of the search terms your audience may use — company name, product
lines, location and keywords for your business.
Build each page with no less than 350 words of descriptive text using
keywords that are important to your business. Google loves this kind of
text for "long tail" searches (searches using phrases or questions
rather than a set of words.
Choose a heading, or page title, for each page that uses a keyword and bold all other key words.
Build a glossary of words that are important to your industry and
link all keywords throughout your site to the respective word in your
glossary. These "internal links" are valued by Google.
To see how search engine spiders see your text, view the text-only
cached version using http://cachedview.com. Simply type in your website
url and select the "text only" version.
KEEP IT FRESH
One thing that hasn't changed over the last few years is Google bias
for sites that keep text fresh and unique. More and more marketing
professionals are accomplishing this through a blog that delivers
educational content (how-to and best practices), success stories, case
studies and industry research to consumers. It's a win-win since posting
keyword rich content regularly builds good SEO, offers customers the
latest information on products and, if done well, establishes the brand
as an industry thought leader.
Baker agrees, "We do blogs and featured jobs on a monthly basis. We
have also become more video heavy since I came aboard. We try to shoot
two new testimonials a month to add to our reviews page. We also use
free online press releases to help with SEO."
USE SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGICALLY
Most companies would agree that social media is a must but few use it
strategically to build brand value and stronger SEO. Use social media
to push out consumers tip that link back to the respective blog article.
Inbound traffic quickly builds credibility with Google and other search
engines.
Location, Location, Location
Last year, Google released several major changes some of which favor
location information. First, Google crawled sites for location
information (address, city, state), created a Google+ page for each and
began favoring these pages in search results. Another change was in the
algorithm dubbed "Pigeon" to offer users a better experience by
providing more relevant and accurate local search results.
To win this game, if location is important to you, make sure your
address is highly visible. If yours is tucked away on a secondary
"Contact" page, help your site by adding it also to the homepage.
GOOGLE LOVES GOOGLE+
Surprised? Don't be. Google is still looking to monetize its social
media platform. You may have noticed the change in your search results
as Google now favors Google+ pages in search results. Your best option?
Claim your business Google+ page and build it out with a great business
description, correct contact information, your website url and photos.
Google will reward you.
Building strong search results takes time, careful planning and
attention to search algorithm changes but that attention can benefit
companies with better search rankings, more traffic and more sales
leads.
Karen Sherrill is a partner in MarketWise, a leading Chattanooga
marketing firm comprised of area professionals. MarketWise has over 20
years of success implementing best practices to generate market share
and sales. For more information, visit http://marketwise.co.
7 steps to ensure your website performs well
1. Be responsive
2. Build strong links
3. Plan keyword-rich text
4. Use a blog
5. Use social media posts to build inbound traffic
6. Optimize location
7. Claim your Google+ page
Source : timesfreepress
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