There’s no getting around the fact that building your online reputation is a staple. With half of the world’s population using the Internet, it’s not surprising that almost everyone makes purchases online. Without going out of their cocoons, buyers can easily swipe on their phones and wait for their products to arrive. And if your business isn’t on the Web, then you’re probably missing the pot of gold.
Now, businesses have a basket replete with online marketing channels to engage potential prospects, and eventually add them to the sales funnel. Let’s be honest though. It’s tough for companies like yours to maximize all of these methods, especially when you’re just starting up. I’d agree that having a pool of resources can be quite overwhelming. Sometimes, you might get carried away with the plethora of options at your disposal. But mixing up everything might do more harm than good, and the chance of your website ending up on Google’s honor roll gets thinner with every online mistake.
The best way to approach online marketing is to start basic with search engine optimization (SEO). Remember that your goal is increased online presence to gain page rankings, ultimately ending up on the first page. To achieve this, you must befriend search engines especially Google, the #1 search engine with 12 billion searches a month under its belt. And you can only do it by passing your SEO.
Here’s a handy list of elementary tips to get you started:
Check On Your Website
SEO won’t work if your website doesn’t. From the design to the content, search engines will keep an eye on every detail. Ensure your page URL and content are simple, short and contain targeted keywords. Provide text for all images in HTML.
Keyword Research
Keywords are the direction that leads to a search engine result. It’s the Dewey Decimal Classification in Google’s library. It’s a compass that points customers to their destination. And it’s your Internet magnet that will draw potential customers right to your website. Set your market and targeted keywords with specificity. The basic question to ask is “How will my prospects find me?”. You can start with (1) product/service and (2) your location. For example, accounting services in Miami or hair salon in Seattle.
Go Loco with Local
Target your niche first, then the world. It’s not impossible but definitely a waste of time and money to reach everyone to kick off your campaign. Start with local targeting and get listed on local business directories. Mobile searches are more often than not location-based. I bet you’d rather stand out on the first page of city-specific results than buried deep in the abyss of a generic search.
Rich Content
Your page ranking doesn’t stay forever. It might even take a few days or weeks before a shake-up happens. Improve or keep your position by regularly producing quality content — a weekly blog, infographic or a compelling video — that’s compelling, customer-centric and value-adding. Just follow simple rules with any marketing content. Keyword padding is prohibited and so are images left without alt text. More hits and likes from the readers can get a search engine’s attention and can significantly change the game.
Good Links
It’s not all internal for SEO. You need votes from the outside to win Google’s attention and attain traffic success, and those votes come from building relevant links. This is when you start publishing content to trustworthy sites, sharing materials to social channels, or going viral with a newsworthy post.
Building an online brand is a daunting task. But when mastered, you will reap the rewards. If you want to start optimizing your website but don’t know how, you may browse a list of reliable service providers ranked by BestSEOCompanies.com.
This content was originally published here.