So your small business affairs are (mostly) in order. You have your products or services ready to go, a solid financial plan, all the necessary permits, and a gorgeous and fully functional website. Sounds like you have all of your ducks in a row…almost. Have you given any thought to search engine optimization (SEO)? Maybe you’re thinking, “I’m not all that familiar with business SEO, so it can’t be that important.” Well, believe it or not, SEO is now the #1 most important aspect of any marketing campaign, hands down. Don’t believe me? Consider these facts:
- Ecommerce sales are currently growing by more than 19 percent a year.
- Ecommerce sales are expected to reach $1.4 trillion by 2015.
- In the U.S. alone, e-Commerce sales are growing by more than 10 percent a year.
- More than 80 percent of the U.S. population has purchased goods and services online.
- More than half the U.S. population has made multiple purchases online.
- The majority of online shoppers use search engines to find what they’re looking for.
Your Business SEO Checklist
So why do I point out these figures? In short, the business landscape is changing. The majority of consumers are now turning to the Internet, and they’re using search engines to finds goods and services. If your website doesn’t have optimal search rankings, you’re going to lose out on tremendous revenue potential. That’s why it’s so critical to have a solid business SEO plan. SEO is the process by which you rise through the ranks and achieve optimal rankings. If you’re confused, don’t worry. Here are some steps that you can take to bolster your SEO efforts:
- Make a list of the keywords for which you want to rank highly online. For example, if you sell life insurance in California, you might want to rank for terms like “life insurance,” “life insurance in California,” “CA life insurance,” and “CA affordable life insurance.”
- Use Google’s Keyword Planner to assess the strength of your keywords and generate ideas for additional keywords. Certain keywords may seem worthwhile to pursue at first glance, but ultimately fall flat due to a lack of search traffic or an excess of competition. With a bit of research, you can save yourself a ton of time by zeroing in on the optimal keywords.
- Create content that incorporates your target keywords with some regularity. You don’t want to go overboard with the keyword usage, as keyword stuffing will hinder your SEO efforts, but the keywords should appear frequently enough to make an impression with the search engines. Ideally, you’re going to want at least 400 to 500 words of high-quality copy on each major page of your site.
- Build high-quality links. That’s right, no business SEO plan is complete without a good backlog of inbound links. When I say “inbound links,” I’m referring to the websites that link back to your own site. There are plenty of ways to generate inbound links: directory listings, social media accounts and posts, social bookmarking, guest blogging, and just creating the kind of high-quality content that people will want to link to.
Need Some Help?
At Coalition Technologies, we understand how daunting it can be to create a solid business SEO campaign. After all, how do you get the best links? How do you find the right keyword density? How can you be absolutely certain that you’ve selected the right keywords in the first place? We excel in these areas, and we would be happy to bolster your website through superior business SEO. Call us today at 1-310-827-3890 to receive a free quote, and find out how Coalition can take your business to the next level.
