Everyone wants their website to place on the first page in the first position on Google, Bing and Yahoo. It is the coveted position for traditional brick and mortar as well as online businesses today.
First position placement requires your website to not only be desirable to human visitors, but search engines as well. Your website is placed in position as a paid advertisement or a free position, referred to as organic placement. Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a huge role in your website visibility.
Having a site that is attractive to the search engines crawling the internet is paramount in being selected as a candidate for being shown either way. Google AdWords requires a related keyword match on your site – if your web content doesn’t match the ad, it simply won’t be shown.
Google processes trillions of searches per year worldwide, and the fierce competition creates an SEO environment that is much like speed dating. Your website has an astonishingly short amount of time to be deemed worthy of search engines that work at warp speed giving viable results to users.
Much like speed dating, it starts with the introduction “Hi my name is” (user search term), “I am interested in a mate that likes” (matching keywords). When those two match, you become more interesting. Having mutual friends is a major bonus (backlinks that point to your site from other relative websites). If you live close by, even better, as long-distance relationships are never the preferred choice.
A FOUNDATION OF KEYWORDS
Starting with a proper keyword foundation to your website is no different from building a house. The foundation supports the entire structure and assures a solid footing for your internet presence. Always consider the search terms people will use to find you and develop related keyword clouds on your website that support them.
Explore your target market’s interests and speak to your personal strengths. A great rule of thumb is to create a list of 10 keywords that are developed from your list of searches people will commonly use to find your services. If you are unsure, ask friends and family to help brainstorm the process.
If you are a kitchen designer, chose keywords like: Kitchen Designer, Kitchen Design Pictures, Kitchen Design Ideas, Cabinetry. Then add variations that include your city and state such as Kitchen Designer, Chicago Illinois. This will help you to be found by your local audience. The words should be woven into your website pages in a manner that is natural to the topic of the page, and does not detract from the user experience when exploring your site.
Having the keywords in your site will help your positioning to your audience on the internet. New websites or those with few pages of content may benefit from using AdWords or paid advertising to increase the exposure of your site while you weave your keyword content into your website.
THE ADWORDS EXPERIENCE
Since Google owns the lion’s share of internet searches, it’s only natural to utilize this platform as a vehicle to boost the visibility of your website. Google places the ads carefully and selectively by ranking each page submitted for advertising. Every time someone does a search, it triggers an ad that competes in an auction. The resulting advertisements that are shown are chosen in part by the Google Ad Rank calculation.
Ad Rank is calculated using your bid amount, the components of Quality Score, comprised of the expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Simply put, you cannot pay your way into a high placement Google Ad. Your keyword content greatly impacts the quality score. Quality scores are rated on a scale from 1 to 10, with the rating of 10 being considered AdWords quality perfection.
If your related keywords, ads and landing pages are in good shape, Google probably will have a high opinion of them. Your Adwords keywords should mirror the keywords you previously determined. Armed with a solid keyword list, you are off to a fantastic start.
HELPFUL TIPS
Do: Enrich your site with content that supports your keywords in a fashion that is informative and helpful to people surfing your website.
Don’t: Overuse keywords in an unnatural fashion to increase the keyword content. This is called keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing may lead to a website being banned or penalized in search ranking on major search engines either temporarily or permanently.
Do: Your own research by searching for terms that seem relevant to your product or services. Take time to see the results and garner your ideas for the keywords that suit your business best.
Don’t: Permit agencies that manage your AdWords to do so without disclosing the keywords and results the keywords are garnering. This practice will likely result in higher traffic to your website, but tends to be untargeted and generates significant AdWords expense with little return on your investment. They need to work with you in an open, collaborative fashion to ensure the best results for your advertising spend.
Do: Work continuously to improve and add to your website content to make the experience of your visitors better and increase your keyword presence.
Don’t: Assume website maintenance is a once and done effort. It requires ongoing updating and adding content. Just like with your showroom, a website needs constant updating and refreshing to stay relevant.
Developing a website for SEO is a long-term commitment. The search engine algorithms are constantly changing as well as your competitors. This article touches on the fundamental components of the SEO needed for a healthy website presence that will increase your visibility to potential clients.
When I started my website journey with www.glumber.com we had zero visitors. Today the website receives over 250,000 visitors per year. You can accomplish this as well.
The ability for you to reach millions of customers is limited only by your time and old-school perseverance to updating your website. The next article will explore website design and content to keep your visitors engaged.
#BeKnown #BeSocial #BeEverywhere
Denise Grothouse has an extensive background in international business, branding and marketing. She specializes in digital and social platforms, and integrating them with traditional marketing and branding strategies. No stranger to the kitchen and bath industry, she is best known for her work as chief brand officer of Grothouse, Inc., and president of the marketing company Perfect Six.