If they search it, they will come.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) may have fallen out of the marketing buzzword spotlight since its heyday, but putting your best foot forward to climb the search results ladder is still valuable marketing.
Here are some common tips and misconceptions we’ve seen when it comes to boosting your SEO:
Keyword Crammin’ and I Hope you (Don’t) Like Keyword Crammin’ Too
Can we talk about keyword stuffing?
(Keyword stuffing is cramming your content and metadata with keywords. It zaps all humanity from your content and actually is frowned upon by search engines.)
When it comes to keyword stuffing, think of blueberry pancakes.
I’ll explain.
Your keywords are the blueberries – your delicious keywords – and your webpage is the pancake batter. Now, you wouldn’t just dump a carton of blueberries into the batter and then immediately pour it on the griddle. Instead, to make the perfect blueberry pancakes, you need to organically mix the blueberries into the batter.
It’s the same balance with keywords and content.
You want to make sure you’re incorporating the keywords, but the content should still be, you know, good. Don’t let keywords dictate content, but instead find a way to organically fit the keywords into what you’re saying.
That’s because keywords may help get your audience in the door (via the search results), but users are coming to you for answers. Keyword-crammed content just doesn’t read right. It will annoy your audience and end up being counterproductive to your brand.
As a summary:
Good content = good
Keyword-stuffed bad content = bad
If You Want a SEO Six-Pack, You Need to Put in the Work
Whether it’s for Google Ads or boosting your organic search ranking, you need to research what relevant terms people are searching.
It’s 2022, we don’t need to play Pin the Tail on the Donkey to find the right terms for the right audience. Tools like Google Keyword Explorer, Spyfu and SEMRush (among others) can help you peek behind the curtain to see traffic for certain search terms.
Successful SEO/SEM work is usually under the surface. Your website may be the finished product, but the legwork of finding the right keywords and understanding your audience – and their challenges – is what helps you hit the bullseye.
It’s also critical to stay up to date on best practices. Things – especially search engine algorithms – move fast in this industry. Something may be best SEO practice at the start of this sentence you’re reading, but by the time you get to the end, there may be a totally – yep, those best SEO practices are now officially outdated.
Regularly Spruce Up Content for that Fresh Webpage Scent
Continuously producing content is one of the biggest things we advise our clients to do.
(Yes, I understand how it looks for a content person to say you should be doing more content.)
But it’s true! You don’t want the figurative grass to get too tall on your website. The Search Engine Overlords (aka Google) recognize and reward sites regularly updating with relevant and good content – and your audience will appreciate it too!
Also, trends change. It’s always good to go back and spruce up content, so you’re resonating with what audiences find currently important.
We GUARANTEE You Will Rocket to the Top Spot! (Did We Mention We Guarantee It?)
Have you ever heard something like this before? Well, here’s a word of caution: SEO and “solving” Google is equal parts art and science. Because there are so many different factors, be wary of agencies with big sweeping guarantees that you’ll shoot up to the top spot – if only you would hire them.
Some people guarantee something because it’s easy to guarantee and then just hope for the best and deal with the consequences later. The truth is there are too many unpredictable factors at play. All you can control is regularly putting together quality content with relevant keywords based on extensive research.
Leave the guarantees to the used car salesmen.
If you’re looking for some help enhancing your SEO game, reach out to us anytime!