The Essentials of SEO

You’ve spent countless hours, even weeks, developing the perfect website for your new business. You wouldn’t exactly call yourself a marketing pro, but you have an eye for what looks good. You’re proud of your work, so how come no one is seeing it?  

Our marketing experts at Charisma Communications are frequently asked the question, “Why is no one finding my website?” In most cases, the answer falls into the sneaky hands of a process known as Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short.  

In this blog, our digital marketing specialists spill the beans on the ever-elusive SEO and share some simple tips for how to implement these tactics into your own digital platforms.  

First Thing’s First: Let’s Define SEO

Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s explain what search engine optimization, or SEO, is especially for our newbies out there.  

SEO is the process of optimizing a website and its incorporated content so that the pages appear in high positions in the organic results of search engines (such as Google). To implement good SEO, it’s important to understand how different search engines function, what keywords people are using for their searches, and why they are searching. Effective SEO makes users more likely to click on your webpage because they will better understand how your site can serve them.  

TLDR: SEO is a set of strategies that can organically push your website higher up on the search page. AKA – more people will see your website.

‘Organically’ means no coin out-of-pocket on your end for ads – who would say no to that?

With so many online businesses floating around on the web, SEO is essential for getting your products or services in front of an audience and therefore essential for your success.

The Three Main Components of SEO

There are three main components of your SEO strategy, each of which corresponds with a specific search engine’s process. These are:

• Technical SEO, which allows crawlers to discover your content
• Content on your website that gets indexed to be compared to relevant search terms
• Promotion/Authority SEO, which ranks your page through the query engine

Technical SEO

This first component of SEO helps search engines hunt down the best content on your website for a specific search. Since search engines want to provide searchers with the results that best match the consumer’s query, they must rapidly sift through massive amounts of content. Bots will crawl your site, looking for fast, descriptive content that matches the query.  

The following tasks will make it easier for bots to crawl your site and find what they are looking for.

Website Speed & Performance

The faster your website works, the easier it will be for search engines to get through your content. It’s important that images are optimized and that code is properly structured.  

Well-Structured

Ensuring your website is organized and well-structured makes it easier for customers and search engines to easily find information. This means you should use descriptive categories, tags, and headers on any products, services, or blog articles.  

Make sure your menu is organized with other important links placed in the foot. If it’s confusing to a person, it will probably be confusing to search engines too.

Noindex Tags

Do your pages have the Robots Meta Tag set to ‘noindex?’ If so, big no-no! Make sure to change this unless it is behind a login or internal business page. Otherwise, it could hide your page from search engines.

Sitemaps

A sitemap almost acts like a phone directory for your site, telling the search engine the specific pages you want it to pick up on. Fortunately, platforms such as Google Search Console and other web-hosting platforms have helpful ways to accomplish this.  

Mobile-Friendly

With how often we stare at our mobile devices, your website needs to look good on a phone. Your website should ideally load quickly and be easy to navigate on a phone.  

Use HTTPS/SSL Certificates

Your website should have this so that people know your website is secure. Otherwise, you’re going to have a difficult time building trust with your audience. Plus, Google is far less likely to promote your content.  

Think for a Sec > Is Your Website Missing These Crucial Things?

Content/Relevance SEO

These techniques make your content readable by using the right keywords. This way, search engines can determine if your content is relevant to the search criteria the client entered into the search bar.  

Here are some elements to consider:

Content

This includes text, images, videos, animations, articles, products, categories, landing pages, and more! You should incorporate relative keywords so that it’s not only readable for search engines but also people! Be careful not to overstuff your content with unnecessary keywords, as this could end up confusing the visitor.  

Additionally, make sure your content is unique. No copying and pasting here, folks! Even if you are reselling products from another manufacturer, come up with your own descriptions.  

Descriptive Anchor Text on Links

Create links for various pieces of content with descriptive and relevant words. This link should help search engines and the reader understand what the page is about.  

Title Tags & Meta Descriptions

Do you know the words that show up when you take Google for a spin? These are them. Once again, incorporate keywords that are relevant to the content, and take the opportunity to use a good Call to Action, CTA.

Readability

This is important to keep your reader from feeling overwhelmed and bouncing from your website! Nobody wants to read a wall of text – what a headache! See how this article that you’re currently reading is broken up into short segments? That’s the goal.  

This will help your reader flow more seamlessly through your content to find the answers they are seeking.  

Keywords

Keywords are terms and phrases related to your content. Keywords for this article might look like:

• Components of SEO
• Website optimization
• Technical SEO  
• SEO strategy  

You get the idea. Be mindful not to overstuff your content with too many of the same keywords, as search engines tend to shy away from this desperate behavior.  

Alt Text on Images

Give your images some context with alt text! This is a good place to incorporate keywords and will also explain the image to your reader if it fails to load. Alt text additionally makes your content more accessible for those who require screen reading tools due to visual impairments.  

Learn More > Website Issues That Can Harm Your SEO

Promotion/Authority SEO

Last but not least, authority in terms of SEO refers to external links that lead to your site, known as backlinks. This will significantly help your rankings, but keep in mind that you shouldn’t buy backlinks.  

Tasks to incorporate into your strategy:

In-Depth Content

Longer in-depth content will often result in more backlinks to your site. We’re not saying every article should be 2000 words, but having a couple of corner stone evergreen content pieces can have a serious impact if you are providing valuable information.

Social Media Sharing

Sharing links on your social media account is not only a good way to directly increase brand awareness and sales, but it will also help your SEO rankings!

Level Up Your Rankings with Charisma

By understanding the different components of SEO, you can develop a strategy to make it work for you. Just remember, SEO is always changing, so don't get too comfortable with your current ranking.

We know this was a lot of information to take in, and maybe you don’t have the time on your hands to implement SEO into your site. If that’s the case, call on our team at Charisma! Our team of digital marketing experts will help you develop an SEO strategy so you can build your community and draw in the client.  

Get in touch and optimize with Charisma - 813-535-2218!

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