What is Google My Business & Why Do I Need It? - Business 2 CommunityWhat is Google My Business & Why Do I Need It? - Business 2 CommunityPosted: 12 Jun 2020 04:06 AM PDTIn an effort to gain more visibility on Google, many businesses create a Google business listing (known officially as a Business Profile). If you're one such business owner, something you might not realize is that creating a Business Profile does not give you management over it, and you need those management and editing capabilities if& you want your Business Profile to work for you as a business or marketing tool.So how do you gain management over your Google Business Profile? The answer is that, in addition to creating a free Business Profile, you must also separately create a free Google My Business account for that profile.You need a separate Google My Business account to manage your Business Profile.A Google My Business account is the only means by which you can claim ownership of your Business Pr…
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Top Tips to Improve Your Website SEO - Business 2 Community
Search engine optimization – better known as SEO – is the practice of boosting the quantity and quality of website traffic. Website SEO uses organic search results to increase brand exposure and website traffic. It's about understanding people and what they are looking for online. Once you know your audience, you can deliver the content they want, which in turn improves engagement. We previously discussed the best strategies to implement during COVID-19 and SEO is one of the most crucial aspects. Let's discuss why SEO is so important and also learn some top tips that you can apply to your business to list higher in the all-important search engine rankings.
Why is SEO Important?
SEO tools are important because search engines are at the heart of online traffic. While paid advertisements and social media can still be effective, most online traffic comes from search engines.
Search engines cover a lot more digital real estate and find themselves in front of more people. SEO results also get more clicks than paid advertisements. Around 3% of people (2.8%) click on paid ads. SEO offers up to 20 times the amount of traffic as paid advertising. With statistics like these, you simply can't ignore its importance. If SEO seems too complicated to grasp, consider hiring a business that specializes in SEO.
It's impossible to talk about SEO without recognizing its longevity. Good quality SEO by a company is evergreen. The content will always be there on your website, continuing to generate traffic for weeks, months, and years. Paid advertisements last only as long as the money does. SEO never goes away.
There are several different kinds of website SEO an SEO company will use for your website. The most common ones are content SEO, image SEO, and off-site SEO. Content SEO is optimized website content like articles and blog posts. Image SEO covers meta-descriptions and names for images on websites. Off-site SEO refers to things off of a website that can affect search engine rankings, such as high-quality backlinks. All of these work together to create a higher ranking.
Website SEO Audits
SEO audits are one of the many ways an SEO company offers SEO tips for a website. This audit looks at how well your site is currently performing so that a company can understand where to go from there. Search engines use a lot of different factors to analyze and rank websites. An SEO company will use an audit to check how your site performs on these factors. It helps to determine problem areas that need to be fixed in order to take your site to the next level. They'll provide you with a list of everything you can do to improve the SEO of your website following the audit.
This audit covers things like on-site SEO and hyperlinks, the current state of your SEO content, and the backlinks you get from other websites. Backlinks are an essential part of an SEO strategy, but not all links are created equal. It reflects poorly on your site if you are linked to by a questionable source. An audit is useful because the first step to website SEO is understanding your current situation.
Create High-Quality Helpful Content
The most common mistake people make when writing content for website SEO is not paying enough attention to humans. Great quality content is written for humans first and search engine crawlers second. If you focus too much on keywords, you end up with a garbled mess. Instead, build your content strategy around helpful and high-quality content that users enjoy reading.
Make sure that you break your blog posts and articles up with headings and subheadings. These headings create pauses in the content and make it easier for humans and robots alike to process. The heading should offer some information about what the following paragraphs will discuss. People these days rarely read an entire blog post. They tend to focus on the things they think are most relevant to them. Headings stand out from the rest of the content and catch the eye. People may skim the post for a particular heading and read that section.
It's good to have links to the content on your website, but these link names should be clear and concise. A great example would be "https://yourcompany.com/projects/our-first-project" as the link clearly displays all the information a person could need.
Use Backlinks Effectively
Backlinks are among the most important website SEO tools. Backlinks have been used in marketing and SEO for years. The more links you have to your website, the better your traffic and reputation, not to mention your rank on search engine results pages.
While good quality backlinks are as effective as they've ever been, how you develop those backlinks has changed over time. There was a time when you could just get backlinks on any website and have it be enough. These days, however, things are a little trickier.
Links should be generated on websites that not only have high authority themselves but are relevant to the original website. For example, a restaurant should aim to get links from directories and review sites. It wouldn't be suitable for a company selling skateboards to be connected to a baby products website, even if that website was the most authoritative in its niche. A successful SEO company will incorporate backlink strategies into the overall content marketing strategy.
Another common tactic that no longer works is posting links to your site across blog posts and forums. While this will technically create a link to your website, it's a weak quality link that search engines will penalize you for having. Get high-quality links from high-quality sources.
Use Keywords
Keywords are the lifeblood of SEO. This is something everyone knows. The problem is that not everyone understands how to use them properly. One of the most important SEO tips for website owners is to make good use of the right keywords.
Keyword spamming – the act of using keywords as much as possible – is looked down on by readers and search engines alike. People can tell when you're trying to spam as many keywords as possible, and they don't like it. It's also bad for search engines because they want to see the proper utilization of keywords. Keywords should be used a handful of times in the text, with a keyword density of around 2-4% at the very most.
Try to focus on unique and long-tail keywords, so you have less competition. Don't use the same keywords that everyone else is. Try to find something that people are searching for to find you. There are lots of ways to go around finding and creating good long-tail keywords. Google themselves have several SEO tools you can use.
Optimize Your Pages
They call it "search engine optimization" for a reason — you need to optimize everything. Optimizing your pages means finding ways to make your site load quickly and efficiently. Spread out content to make it more readable, so people are less tempted to feel overwhelmed and click off the site.
User engagement is a key aspect of website SEO, and they will leave your site quickly if the experience is not optimized. A high bounce rate can lower result in websites being ranked lower by search engines.
There are lots of things you can do to optimize your content. Compress images so they load faster, consider how items are placed on the page, and include on-site links and navigation when you can. The better optimized your pages are, the more effective they are at capturing leads and converting them into customers. Check the graphic to see more about how to optimize your pages effectively. A perfectly optimized page is one where all these elements are implemented together. Even one poorly optimized aspect can ruin the effectiveness of other aspects.
Summary
What is SEO? It turns out the answer is more complicated than you might expect. SEO is getting your website to load quickly and effectively. It's getting links to your website so people visit. It's using keywords properly. At the end of the day, SEO is all about generating organic traffic for your website in an efficient way.
There are plenty of ways that designers get work these days: through word of mouth, good press, even the occasional chance encounter. Sometimes it's as simple as a client going to Google, and typing in "interior designer" and the name of a city—so Business of Home did just that. Across four cities, we spoke to designers at the top of the heap to ask them how they approach SEO.
Denver, Colorado In Denver, the first name to show up is Andrea Schumacher, and her website has all the marks of SEO best practices: The page load time is almost instantaneous, the images are crisp, and the navigation is easy to use. From page to page, the keyword "Denver" appears, a strategic plug that bolsters search results. A major factor, though, is that Andrea Schumacher Interiors has been in business since 1999. According to Holly Borchardt, the firm's procurement specialist (and unofficial SEO consultant), "With Andrea, there's a few things that keep her there [at the top]—she's been around for 20 years and has mentions and links that go back a long way. Google carries weight for that," she explains. "Building on that, getting links from industry-relevant sources like Luxe, House Beautiful—that's also important."
Another key tactic: Schumacher and her team are constantly refreshing the content on their website, making a point to upload new images and press mentions and to mix up words on various pages. They also work within Google's systems, taking advantage of all of the possible channels for businesses. "Google loves Google," says Borchardt. "That's where the vast majority of searches are done. So using their business listing and keeping that up to date, putting images there, making sure other online listings are accurate—we review basic consistencies."
Calabasas, California For Interior Archaeology founder and principal Tammy Randall Wood, SEO is a daily consideration—with the counsel of her tech-savvy husband, she's constantly tweaking her website, checking on designer keywords, making mention of Los Angeles–area neighborhoods and making sure that the photography is up to par. "It's something that is incredibly important. I would have hired it out [if I didn't have his help]," she says. "When potential clients search for the website, good SEO is a huge support in their decision. When they Google us and see us come up first, it's like 'Ah, OK. That's it.' It's not a tool to get somebody to call, but it's amazing support," she says.
For all of the adjustments that Wood makes to her website, she often follows a less-is-more philosophy. In retooling her website recently, she took down the photos from two projects to narrow her portfolio, ensuring that only the best images were being featured. And while she works with clients across the country, the language on her site frames her as a Calabasas designer. "We work coast to coast, but for SEO you won't go anywhere if you focus on two places at once. We made that mistake early on—now, our focus is in L.A., because that's where the office is."
Boca Raton, Florida For Nikki Levy, writing her company's website language with Google in mind wasn't a natural instinct. "I knew nothing about SEO when I started my website," she admits. She hired a web designer and focused on building a site that was representative of her firm and their aesthetic—which includes a regularly updated blog. "It helps with SEO. There are a lot of posts, and it's who I am," she says. "I'm not doing it to be corporate or commercial—some days I'm vulnerable, some days I'm funny, some days I'm boring. It's reflective of who we are as a company." But in addition to a window into the firm, a blog also provides opportunities to add links to articles that mention your firm, to social media accounts, and to other pages on the website—all of which contribute to strong SEO.
Austin, Texas John Snell of John-William Interiors suggests that his company's SEO success might be because it's not only a design firm, but a furniture showroom as well. When the pandemic set in, the company built out its site to include an e-commerce platform, and traffic has been up ever since. "The website has evolved," he says. "About two years ago, we decided to go to a much cleaner format for the website, and the inventory part has helped SEO." But that's not all that's helping: "We do spend money on Google Ads and Facebook ads. We have money in our budget for a photographer to do our images. We also advertise in regular media: We've done TV campaigns, and when we use traditional forms in advertising, there's a boost to web traffic."
This is all to say, there are a few things that most businesses should take care to do: Google your firm, and make sure that what comes up is what you want to see; link to press mentions, to your Instagram page, to a Pinterest board; and be sure to cycle new content through your site. In the words of Levy, though, web analytics can be something of a Pandora's box: "If you pay too much attention to the numbers and statistics, you cater to the numbers. We're interested in working with people."
The best keyword research tools are essential if you want to better understand how to develop targeted traffic streams to your website. This means being aware not just of which keywords you think you want to target, but also checking them against which keywords people are actually using.
Luckily there are a number of tools available that can help provide not just keyword search data, but also generalized traffic analytics to give you an idea of potential traffic volumes for ranking well against these. Additionally, some keyword ranking tools rate keywords based on competitiveness, to give you an idea of the difficulty level of targeting these.
On top of all this, the best keyword search tools will also provide suggestions of related keywords to research as they may provide a better fit between your intended audience and your product or services.
Overall, keyword search and research tools are a great way to audit your content and traffic, searching by keyword or topic to gain a better analysis of the keywords your website needs to be targeting to achieve its sales aims.
Want your company or services to be considered for this buyer's guide? Please email your request to desire.athow@futurenet.com with the URL of the buying guide in the subject line.
KWFinder features the ability to target longtail keywords that may be easier to rank well for while still providing targeted traffic. Not only can you apply a keyword analysis for your own website but you can also use it to analyze other websites for what they are also ranking for, so you can better gauge the competition.
Not only does KWFinder provide keywords to search for, it also includes a lot of key metrics for keyword analysis, including search volumes with historical data. This allows for the identification of long-term trends as well as seasonal keywords you can set up a schedule to target at the right time.
You can also search for local keywords by location in order to specifically analyze what people are searching for in your area, in order to be target customers, especially when engaged in the sales funnel.
At present the software supports tracking of over 2.5 million keywords and supports 52,000+ geolocations.
As a general SEO platform KWFinder may not be as strong as some others, but as a keyword research tool it is excellent.
Pricing is relatively cheap and affordable, starting from $29.90 a month which allows for up to 200 keywords tracked, 100 searches per day, and 2,000 backlink rows. The Mangools Premium for $39.90 significantly increases these limits, and an agency plan for $79.90 allows for 1,500 keywords to be tracked with unlimited competitor analysis.
Answer The Public offers an innovative way in which you can discover current keyword trends in order to improve your keyword targeting by providing additional ideas.
Although there are over 3 billion Google searches a day, up to 20% of these are unique and so won't appear on traditional keyword difficulty and analysis platforms. By using Answer the Public you can the chance to see these important searches and keyword suggestions in order to improve the relevance of your own SEO campaign.
This is not least because you can get a better idea not only of what topics people are searching for on Google but also gain some insight into what they are thinking. This makes Answer the Public a valuable tool not just for SEO agencies but also for those involved with general marketing and PR.
Even better is that there is a free tier available that allows you to explore the service, although the volume of keyword searches will be limited. If you like what you see you can opt for a paid plan, which allows for unlimited searches, users, and historical metrics. Pricing for this comes in at $99 or $79 a month, depending on whether you pay on an ongoing monthly basis or commit to an annual subscription.
Spyfu specializes in providing a database of keywords based not just on organic rankings but also of keywords used with Google Adwords. The result is the ability to track not just keywords but also keyword variations used by competitors, in both organic and paid search, allowing for a powerful analysis and keyword research platform.
The keyword research tool itself offers to provide deeper insights than Google's own keyword suggestion tool, with the ability to not just track ranked keywords but also keywords used in PPC campaigns. This means you can source both sets of information for your own keyword research.
Even better is the ability to identify transactional keywords so you can focus on those keywords that convert traffic better, allowing for keyword quality rather than quantity. You can also distinguish between keywords used for both desktop and mobile devices.
While many SEO tools give preference to organic search, SpyFu provides a lot of PPC data to filter through, which makes it an ideal keyword research tool for both organic and PPC keyword research.
Although there's no free trial available, Spyfu's paid plans all offer unlimited keyword research volumes, with the only difference between paid plans dependent on the numbers of sales leads and domain contacts, top lists, and API rows returned. The cheapest plan costs $39 a month, or $33 a month with an annual subscription.
While Google does offer its own keywords suggestion tool for Google Ads PPC campaigns, perhaps it's most valuable tool for keyword insights is Google Trends. This is especially as the internet is a constantly changing and developing medium, and identifying clear patterns in search behavior early enough could provide a long-term competitive advantage.
For example, a sudden rise in search traffic for a particular product or service might offer an opportunity to be targeted through a range of marketing channels, not just for SEO. This was the case during the corona virus pandemic when working from home led to an increase in a wide range of search terms relating to remote working software and work from home equipment such as laptops.
While that is an extreme example, even under normal conditions celebrity endorsements, new product releases, and changes to consumer behavior (often driven by new technologies) means that being able to identify such trends can be valuable.
Google Trends offers probably the biggest window on this, not just allowing users to search for specific keywords and identify the trends associated with them, but also by openly providing ongoing trends and highlights. This allows marketers to be able to tap into Google's search data directly for key insights.
Best of all, like all of Google's other SEO tools, Google Trends is free to use. However, the caveat here is that unlike paid-for tools, it means that you're unlikely to be able to work with keywords by volume without being able to connect with the Google Trends API, which in itself adds development costs.
The Serpstat Keyword Research tool offers a great platform from which to cover a range of different keyword search and research options.
One feature includes the ability to do competitor research using URL analysis in order to identify keyword potentially missing from your campaigns. Additionally, you can use search questions in order to research specific keyword niches in order to identify further keywords and other ideas for driving targeted traffic to your website.
One of the more interesting options is the "tree-view" to see how keywords are distributed on your pages. While most might target specific keywords at a specific page, sometimes a different page might end up with better ranking potnential, such as by going viral. This tool aims to help you identify other useful pages which, if targeted instead, might improve your targeted ranking for those keywords.
Like other tools there's also the option to search for related keywords, but on top of this there are a number of filters you can use to narrow your selections into the most useful keywords to target.
Plans start from just $69 per month for a single user, and that allows full access to Serpstat tools and data. Pricing is otherwise based on the number of users, so other payment plans are for when multiple users are required to access the account.
Overall, Serpstat offers a lot of interesting flexibility when it comes to keyword research, and the ability to use different tools and methodologies can only be empowering for website owners and SEO's alike.
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