Some people may try to tell you that search engine optimization (SEO) is not a valuable tool. Those people are wrong. More than 93% of all internet experiences are started with a visit to a search engine. Having your site pop up high on the list of results is crucial as most people do not scroll past the first page of the search engine results. A good SEO marketing campaign can help, say experts at ad agencies experts. Here are a list of tips creative agency experts have compiled for putting together an effective SEO strategy:
- Focus your website. You need to simplify your message on your website. This is true with any advertising or marketing efforts, say ad agency experts. You can have other information on your website but the people who visit your site should know exactly what you are trying to do with it.
- Pick the right keywords. This should seem like a given when it comes to good SEO marketing but it is important enough to repeat. You can research what keywords will drive people to your site. Local SEO is becoming more and more important as people use the Google feature, “near me.” This means you should include your location. Ad agencies in Atlanta should use the keyword phrase, “ad agencies in Atlanta,” for example.
- Put those keywords in key areas of your website. This includes, the URL, domain name, tagline, categories, page titles, image descriptions, meta descriptions and, of course, your content. Most of the time you can customize your URLs so take advantage of that.
- Make your site mobile friendly. More people access the internet from their mobile devices than from computers. This means, if your site does not look great on these devices, you will lose a lot of business. This is especially true for local businesses. If you manage a restaurant, you want people looking for a place to eat to find you on their smartphones.
- Link to yourself. When you are putting up content about one topic, if you have published about that topic before, link back to the older content. If you write about plungers and you sell plungers, link to the areas of your website where people can buy those items. The longer you can keep people using your website, the better, say experts at ad agencies.
- Make sure your site loads quickly. More and more people have shorter and shorter attention spans. If your site does not load within a few seconds, you will lose your visitor. For many sites, simplicity should be your goal. You do not need all of the bells and whistles on your website. Plug ins can add a lot but stick to the ones that are essential. They can also make your site load more slowly and people will just go to another website. Anything that makes your website load more slowly should be lost.
- Link to other sites. This is not just an altruistic thing, say marketing agency experts, this is a way to make your site more useful and valuable to your visitors. You need to always be thinking of your clients and consumers. What will make people use the site? How can it be more helpful for them? If you run a landscaping business and people visit for tips on things they can do, linking to other sites with helpful tips or more information on a product you like to use will make the visitor’s experience on your site better.
- Keep your content fresh. Web content needs to be updated all of the time. This is how it pops up higher on the search engine search results pages. The more dynamic your content on your websites is, the better your rank will be. You cannot put content up and then just leave it.
- Make sure the major search engines index you. Check this. If your site is not indexed, you can add it. You should do a search for you business and make sure everything you find about your business is accurate.
You can go to an ad agency to help refine your SEO strategy but these tips can get you more traffic.