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Are you looking for ways to increase your ROI after COVID? You have some options, but the best approach revolves around search engine optimization (SEO). This is the technical term for making your site easier for potential clients, and Google, to find online. You need to be easy to find online, and if you are a brick-and-mortar business that relies on foot traffic being easily found is critical. If your site gets buried deep in search engine listings, people won’t find it so you want to make your site as valuable as possible, to both people and search engines. If you can apply a few of the following insights to your site, you will get a higher ROI from your online presence, mostly by improving your search rankings.

Good Content is Critical

Research shows that few people ever go past page three of Google’s search results when they look for a business, a product, or a service. Because most people use Google to search for businesses, investing effort into ranking higher on Google is worth it. Just be aware that getting on page one and staying there is going to take time and some skill but we know that the quality of your content is important.

Take every opportunity to share new and relevant information with visitors. A blog might be the right way to do this, but you could also add to existing pages or create new pages to cover new topics. Look for ways to offer unique and relevant information to visitors. Find some topic that your competitors are ignoring and write about that.

What Makes Content good

1. Word Count: There are several variables that help Google decide what content is good or bad. One of the most important and easiest parts of good SEO optimization is the word count in your blog posts. It would be impossible to learn how to change an alternator with only 100 words this is why your word count is essential in the eyes of Google.

2. Featured Image: As shocking as it might be, there are thousands of blog posts on the internet without an image, you don’t want to be one of those thousands. It is common for google to rank content with images higher than content with none, your featured image is the most important photo for your blog. Make sure it is a high-quality image that drives the message of your blog home.

3. Backlinks: Yet another anchor in the realm of SEO, some companies are able to rank for very competitive keywords thanks to the number of backlinks in their blog post. It is recommended by Google that you add 3-5 inbound links and 3-5 outbound links to each blog post. This is to raise the authority of your post and to prove to Google that you have researched the topic that you are creating.

Tweak Your Site

After you create your site the job is not yet done. You will have to be ready to get your hands dirty by doing some work “under the hood”.

You can do several things to help your web pages work harder. Here are some things you should do while you are tweaking your site:

Make sure every page has a description that is accurate and matches your content. A visitor should be able to identify what your page is about by looking at your description. Make sure you always have your targeted keywords in your description to ensure that SERP indexes your page correctly.

Give each page a descriptive page title. Similar to your page description, your title should have your targeted keywords and match the content on your page. You don't want to have a title or description that is focused on the keyword duck with a page that was created to give information about swans.

Make sure images have descriptions not just file names. This tip is almost identical to our first, all of the images on your page should be targeting that page's focus keyword it would be wise to remove the default text and optimize your image to juice up your page or post's ranking capability.

Break up your content with headings and subheadings, to help people skim the text. One shoe could never fit all so you want to make your content extremely easy to read to maximize the user experience of every visitor.

These tips make your content more appealing to search engines. Keep your site optimized, focused, and, clear. Another simple SEO trick you can use is to remove or change any toxic links or content-free pages.

Clean Up Your Links

Have you ever visited a link, hoping for something neat, and there was nothing?  Error messages create a bad impression. Fix those broken links by removing them or changing the address they point to. “Under construction” and “Coming soon” pages don’t look good to visitors or to search engines either. Ditch the placeholder text and do this:

1.    Write a few words about the product or service.

2.    Promise to launch the page by a specific date.

3.    Write a good description and title for the page.

4.    Publish the page.

All of these things will make visitors happy, and most importantly, this content looks good to the search engines.

Helping People Choose Your Business

The first online step in attracting customers is to show up in search engine results. The next step is to present information that encourages people to click on your result. When was the last time you Googled your own business? Do it. Try several search terms that apply to your business. Include your city or county in a couple of those searches too.

Try to read those page descriptions objectively. Would you visit the website if you saw that description? Is there a description? The point here is to inform readers and to show up in search engine results. Location is crucial to many people who run Web searches, so make sure this is clear.

You have plenty of options regarding your descriptions. Here are some general ideas:

·      Years of experience

·      Professional certifications

·      Specialized training

·      Insurance or bonding

·      COVID-19 protocols

·      “Green” business practices

·      Industry awards

·      Specialties

·      Your unique selling proposition

 

Some of these tips and tricks are time-consuming or take some technical SEO knowledge to execute, which is why so many business owners like to outsource various digital marketing tasks.

Optimizing Your Site is Critical

You can use a variety of techniques to help people find your site and take action, so you get the best return on your investment. Many of the things you want to do are relatively easy, but it can still be a good idea to outsource some of that search engine optimization work if you can. Wondering how SEO experts can help your small business reach more people and turn them into customers? Contact DevDigital to learn more about our SEO services.