Februrary 15, 2012
Seven out of 10 Canadian small- and medium-sized businesses have a website, according to a 2011 BDC-sponsored survey. But having a website isn’t enough. It has to be easy for customers to find. “If nobody knows you exist, your website is like an online brochure lost in an ocean of data,” says BDC Internet Services Consultant Fehmi Fennia.
He offered 10 SEO tips to boost your website’s position on sites such as Google, Bing and Yahoo:
1. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Think about what words your clients are likely to use when looking for your products or services on the web. If you’re selling appliances, for example, are your customers more likely to use a formal word like refrigerator or a slang word like fridge?
2. Make a list of 20 to 50 keywords. You will infuse your website with these words so it ranks higher when prospective customers search for those terms.
But remember you’re competing against other companies in your industry. So avoid generic terms and instead look for ones that correspond to your market differentiators such as your unique offerings or geographic location.
“You can plug words into a free Google AdWords product, called Keyword Tool. It will suggest a list of 500 related words,” Fennia says. “These suggestions should help you to come up with keywords and build your list.”
You may also want to buy keywords as part of a “pay-per-click” campaign. Once you have bought your words, an ad for your company will appear above or beside the free search results including those terms. You will then pay the search engine company each time your link is clicked. Competition is stiff for keywords so if you don’t have a big budget, you will have to focus on your niche.
3. Include keywords in your website’s content. Start by using keywords in the URL—the address appearing in the Internet browser for each of your website pages.
Then, use the words in the text on each of the pages. But don’t overdo it. “The keywords shouldn’t represent more than 20% of the content,” Fennia said. “More than that and you risk distorting the meaning of the content and irritating readers.”
Your priority should be to make the content clear and easy to read. As Google webmaster guidelines state: “Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.”
4. Work to attract links. The more sites that carry links to your site the higher you will rank on searches. Ask the owners of related sites to carry a link to your site. Offer to carry a link to theirs in exchange for a link to yours.
“Focus on the quality of the links,” Fennia says. “One link directing to your website from a chamber of commerce or a university website will help you more than a dozen links from obscure blogs.”
5. Publish high-quality content and lots of it. The more content on your website, the more traffic you will attract from search engines. Publish compelling content—articles, videos and photos— and update it frequently.
6. Get social. Social media is a great ally in your SEO strategy. Be active in online communities in your industry. Share content on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn or Twitter that brings visitors to your site.
7. Watch the basics. Have a clean, easy to navigate website. Make sure it is immediately clear to visitors who you are and what you’re offering. For help, go to bdc.ca/smarttech for a free website assessment.
8. Measure results. Google Analytics is a free service generating statistics on the behaviour of your visitors—how they found your site (search engine, referring website etc.), their geographical location and how long they stayed on each page. This data can help you to improve your online strategy.
9. Be patient. Monitor results from day one, but don’t expect fast results. “It normally takes a few months to move significantly higher in search engine rankings,” Fennia says.
10. Aim high. “A good position means appearing on the first two pages of search results. Past page three, you don’t exist anymore.”
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