Digital marketing is the evolution of marketing. While the medium has changed, the principles haven’t: start with the customer in mind. As an entrepreneur, you’re tasked with working in your business and on your business. One of the ways to work on your business is to grow it with SEO tactics.
In this article, you’ll discover key SEO tips to grow your brand and expand your customer base.
SEO Tips for Your Digital Marketing Plan
The most successful marketing plans start with a fundamental knowledge of your customer. This includes what their needs are, where they hang out, their demographics, and how your product adds value. It is a coordinated effort of social media, content marketing, and advertising.
Search Engine Optimization is one element of marketing that involves using organic, unpaid means to draw traffic to your website. Below are some of the most important SEO optimization tips to include in your digital campaign.
How You Use Keywords Matter
If your website is your home address then keywords are the map to get there. Keywords are how your audience engages with search engines to find things of value. There are several free and paid keyword search tools on the internet like Answer the Public, Ubersuggest, and aHrefs.
Use keywords in these essential locations:
- Blog/article Titles
- Headings and throughout the body of the content
- URLs
- Descriptions
- Images/Alternate Image text
Include keywords where they would naturally go. Searching engines use this information to crawl websites and rank them by the value they add for visitors. Arbitrarily stuffing content with keywords will land you in the search engine dog house.
Create Content with Buyer Intent in Mind
Buyer intent is the core motivating factor for a search query. People search for different terms at various places in their purchasing journey. For instance searches with ‘how to’ as part of the phase indicate buyers are in the information-gathering phase. Searches with the term ‘cost’ indicate buyers are ready to purchase.
Sometimes keywords are not this straight forward. Often one or two-word searches will return high search volumes of non-specific topics like dogs or yoga. Long-tail keywords indicate more specifically what customers are looking for. They contain 3 to 5 or more words and usually have less search volume.
The most important aspect of targeting longtail keywords is relevance. The content you create for specific keywords must still add value to the user.
Execute a Back-Link Strategy
Backlinks are links back to your site from other sites. The more reputable the source of the back-link the higher it is ranked in search engines. This means a back-link from Havard Business Review blog is going to be higher ranked than a backlink from your friend’s unknown widget site.
There are a number of creative ways to build back-links. The most popular is guest-posting on another site. In a guest post, you write content for another site or interview an industry leader and ask them to share the content on their site.
Another method is to keep track of who is mentioning your brand. You would then reach out to them to ask for a link on their mention.
Building back-links is a long-term strategy but it is one of the most effective ways to climb the search engine ranks.
Use Landing Pages
Landing pages are used to help with your SEO strategy. Unlike regular website pages, landing pages are created with a single goal in mind. They are used to capture leads via email or to simplify the purchasing process. They rarely include navigational tabs to discourage visitors from leaving the site.
Landing pages can be used as a part of a back-link strategy or as an internal link. Use landing pages for sales, email capture, surveys, etc. Use keywords on landing pages the same as you would for your content. Use structured or bulleted content to snag the rich snippet section on Google search.
Crush Your Digital Marketing Plan
SEO is a long term strategy. Very, very rarely will you make changes today and see it pay off tomorrow. However, once you execute a consistent plan with the above SEO tips, the work you put in will continue to pay-off years from now.
The entrepreneurs know when to automate and when to delegate. As a top Denver digital agency, Campfire Digital can help you build your SEO strategy for longterm success. Contact us today for a customized approach to your marketing needs.
