1. Keywords are Key

“Popular” search terms actually make up less than 30% of searches performed! Focus the majority of your energy on the remaining 70%, also known as the “long-tail” keywords. These are the billions of unique searches. Long tail keywords convert better! Why is this? People making long-tail searches are later in the buying cycle and they are therefore more likely to purchase. Someone who is searching for “shoes” is less likely to buy then someone searching for “Nike Air’s Size 7”. So what does this mean for your business? Optimize the long tail key words on your site. Make sure to include these in your headlines, in your content and even in your URLs. To learn more about creating a Long Tail Keyword Strategy, check out this post by CinchLocal!

TIP: There are many free tools to help you come up with keywords and analyze the ones that are currently leading to conversion on your site!

2. Become a Rockstar Blogger

You’d be surprised to know that B2C companies that have a blog receive 88% more leads than those that don’t! Blogging is not usually top of mind when trying to acquire leads, but this is where the long-tail keywords come into play. The blog portion of your site is a large portion of your content. Blog about topics that will relate to your consumer, most likely something they would be searching for at some point. It’s all about attracting the consumer and connecting with them on a personal level. Check out what the Founder of Pulsar Strategy, Joseph McKeating, is saying about content marketing on his Blog, Editorial IV.

TIP: Having a blog is a great way to engage with the consumers that leave comments and reviews. In a world that has become less about face to face interaction, it is still possible, and vital to your business, to make personal connections!

3. Keep your influencers close, and competitors closer.

Who is already ranking high for your key words? Who are the influencers in your industry? What websites do you constantly look at, compare yourself to, or even envy? Earning links from those pages that already rank high for your keyword will in return help your site rank higher. Reach out and connect with them! The more links a webpage has to other important and credible pages, the more popular the site becomes on search engines.

TIP: Get a quick link by asking one of your influencers to write a guest blog post on your site!

4. Get Listed!

Remember that huge book that took up so much space in you cabinet called the Yellow Pages? It used to be a MUST for your business to be listed in there. Even though it has disappeared, everyone still needs some way of finding out this basic information. Can people find you if they tried? Where are you located? What are your hours? There are now so many online business listing pages out there! Some examples include Yelp, Yellowpages.com, City Search, Foursquare, etc. Now I know you are wondering how this will help you show up on search engines. Well, these business listing pages that I just listed have high domain authority. And guess what? Once your business is listed on these pages, you are now officially linked to them. Having these credible links to your website will increase your popularity and importance on search engines.

TIP: Yext is technology company that enables businesses to update location related information on multiple websites from one place, which provides a yellow pages like service online to local businesses. Ally Rome, an Account Executive on the Partnership Team at Yext shared her opinion with me. “Yext allows businesses to manage their local business listings through our Geomarketing software. Due to our unique and proprietary relationships with over 50 search engines, mobile sites, and navigational platforms we provide business with the ease of a one stop shop to provide enhanced content to their consumers. Personally, I have well over 700 clients utilizing this tool for either themselves or their clients and not only does Yext save them tons of time, but it is a direct byproduct in boosting their local SEO.”

5. Book a speaking engagement

The foundation of building your online credibility does not only lie in your ability to create amazing content and building Internet links and connections. You still need to build beyond the web! It is important to engage in public speaking and attend industry events. Not only will booking these events make people see you as a real person, but it will in turn also amplify your link building and credibility. The event host will most likely include a biography of you on their website creating another opportunity for your business to link to a credible site.

6. Don’t neglect your social networks

Social is the major influencer driving search. 71% of people are more likely to purchase based on social media referrals. I had the opportunity to speak with Jared Feldman, CEO & Founder of Mashwork, a New York based social insights firm. “Social is invaluable, and the learning of a product from one’s social network generates meaningful top of the funnel activity. We’re influenced by the people around us, and so our social interactions lay the foundation for our behavior. We see social as an incredibly meaningful driver of search.” As Feldman stated, online search becomes a byproduct of how we interact and participate in our social media so it is important to not only optimize your website to help you show up on a search engine results page, but also to stay consistent across all social media outlets.

TIP: Strategically placing keywords in social posts will help gain visibility within internal searches. Users discover content through links on social networks which could lead them to your site and even to share your content on their own personal social pages! Check out Marketing Consultant, Brian Honigman’s, Blog post for some more info on Social media and SEO!

A few other Resources:

Read up on Tom Schmitz’s opinion on Search Engine World’s Blog for some more ideas on wise ways to spend money on SEO. He takes a deep dive into foolish ways to spend money as well!

Check out the Slide Share presentation about Inbound Marketing by The Center for Sales Strategy:

Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn

This post is part of Inbound Marketing Clinic, a research project at NYU SPS. If you enjoyed my post, it would mean a lot of you could hit the recommend button and share it!