Where do people go when they need a specialized service or product?  It used to be the Yellow Pages, but now people begin their searches with Google or another similar search engine. This change in consumer trends has given rise to the new field of Search Engine Optimization (known to many as SEO). If you are unfamiliar, the goal of SEO is to make sure that your website appears higher up in a Google search. For instance, if you search “shoes,” you might find Nike or Adidas at the top of your search results. However, with some SEO prioritization, instead of finding your competitors first, you can make sure that your business appears first. Among JAS’s many services (web development, design, etc.), we have a very competent SEO staff.  In this post they have shared tips that any beginner can do to start boosting their search engine results.

Plenty of Posts

The number one piece of advice that all of our SEO staff gave was that content creation was key to being found on the internet.  A website that just sits around will drop in search engine results.  If your website is based on sales, then new products and new product descriptions will help your website stay dynamic, but if you’re website simply advertises a set service, blog posts may be helpful for keeping your site relevant. In fact, a new study showed that companies that post at least four blog posts a week are 3.5x more likely to be found in search results than companies that blogged one time or less per week. Content production matters, so make sure to stay on top of it.

Understand the User

When content is created well, it is “optimized.” What this really means is that your content has been written in such a way that certain words or phrases will likely pull it up in search results.  Because blog posts and product descriptions can only be pulled up based on what words and phrases they have been optimized for, it is important to know your user and create content that includes ideas and words that they are likely to type into a search bar. Of course, the easiest way to understand the user is to put yourself in his or her shoes.  What would you Google if you were trying to find a good or service like your own?  Do you have any specialties that set your company apart that people are likely in need of?  These are the things that you should focus on in many of your blog posts, but it helps to write about topics that are also tertiary to your actual good or service because many people don’t know what they’re looking for! Like all things, market research can and will help.  It requires more time and training, but the rewards are worth it.

Share Your Site

This step is very intuitive, but is often missed.  Search engines, like Google or Bing, all want to provide their customers with the very best search results. So, if the choice is between two similar sites, yet one of the sites has 100,000 more views than the other, the more popular site will show up first. Web traffic is an important factor in growing your site, but it can be hard to get the ball rolling.  One thing that every business can do, however, is to share their site far and wide.  Share your site on social media.  Have your employees share it. When you get serious about SEO, it is important to have your site linked to on a variety of different web pages. This boost in views will always prove beneficial. These are just the introductory steps; if you have any further questions on SEO, please contact us.  We have a strong SEO team that is willing and able to help!