Best SEO Marketing Strategies

Technical SEO

• Hosting Provider

One of the most important aspects of SEO marketing is choosing the right hosting provider. This is the foundation for your site and can make or break your business. A good host will have high performance with fast speeds that won’t slow down your page loading. Customers faced with having to wait will get frustrated and leave your site. Reliable availability is another high priority in choosing a host. You will probably lose a customer if your site can’t be reached. Finally, top security is imperative in gaining and keeping the trust of your audience. A secure site gives your customers peace of mind when doing business with you.

• Optimized URL

You have a strong foundation but need to drive traffic to your site. Having an SEO-friendly URL is another crucial aspect of your SEO market strategy. Making your site visible to search engines helps differentiate you from your competition and leads potential customers to your site rather than theirs. Consider the following suggestions when setting up your URL:

• Shorter URLs, around 50-60 words, have higher rankings
• Make your keyword the first word in your domain
• Use a top-level domain (i.e., .com)
• HTTPS rather than HTTP
• Use lowercase letters
• Separation of keywords by hyphens (-) rather than underscores (_)

By optimizing your URL, you have taken the first step in helping customers find you. Now you need to make sure they can find you from anywhere, anytime.

• Optimized SEO for Mobile Search

In today’s world, most internet users are using mobile phones and tablets. You will miss out on many potential customers if your SEO isn’t optimized for mobile devices. The first step in ensuring your website is optimized for mobile devices is to expect a responsive web design setup. This ensures that your site can be read across all devices. In addition, the following suggestions will help engage mobile users in the short time they are on your site:

• Use short, strong headlines.
• Incorporate great images and GIFs
• Infographics are quick and informative
• Include voice search
• Make your site interactive
• Utilize apps to market your business further

Understanding the importance of designing for mobile users and proactively creating user-friendly sites is the first step to understanding your target audience. In today’s world, you need to engage people constantly on the go and expect a high level of information at their fingertips.

Target Audience

• Know Your Audience

The first step in targeting your audience is understanding who they are. By taking the time to research and define your customer, you will better provide what they are looking for and attract the right audience. Buyer personas are a great way to focus and define your audience. This is a description of who your ideal customer is based on market research. If you already have a site, use Google analytics to understand the demographics of customers looking for what you offer. Your buyer persona might include the following:

• Age range
• Single or partnered
• Children or not
• Gender identification
• Employment industry
• Income
• Urban or suburban living environment
• Goals and challenges
• Shopping style (in person or online)

Defining your audience helps focus your business and keeps you on track in product development and marketing. The more you know your customer, the better you can serve them.

• Search intent

Understanding the reason behind your audience’s search is critical to the SEO market strategy. Are they looking for a specific brand? Do they want to purchase something? What topic are they researching? Are they looking for product reviews before purchasing? Knowing the intent behind their search will help you define keywords to draw people to your site. Keywords such as buy, sale, and discount will appeal to shoppers. DIY and how are suitable for people looking for information. Compare and vs. work well for people looking for advice. Knowing why your customers are looking for you will help define the keywords that will work the best for your site.

• Keyword research

Now that you know your customer and understand what they are looking for, it’s time to do your research. Start by listing 5-10 topics that summarize the information you provide on your site. Next, come up with a list of keywords that represent these topics—feeling stuck? Try searching your keyword and see what related searches come up. Check out your competitors and see what keywords they’re using. Once you have a pretty good list, you can use a keyword analyzer such as Moz Keyword Explorer or Google Trends to help narrow your results.

SEO link building

• Build a community

To become a highly respected resource, you have to become an active part of the community you serve. Reach out to others in your niche, comment on their posts, and offer to write guest posts for them on relevant topics. Always include a link back to your page. If applicable, link to other high-authority websites and reputable retailers. If your business serves the local community, link to other local companies and organizations and add your link to their local resource page.

• E-mail

E-mail marketing is another way SEO optimization can help. You’ve done all the research, created your content, and found keywords that work. Now share that with your audience. Remember buyer intent? Use keywords to appeal to what they’re looking for in their inbox. Mentioning a sale, seasonal content, or a new review will capture their attention and, providing you have included a link, will send them back to your site. As a bonus, they may forward your e-mail to a friend or colleague who might benefit from finding your site.

• Social media

Don’t underestimate the power of social media and how you can use SEO optimization to drive people to your site. The keywords you use in your e-mail will capture your followers’ attention on social media. Voice your opinion on Twitter, highlight your latest content on Instagram, and provide a DIY pin on Pinterest. Please provide a link to your site, and you will have a whole new set of new and returning customers, hopefully sharing your posts on their social media. And so, it continues to grow.