SEO and Analytic Strategy Insights for Small Business

SEO core components, spam and analytics

  Search engine optimization (SEO) means optimizing your site so it comes up higher in organic (nonpaid) search results, driving more traffic. Optimize your site by posting content with keywords your customers might use when searching for your business online. For instance, if you own an Italian restaurant in New York City, you might want to use keywords like Italian restaurant, Pizza restaurant, New York City pizza or New York City Italian restaurant. SEO MOZ  defines SEO as follows: “SEO is a marketing discipline focused on growing visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results. SEO encompasses both the technical and creative elements required to improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines. There are many aspects to SEO, from the words on your page to the way other sites link to you on the web. Sometimes SEO is simply a matter of making sure your site is structured in a way that search engines understand.” Core components of SEO are:

• Number of site visitors
• Individual page impressions
• Average visit length
• Most/least popular pages
• Most popular site entry pages
• Where users come from (sites or search engine phrases)
• Number of inquiries, leads or sales generated
• Conversion rates
• Total sales volume online
• Average purchase per online customer

Determine what is most important for you to measure, and use Web analytics to determine if your site is achieving your goals. Harmonize your SEO strategy, PR, social media and story telling for and effective balance with SEO. and content marketing efforts. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)  Before putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, clever digital marketers always want to know how prospects are searching for their given product, service or topic.  Researching search volume, competition and variations of your core keyword terms will pay off when you start planning your content in an editorial calendar. Let’s break down a basic approach into three steps: Step 1 Once you select keywords for your website pages and weave them throughout your copy, you should optimize all your social media profiles with those terms. People will search social media using keywords and likewise, your social media profiles show up in search engines. Make it easy for your audience to find you! Step 2 Once you create your content, don’t just hope that the search engines find it. Promote your content via social media. Create hashtags (#keywordhere) using your keyword phrases. Individual social media posts show up in search engine results so make those keywords really work for you. Step 3 Are you sponsoring a local event or introducing a new service? Send a press release to the local media, but also post that press release on your website and promote the event across your social media outlets using hashtags. Write a separate blog post from a different, more personal perspective, sharing why your company chose to affiliate themselves with this event or why this new service will change the world. Then start promoting that blog post. Not only will you be creating great content, but being mindful of higher volume variations of terms that describe the “widget” you are featuring, will help you customize your posts more effectively for readers and search engines. Get additional depth on harmonization in Is Your Digital Content King or Court Jester? Considerations on strategy and spamming. Strategy Your strategy should be to target reputable and well-established Internet forums, which discuss relevant topics to your site. For example, if you are a computer services vendor you would do well to invest time in participating in forums dedicated to topics such as cloud computing, hardware and software troubleshooting and IT server configuration. In most forums, you are allowed to post your site’s link in your signature, which will appear on all of your posts. Spamming When participating in forums, make sure to respect the rules set by forum administrators and moderators. Particularly, you want to avoid forum spamming and double posting. Forum spamming is a breach of netiquette in which users repeat the same word or phrase over and over. Double posting is posting the same content over and over but with slight modifications. Just like nobody wants to hear the same story over and over at a cocktail party, forum participants have no interest in the same content. The key is to contribute positively to the forum and link back to your site, only when appropriate. By helping other users, you will position yourself as a subject matter expert and gain traffic to your site. Next- An abbreviated version of the 7 data analytic strategies.