5 Ways to Smash the Competition with SEO

Search engine optimization is pretty essential in digital marketing today. There’s a reason the top five strategies in small business marketing budgets are all digital.

It can be hard to wrap your head around if you’re not super tech savvy, though. If you’re still asking yourself “what is optimization?” and can’t seem to figure that answer out, read on for the top 5 best search engine strategies to put your site on the map in a hurry.

Local SEO

This is a huge one for small businesses, and here’s why. Almost 60% of all internet searches today are done on smartphones, which means most of your customers are on the go.

If your local SEO isn’t up to scratch, they’re going to have difficulty finding you, which isn’t convenient. And when you’re on the go, convenience is everything.

To up your local SEO game, start with your contact section on your website. Make sure your hours, address, and contact information are all up to date. It doesn’t hurt to embed a Google map with your address pinpointed, either.

Next, check out your Google business listing. Make sure it’s up to date as well, and add any missing information. This is your first line of offense when a potential customer searches for you, so having all the correct information front and center is vital.

Using LSI Keywords

Stuffing keywords is yesterday’s SEO game. Now that Google’s introduced Hummingbird, their new trawling algorithm, it’s all about LSI keywords. And since the Hummingbird update affects 90% of all searches, it’s pretty important to make the switch.

LSI keywords work like this. Essentially, they craft associated keywords around your target keyword to come up with a cohesive topic of a piece of content. It’s their way of confirming the article’s topic and relevance to the searcher’s query.

For instance, if your target keyword is “latte art,” associated LSI keywords could be:

• latte art techniques
• how to make latte art at home
• coffee art drawing
• 3d latte art machine

If you’re having a hard time coming up with LSI keyword on your own, use an LSI keyword generator, like LSI graph.

Fresh & Quality Content

There are two essential qualities that your site’s content needs to be: it needs to updated frequently, and it needs to be of the highest quality.

Google accounts for the frequency of updates in its SEO rankings, so if your site is stale, it’s not likely you’ll be near the top. Visitors want to see that you’re active, too; it reassures them that you’re authoritative and updated in your industry.

Your content should be of the utmost quality, avoiding fluffy writing. Readers can sniff sales-y language from a mile away, so don’t try to sneak it past them. Instead, offer real, valuable, and helpful information to build trust in your brand.

Your Search Engine Strategies

Now that you’ve read up on the essential search engine strategies for an optimized website, hopefully, you’ve come away armed and ready to come up with your own SEO and SEM strategy to slay the competition!

If you’re still scratching your head over the optimization definition, search engine definition, and how SEO and SEM strategies can help your business, get in touch with us. We love to talk shop, and offer free consultations to help get your site on the road to SEO’d!