Creating content means nothing if no one sees it.
For this reason, a well-strategized search engine optimization (SEO) plan is essential. An SEO plan will ensure your content displays on the search engine results page (SERP) where visitors are likely to see it.
Fortunately, even if your business doesn’t already have an SEO strategy, it’s not too late. In this article, we will discuss how to develop a strategy to optimize your website for search engines.
Create a Buyer Persona
A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer. Creating a buyer persona will help you discern who needs your product or service and build your website with that buyer in mind.
Focusing on your ideal buyer and the solutions they’re looking for will help you when creating and distributing content on your company website. When your content is based on helping those that need it, search engines are more likely to rank your content higher, which will make it more accessible to your ideal customer.
Conduct Keyword Research
Do research on specific keywords and terms that relate to your business, products and/or services. One important phrase to research would be your company’s “head term”.
Your company’s head term is a phrase that describes the product or service your company offers. For example, if you have a garage door company, your head term may be “garage doors” or a subcategory such as “overhead garage doors”.
To generate a list of additional keywords, utilize the suggested searches and filters on Google’s home page. First, enter your head term, e.g., “garage doors,” in the search bar. Next, make a list of the words mentioned below the search bar, e.g., Home Depot, residential, types, etc.
Focus on creating a list of long-tail keywords. These are longer and more specific keyword phrases. These words have a lower search volume, and you are likely to rank higher in the SERPs with these than you would for head terms.
Generate Links
There are two types of links you need for a good SEO strategy. Backlinks and internal links.
Backlinks are when other websites link to yours. These links act as a vote of confidence that your content is solid and worth appearing on the search engine results page (SERP). Websites with high-quality backlinks tend to have a high organic search ranking.
Check to see who already is linking to your website and try to remove any spammy backlinks. To gain high-quality backlinks, encourage links to your website by providing helpful content and sharing it.
Internal links are also important. These are links from one page on your website to another. They help Google find, index and understand the content on all your web pages.
Examine Your Competitors’ Strategies
Another way to get quality backlinks is to audit your competitors’ backlinks to see who is linking to their websites. Identify which of their backlinks are considered high quality. If they like what your competitors are writing about, they’ll likely be happy to link to your website too, especially if you provide better content.
But first, you will have to identify who your competitors are. Enter one of your keywords in the search bar and see which results come up.
For example, a search for “overhead garage doors” comes back with overheaddoor.com, odsgaragedoors.com and garagejournal.com. Look at your competitors’ websites to review their content and take notice of the specific categories they address.
Although your competitors might have an advantage due to the age of the website, authority on the subject matter and structure of the site, it’s useful to look for areas where you can do the same or even better.
Write Search-Engine-Optimized Content
Now that you have an idea of the keywords your customers are looking for and the type of content your competitors are producing, it’s your turn to create search-engine-optimized (SEO) content. That is helpful content that is optimized so people can find it easier on search engines.
When writing SEO-optimized content, make sure to include your keywords in the following spots:
- Page title
- H1 (Heading 1)
- Content text
- Meta description
- URL
Resize Media Files Before Uploading Them
When writing your content, you will likely include images. Make sure to compress these images before you upload them. By reducing heavy images before uploading them to your web page, you’ll speed up the load time for your website.
Image loading time is also crucial for SEO. The faster your site is, the easier it will be for search engines to index. In addition to making sure your images aren’t too heavy, be sure to add alt text to each image. Alt text provides context to what an image is displaying, informing search engine crawlers.
Let GO2 Partners Help You with Your SEO Strategy
Optimizing your website for SEO takes time, and the search engine is always changing. What worked before might now work now.
GO2 Partners’ SEO strategists have experience conducting successful SEO campaigns for B2B firms from various industries. Our expertise, talent, transparency and professionalism make us stand out.
Our organization believes in staying on top of SEO trends and employing the latest techniques to keep you ahead of your competitors. Contact us today to learn more and download our free SEO checklist.
