Have you heard of digital Darwinism? The age-old reality of survival of the fittest still exists today for businesses. In this day and age Darwinism has moved from the cave to the web making it more and more important for companies to get their online act together.
it’s a growing google jungle out there
When it comes to drawing in new prospects online, Google is god. Let’s say you’ve been slacking; you haven’t yet established brand awareness with prospects through traditional marketing or public relations and social media, but you have at least launched a website. You’ve put yourself out there, although haven’t really tried to climb your way up the food chain yet.
But your competitors have.
When prospective customers need services and have no established brand loyalty or limited-to-no brand awareness, they won’t know to call your business, no matter how amazing your services may be. Instead, they call on Google, and Google won’t hesitate to answer. No amount of amazing customer service or stand out product can sway Google’s opinion of your brand. Neglect basic search engine optimization (SEO), and you’ll find yourself at the bottom of the search page, or worse, on the second, fifth or seventeenth page of a saturated search results listing. Know and use your keywords and tactics correctly and you’ll get ahead – even to the top of page one.
the tools of s(eo)vival
Great SEO requires that you consider a number of factors, namely:
- Content – You have complete control over your pages’ content, so make them as SEO friendly as possible. Research the right keywords and key search phrases to ensure strong initial rankings, keep content fresh to encourage repeat readership and make your content valuable and engaging to keep bounce rates low.
- HTML – Keywords also come into play when planning out your site’s HTML tags. While you determine the content of your HTML title tags, meta tag descriptions and page headers, you must consider relevancy as well as keyword density and give accurate snapshots of your pages’ true content. Otherwise, prepare to have your search results damaged by Google monitoring bots.
- Architecture – Build your site right. Make the navigation intuitive – easy to use for visitors and easy to crawl for search engines. Ensure the page-to-page navigation within your site downloads quickly and that the URLs are short, relevant and keyword dense when possible.
- Links – Including links in your site’s content is a great way to strengthen your SEO – just make sure you do it the right way. Include only links to reputable websites, connect from relevantly titled hyperlinks and make sure not to overuse links or rely only on paid ones. When possible link back to your own pages, and guide visitors smoothly through your full website.
- Social Reputation – While you cannot control how social network users treat your organization’s content, you can make it as engaging as possible to encourage favorable mentions, shares and reputation. Enacting a good social media strategy is a part of this, along with posting fresh content that links back to your website.
- Monikers of Trust – Part of increasing your site’s SEO is building your online reputation. This means posting consistent quality content, forging favorable online connections and establishing consistent online branding and URL names. Changing your domain name and content style will not only throw off your site visitors and followers, it will impact your standing on Google.
- Personal Details – Where does your website say your business is located? Do you have many regular visitors or favorable mentions? If so, the approval of these particular packs is likely to boost your SEO ratings by demonstrating your alpha website status online.
stay fierce
Building your site around SEO is important from the get-go. But it’s also important to monitor and refresh your strategies, pages and keywords. As your products and services evolve, so may your keywords and customers. Stay king of the Google jungle with constant monitoring, research and website optimization.