“SEO” may just seem like a trendy buzzword, but it’s actually the key to growing your business. Why? Because with millions of search-engine results, it’s more important than ever to ensure your business pops up first for your audience. Otherwise, it’s too easy to get lost in the crowd.
While SEO has the potential to drive tons of traffic to your website, it can also be pretty daunting to try and do by yourself. To help your content rank better, we’ve collected the three most effective tips you can use right now to improve your SEO strategy.
Tip #1: Know Thyself (and your audience)
It’s hard to make headway with SEO without a firm understanding of your customers and their needs. And in order to understand your customers, you must first understand your company.
What services are you offering, and why should customers choose you over anyone else? What sets you apart?
Is it as simple as your customer service, quality of product, speed to service or offering a solution to a common problem?
It’s tough to break through with SEO without a solid understanding of your customers and their needs. And to understand your customers, you must first understand your company. What services are you providing, and why should customers choose you over anyone else? What separates you from the rest? Maybe it’s just customer service, quality of product, speed to service, or some other benefit? Once you have a handle on your audience and what problem your products or services solve for them - define how they would typically interact with your business. We recommend that our clients do internal interviews with key stakeholders in the company—the people who work closely daily with the products/services offered. Look for individuals who exude passion and enthusiasm when talking about the solutions provided by this organization; those types offer valuable insights into how people currently think about these products/services—not necessarily how we want them to think.
“You need to take a step back and really look at your company with a clear eye and not be clouded by your passion and personal investment,” says Rebecca Salzman, Vice President of Client Services at 1406. “Really understand how a consumer would behave with your product.”
This introspection gives you valuable insight into what words - and more importantly, topics - to put emphasis on when deciding your content strategy.
Tip #2: Publish Content That Proves You’re the Expert
To make your website appear at the top of a search engine result page (SERP), you must provide the answer to your customer's problems and questions. You've identified the issue, which solution best suits them, and why this critical search term needs to be framed in a particular manner.
And you are in luck; each team member can be considered an "expert" in your company's field—and varying departments will have a different way of describing how. For example, sales representatives are experts on prices and features; CEOs are experts at reaching investors; Product Managers are experts on features and benefits, etc. Use this internal network as another asset in your content-generating tool belt, and have their knowledge put to work for your SEO.
"You need to understand every perspective of your product," says Salzman. "Empower different team members to be champions, whether it's of the product, of the client, or your company as a whole, and you will gain invaluable insight into all the features and benefits while creating a team culture and enthusiasm for your brand."
By empowering different teammates to generate content for your website, you diversify your output while cementing your company's status as an expert in your field. Remember: develop content from an authoritative standpoint, gain higher rankings on searches, gain trust with visitors, and increase lead generation.
Tip #3: Have a Structured Process
When it comes to your SEO, nothing is more important than having an organized plan that lays out your goals, what you’re going to do to reach them (and how), and how you will measure success. or as the old adage goes "Piss poor preparation leads to piss poor performance" and that is not what you want your SEO to do for your content and site.
The best way to streamline your processes is not through juggling multiple spreadsheets—or worse, keeping up with piles of Post-It Notes—but through an all-in-one platform like HubSpot. This software leverages data, schedules content, and automates your methods, identify your customer and their buyer journey, giving you a clear process that boosts productivity with data-driven results.
Moreover, HubSpot has a dedicated SEO module that guides you through setting up your content articles with SEO at the top of your mind, mapping out your strategy, and giving you clear visuals of how it all works together. “The SEO module helps you understand and see how your well-researched topics, keywords, and articles all tie into one another and where there are gaps in your content strategy,” says Salzman. “And by using the campaign feature, all of your content assets can be tracked in one spot, and you have a clear view into what is working and what is not so that you can optimize quickly.”
Final Thoughts
Understanding SEO and its importance to the growth of your business can be overwhelming. Following through with the above three tips is the best way to get started, and help you to understand how your content should be working for you.
As a HubSpot Diamond Partner, we at 1406 are committed to guiding companies through the maze of SEO to increase your traffic and conversions. We can not only set your business up in HubSpot to streamline your processes, but continue to offer training and guidance to help you meet your loftiest goals.
Ready to reach higher? Contact us today.
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