SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, refers to “organic” search results. This means your efforts to reach your audience without paid advertising. There are many things you can do to improve your website reach and results.

Update your website content frequently

Most people do this using a blog. Every WordPress website has the ability to blog. We make it easy for clients to use their blog by also installing a form that allows our clients to submit their articles/blogs for publication and we take care of all the technical details.

If you don’t want to blog you should update your website on a regular basis. Update your services, prices, pictures, etc. This is important because Google will stop looking at your website if it doesn’t change and this can negatively impact your page rank.

Use your business keyword phrases

You should use your keyword phrases in several places on your website. If you have separate services or products they should have their own page in addition to your front page.

Use your keyword phrases in these locations:

• In your Title: Don’t try to be “cute” it doesn’t help you.
• In the first paragraph of your website.
• In a sub-heading somewhere on the page.
• In the alt-image of an image on the page (this is basically a description of the image). Also, please use an appropriate title for your image. This title will be visible when someone hovers over the image.
• Use your keyword phrase a couple more times on the page, but not too many times. Google has started penalizing websites that use the “keyword stuffing” method.

Choose your Words Carefully

Each page should have at least 300 words, more is better. I suggest you run your content through Hemingwayapp.com to get a word count as well as writing suggestions. Google just announced an update that will reward websites that are written for “users first”.

“The helpful content update aims to better reward content where visitors feel they’ve had a satisfying experience, while content that doesn’t meet a visitor’s expectations won’t perform as well.”

One of the methods people use is a FAQ module. These are great because they attempt to answer users’ questions and are, by their nature, user-first content.

Share your Website

Ensure you share your website whenever you can. You should have a link to your website on your social media channels, your Google Business page, your business cards, and any printed material. If you find that you are telling people that you can send them “that information”, you should have that information prominently displayed on your website.

Read your Google Analytics

People typically ignore their Google Analytics, but they are incredibly helpful. Your analytics will tell you which pages are the most popular as well as what devices they are using to reach you and where they are coming from. If you have enough visitors to allow Google to keep the information anonymous you will be able to see data by gender and interests. We prepare special analytics reports for our clients. You can learn more about these Google Dashboard statics.