A great content marketing strategy can take your business to the next level. Learn the best practices for inbound marketing and how it can create SEO magic.
With the average small business now spending $75,000 a year on digital marketing, you need to make sure your efforts bring you a solid ROI. By now, you’ve probably got a solid content marketing strategy in place, both to inform your audience and promote your products. Your next step is to beef up your content to make sure you’re working your SEO magic on every post.
Consumers are bored by traditional commercials and disinterested in infomercials. When Google searches aren’t being done to look up specific products, they’re being done to look for information. If you’re able to give your customers useful information, they’ll trust your brand’s products more.
Any company that already has a content marketing strategy in place is ahead of the pack. If you can add a little SEO magic to your posts, you’ll see more clicks, more visits, and more sales.
1. Use Great Keywords
While search engines used to only look for keywords in posts, search algorithms have gotten more complex and “smarter” in recent years. Smart algorithms can use semantics, making user results more accurate. Where once all you had to do was pepper your text with random instances of a given keyword, search engines now look at intent. They know spam when they see it so they filter it out in favor of more sincere content.
When you use keywords, make sure you also include local terminology. Search engines favor linking searchers up with results that come from sources close to where the search is originating from. You might notice that if you search for “pizza”, you’ll end up getting local pizza options.
This isn’t just some random SEO magic. It’s because search engines now scrape through cookies, browser data, and any GPS coordinates they can get, to make the search seem more relevant. They’ve noticed that most searchers prefer this and now it’s the way all searches run.
2. Make It Mobile
Since mobile internet browsing has finally surpassed desktop searches, it’s clear that more users are searching from mobile devices. The trend is slated to continue as the number of desktop users shrink. If you’re not prepared for this change, you can bet that your competitors will be.
You need to make sure that your site is fast. Part of the SEO magic that search engines rank for entails how quickly your site loads. If you’ve littered it with gigantic HD images, you could be loading several MB more than your users have the patience for.
While they’re waiting for your page to load, they’ll become frustrated and go somewhere else.
Search engines are also ranking how well your page displays on mobile. If users need to do all sorts of stretching and scaling just to see your page, they may not visit again.
Having clear menus, a straightforward sitemap, and adhering to the “three click rule”, will ensure customers stick around. If any important information on your site is three or more clicks deep into the menu, you should be aware that your customers might never see it.
Simplify your site and design it to be mobile first. It won’t have any trouble scaling for desktops. You might find it hard to scale in the other direction, though.
3. Optimize All Images
As mentioned before, your images could be slowing your site down and limiting traffic. Search engines want to see a little SEO magic from you, so make sure you’re not making the browser rescale all of your images.
If you’ve got images that are 4,000 pixels wide and 10MB, you’re giving browsers too much calculating to do. Browsers need to load data quickly or else your customers will close the window.
You can also use your images to get more visitors by adding keywords to meta tags. Use title tags to add keywords related to your content. Don’t forget to add local keywords to capture your local audience.
You can even make your image titles do some work for you. Rather than upload images that say “XYZ123.JPG”, change titles to something like “Boise-auto-repair-volkswagen.JPG” and you’ll be able to get more clicks. When someone does a relevant search, that title will increase your search engine ranking and let search engines know what your content is about.
4. Promote Your Content
Don’t forget to use social media whenever possible. Let people know about your latest posts and encourage them to click and comment. Use sponsored posts on social media to drive even more traffic.
Make sure that when people comment, you respond quickly. Responding to users in under 12 hours will increase overall engagement and show your customers that you’re listening. It will also show them that there’s a real person at the other end of your account who cares about what they have to say.
Get connected to other people in your industry and share their content as well. Link to your favorite complementary business and its writing in your own posts. If you think someone’s yoga mats would be great for your personal trainees to use, write about those. Don’t forget to reach out and share links.
The internet was originally intended as a community to link people across borders. When you find ways to use the internet in this manner, search engines will reward you for your organic approach to linking. You’ll also build a customer base in a more sincere way than you would through nakedly promotional content.
SEO Magic Is Up To You
Most of the best SEO magic for content marketing doesn’t cost anything at all. If you’ve already got a site and have created good content, improving the SEO just takes a little massaging. Use your keywords wisely, keep your content fresh and unique, update often, and you’ll build a loyal following.
If you’re looking for ways to increase your SEO impact in Boise or anywhere in Idaho, contact us for more tips.