By now you are probably somewhat familiar with the digital marketing technique known as SEO. SEO comes in many different forms and involves a great deal of strategic planning. The practice of search engine optimization is actually a huge umbrella that covers a variety of different practices, such as keyword optimization, content creation, and link building.
Some of these can be done by the average tech savvy individual, but certainly not all of them. This is a common mistake made by business leaders entering the world of SEO. They assume that it can be successfully completed without hiring an expert. Do what you can on your own, but leave these advanced search engine optimization strategies to the professionals.
Original Content Creation
The internet is filled with TONS of content, ranging from helpful blog posts to scholarly articles to funny cat videos. Your website provides just a tiny, miniscule amount of the internet’s content. This is why you need to make your content stand out from the rest, and an SEO expert can do that.
Most SEO firms actually have writers on staff who can help to create the content for your web pages or even implement a blog section. Maybe you feel comfortable writing this stuff yourself, but just be sure to make it thought-provoking, useful, and valuable to your target audience. It also doesn’t hurt to make it funny and entertaining in order to hold people’s attention.
Web Design
It doesn’t matter how many people visit your site if your website is complete trash. There is no point in practicing SEO to gain more web traffic if someone leaves after 15 seconds on your home page. Google can actually detect when users find your information dull or unappealing, and you’ll rank lower because of this.
This means you need to focus on creating a site that is appealing to the eye as well as functional. Maybe you already have a web designer on staff or you do it yourself on WordPress, but you should at least get some insight from SEO specialists. They know the ins and outs of how to create functional and stunning websites that Google tends to rank high.
Link Building
Link building essentially means you build the number of links leading back to your website and spread them throughout the internet. Google will like you more and rank you higher the more links you have throughout the world wide web. These links are often incorporated throughout blogs that relate to your company. An SEO agency has the proper connections and resources to get your links out there.
Keyword Research
This is something that you might be able to do on your own, but a professionally can do a more thorough job. When creating your content and building your website, you need to think about and incorporate the keywords that are commonly used on web searches.
This is fairly easy to figure out on your own. But an SEO company will use an advanced software to determine the exact words and phrases used and they’ll compile a LONG list of these. These will then be naturally incorporated into your website, once again making Google a huge fan of you.