An Introduction to SEO with Idea Kraft
We want to talk a bit about Search Engine Optimization to provide some background, as well as provide some actionable items for your business. Reach out to Idea Kraft if you have any questions or want to see how this pertains to your actual business.
A decade ago, Search Engine Optimization was something only technologists and marketers deep in the emerging Internet Marketing field really understood and valued. Many agency meetings were spent in an often-futile attempt to gain buy in from decision makers to allocate advertising dollars to optimizing websites for Google and other search engines. Today, SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a buzzword thrown around by almost everyone within different levels of organizations, from content creators to CEOs, salespeople to Chief Financial Officers.
While what was once a niche digital marketing field is now on the tongues and in the minds of almost all small business owners, the previously bullish Digital Marketing Directors of the world may have moved on to the popular “SEO is dead” trend, instead pushing time and dollars to more directly measurable digital advertising where effectiveness can be proven and defended. While an understandable angle for those needing to hit KPIs quarterly, removing SEO from the marketer’s toolbox can negatively affect the overall growth of a business in the long run.
What is true: SEO has changed and shifted over time. On one hand, it is incredibly important and often critical to online business success. On the other, it’s no longer the panacea that it once was. A whole new process for optimizing websites both on page and off page has emerged, with different techniques taking the place of legacy tactics.
To really understand what is effective in Search Engine Optimization, it’s first important to understand why it exists in the first place. SEO is essentially a method of increasing ranking in search engines, primarily Google. It can be viewed as gaming the system, or as setting yourself up for success. But why does the system exist in the first place? Google realized that in order to be the go-to search engine they had to provide valuable website results to its customers. Algorithms were created to best return search results that give customers what they want: an answer to a question, the restaurant that fits their current desire, the closest and best dentist, a store they want to buy from.
The vast majority of the philosophy around SEO is proving to Google that you have a legitimate and valuable website that they should show to searchers. What is “valuable” has shifted over time, but is generally a website with significant and updated content, that many other websites are referencing, that is engaged on social media, and is locally relevant to the user.
When trying to improve ranking, or optimizing for search, the tactics are generally broken down into three main areas: On Page, Off Page, and Local SEO. A note — when getting started on search engine optimization, focus on Google. Sure, there are other search engines out there, but really, there aren’t. Google makes up a vast majority of the marketplace, and almost all of the most highly valued B2B or B2C customers are using Google. Further, the tactics that work on Google will also generally work elsewhere. Sure, if you are already ranking in the top spots in Google and have a marketing department with resources to spare — break out that Bing strategy. But until that point, focus on where the majority of traffic is.
On Page SEO
On Page SEO, like the name implies, refers to what actually happens on your website itself. This can be viewed as building the foundation for search engine optimization. The key components to focus on are:
- Build your website site in a modern and generally search friendly way.
There are numerous aspects of what constitutes a search friendly website, which we’ll go into detail on in a future post. Most generally though, using a modern CMS or builder such as Wordpress, Shopify, Squarespace etc. will give you a good foundation and will at least not be a negative pull on your SEO. Legacy formats such as non-CMS based platforms and simple site builders don’t have the required infrastructure to support good SEO.
Action Items: Audit your website — is it built on a modern platform? When in doubt, build your site on Wordpress. Ensure your site is utilizing HTTPS for security.
- Build a site optimized for mobile.
Often times, a majority of website views are from mobile devices, a trend only expected to increase in the coming years. Building on a modern platform as described above will often help, but mobile friendly design must be considered as it is where Google expects users to be now and in the future.
Action Items: Test your site — does it work well on mobile, rendering all images and having an easy-to-follow navigation structure even on a small device?
- Quality, in-depth, and dynamic content.
Google wants to show to searchers websites that have a significant amount of quality content, specifically in-depth content that goes beyond short descriptions on page. Additionally, new content should be added regularly, signifying that the site is active and information is continuously improving.
Action Items: Start a blog or add to your outdated blog. Update regularly with new content of significant length.
- Meta Tags
While Google no longer utilizes Keyword Tags or Description Tags (still important for CTR in search, however) Title Tags, header tags, Image Tags, and URL structure are all still important for SEO.
Action Items: Ensure each page has a title and description tag, image tags and proper use of headers. If building in Wordpress, install the Yoast or All In One SEO plugins to quickly see each page.
- Instructions to Search Engines
There are ways to directly communicate to search engines on page. Adding a Robots.txt file to your website is critical to instruct search engines on how to crawl, or find, your website pages. Additionally, Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) allows you to upload a sitemap directly to Google, and ask them to crawl your website.
Action Items: Add a robots.txt file to your site, or ask your web developer to help. Create an account at Google Search Console, and activate on your website. This can be done following Google’s Instructions, or through a plugin like Yoast.
Off Page SEO
Off Page SEO generally refers to how other websites interface with your website — through linking, listing in directories, and more. Key factors are:
- Backlinks
Backlinks are essentially any time someone else’s website links to yours. These are important as Google sees them as ‘signals’, or a vote of confidence, from another site. The idea being, if a lot of other websites are linking to you, you must have valuable content that Google should link to as well. Developing or earning backlinks is a key part of SEO. While there are many professional SEO tools that companies use to create and nurture links, you can do some yourself as well.
Action Items: encourage suppliers, customers, local organizations (like chambers of commerce), etc. to link to your site. Use tools like Link Explorer to find where your competitors links are coming from, and visit those sites to see learn how to have your site linked as well.
- Social Signals
Social media has become one of the dominant forms of communication over the past decade. Signals to Google that you have a robust social media presence with engagement from other people helps to boost rankings and again gives Google a vote of confidence that you are legitimate and valuable.
Action Items: Integrate your FB, twitter, IG feeds into your website to dsplay on page. Regularly use social media platforms and republish your blogs or other internal page content on to those platforms. Link from Social Media to your website, and have others share and interact with those links. Ensure full profile completeness with descriptions etc. across social media platforms.
Local SEO
Over time, Google realized that for a large number of searches, especially mobile searches, users were attempting to find businesses or information near to them. If a user searches for “dentists” in New York, finding a really high quality dentist in California doesn’t help them. Because of this, Google attached significant value to local search results and the metrics that influence them. To help your local presence:
- Google My Business Profile
Your Google Listing is the first thing that most people will see when searching for your business name or seeing your business appear in the maps search. It identifies the name, location, contact, and service area of your business and serves as a foundation for Local SEO.
Action Items: Set up or claim your Google My Business profile and add as much content as possible to it, describing your business, setting up hours and more.
- NAP
Google checks for a consistency of data around your business, specifically the Name, Address and Phone number, or NAP. These must be the same across all business platforms — from Facebook & Google to your own website and more.
Action Items: Check all profiles for consistent NAP
- Local Listings
Locally-focused sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor help to provide backlinks and create listings for you online, helping you to be found by more local searchers. These can be created automatically, or through a software service such as MozLocal.
Action Items: Set up and optimize (add content to) local profiles, or use MozLocal to add to the top 12 local profiles at once.
So, there you have it. A high level look at the importance of SEO and the tactics used to improve ranking on Google and other search engines. This is the first of a series of articles we’ll be doing on Digital Marketing tactics and trends. Stay tuned for more information on Social Media Marketing, deep dives into Local SEO, and a look at emerging social platforms like LinkedIn (What? LinkedIn as an emerging platform?). Let us know if there’s anything in particular that you’d like to hear more about!
