6 minute read
What Every Business
What Every Business Needs to Know About SEO
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something specific. They might be seeking to learn something, be entertained by something, or buy a product or service. Some of those searchers are even looking for and ready to buy your product or service. Those are the ones you want to find
By Mark Asbell
Every business owner who has ever spent
any amount of time building or thinking about building an online presence has either heard of or been bombarded with information about SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. It’s one of those things a lot of people think they know a lot about, some people actually do know a lot about, and no one knows everything about. Both science and art, SEO is an ever-changing and infinitely interesting field.
It would be impossible to explain everything someone should do to “SEO” their business in a single article of Success Champion Magazine, but we can at least hit on some important aspects every business should know.
Why is SEO Important?
People use search engines to find information on the internet billions of times a day. These are people who are searching for you. The search engines’ primary objective is to provide the most relevant results to the person searching. No one knows every logic the search engines use to determine what the most relevant results are for any specific search. But we do know there are literally hundreds of variables and anyone who ignores too many of them will never be found by those searchers who are ready to do business.
Some business owners argue that their business isn’t dependent on being found online. That might be true for now but it has been quickly changing for many years. Word of mouth is quickly becoming just one of many filters that we use to make business decisions. When is the last time you asked for a referral? What is the first thing you did with it? If I bet everyone that their answer is “Googled it”, I’d win enough bets. Every business needs an online
presence to provide validation for any other forms of marketing or referrals.
Google First
There are many search engines, but Google is by far the most widely used and powerful. So when it comes to SEO, focus on Google first.
Almost every business should have a Google My Business (GMB) listing. The only exceptions are businesses that are strictly online, such as blogs or home-based ecommerce-only business models. If your business has a physical location then it definitely needs a GMB listing. But even if it is a • Security issueshome-based business that physically serves specific • Errors geographic areas it should also have a GMB listing. • Speed issues A couple of examples might help illustrate. One • Poor navigation of our clients is a home-based interior designer. • Images that aren’t optimized They can serve both their local market as well as • Poor mobile experience the national market via virtual solutions. They The list could go on. It is important to keep have a GMB listing the website as clear specifically for their of technical issues as local presence. Another one of our clients is Gone are the days when websites possible. a remote-workforce could be stuffed with keywords Create Good service provider to the construction industry. in order to manipulate the Content They are not a local search engines to rank the The last but certainly business at all. In fact, their clients are located website higher not least thing every website should focus all over the country. But on is content. From the because the nature of home page and about their business is a service that could exist without page to the copyright line in the footer, every piece a website, they have a GMB listing. Another client of content matters. Whether it is a description of is simply a blog site that has no GMB listing. It is services, sales copy, or blog post, search engines worth looking into to see if your business qualifies are reading every single word and attempting to for a GMB listing. gather context for how that content serves their users. Gone are the days when websites could be stuffed with keywords in order to manipulate the search engines to rank the website higher. Content has to be good now - like really good. It has to be written in a way that answers questions really well and it has to be captivating so that people stay on the page. Other elements of content are also really important such as video and images. Video is
Rid Your Website of Technical Issues
After a business has done the basic things to be known as legitimate to the search engines, it is important to also make sure that the search engines see the business as professional. One of the ways to do that is to have a website that is clean, fast, and user-friendly. A website with technical issues will be seen by the search engines as a website that can’t be trusted. Remember, the search engines’ primary goal is to provide their users with the most relevant information and experience for their search query. The more technical problems a website has the more likely it is to provide a bad experience or fail to provide relevant information. Your website could have all the right information but if it has technical errors the search engines will move on to the next relevant website.
Technical problems come in many forms:
Other elements of content are also really important such as video and images. Video is becoming imperative for online presence.
becoming imperative for online presence. Quality is still important for these forms of content, but it is really more about engaging the user than it is about looking perfect. It is also important to remember to make all content mobile-friendly since about half of all web traffic is on mobile devices. It is even higher than that for some businesses.
Every website should link content together in a strategic way that communicates to search engines what is most important for people to know about that business or topics related to the products and services of that business. This is where blog content comes into the picture. No - blogging isn’t dead. It just doesn’t work as an online diary anymore.
In Summary
SEO is a complex field. We’ve made it our business to help other businesses navigate the ever-changing and challenging worldwide web so that those businesses can do what they love to do and be the best at serving their customers. I hope this basic level of knowledge is helpful. When the time is right, it would be an honor to have the opportunity to see what Tavallo can do for you. Mark Asbell is one of the Co-Founders of Tavallo, an SEO digital marketing agency. He and his team have worked with businesses that range from massive blogs that get millions of visitors to small local businesses that get only dozens of visitors, and they understand how to get results in any case. Mark has experience in many roles and environments which helps him learn about clients’ businesses quickly and find their marketing opportunities. His passion in business is working with great people and helping everyone reach their goals.
