Is your SEO Helping Customers Find You?

Optimising your website for search engines is not enough. If you read our previous article about on-page SEO, you are on your way to making strong foundations for a better website. On-page SEO is extremely important for creating a widely-shared and professional website, but it is not the end step in your journey. Now it is time to put that implemented on-page SEO to work.

The next step is to take your optimised website and put it out there for everyone to see. We have collected some of the various methods and tricks you can use to increase your notoriety with online customers.

Put that URL Everywhere

In a previous article, we went over how to create a SEO friendly URL. Your link has been crafted to be attractive for viewers and search engines, but now it has to get noticed. Part of this process is back linking your website through other sites. Google Panda considers how a link’s connectivity to other websites. For instance, a link that appears on CNN, Wikipedia and Buzzfeed is more likely to be found by Google’s search crawl. Putting your link on these websites can be done by commenting in their discussion sections or paying for ad space.

There is an important note to make about the kinds of links that are put on larger websites. Often, putting a link in an accessible area, like a discussion section, will result in a nofollow link. These links are not noticed by Google when it is searching for keyword terms. It effectively does not help you climb higher in the search result rankings. However, it is still seen by any user and is still leads to your website if clicked. Check out our article about nofollow links for more information.

The flip-side of nofollow links are the dofollow links. These links are exactly the same as nofollows, but are noticed by Google during the search crawl. In the modern web, it can be difficult to get a well-placed dofollow link.

Aside from building back links, make sure you have a link in every form of communication with potential customers. Emails, banner ads and paid ads should have a link in plain sight that is easy to follow. Having the link there for the user eliminates the risk that they will not have the motivation to Google you. They can come right to you with the click of a button.

You can also build up your back linking profile by contacting websites similar to yours and requesting to “trade links”. The particulars of these deals vary by businesses and the size of the websites in question, but it always results in each website promoting the other. If your website sells teenage apparel, contact other teenage apparel sites. You will promote their business and post their links and they should do the same for you. This can built up a reputation within your industry and with your peers. The referral traffic is also a great bonus.

Pay for Professional Marketing

Having implemented on-page SEO and undertaking basic online marketing campaigns may still be too little. If you are having a hard time breaking through with your own efforts, you may want to consider paying for someone to run a digital marketing campaign for you.

Photo: CC BY 2008 David Wall

The on-page SEO strategies we recommended in the previous articles are effective, but professional SEO teams know many more methods to increase your website’s rank. This can be a hard commitment to make as you will be paying extra and trusting an out-sourced marketing team to monitor and promote your online image. Make sure you do your homework before putting your trust in a digital marketing company. There is a variety of businesses to choose from and not all of them are high-quality professionals.

You can also reach out to pay-for-service groups like Google’s products page or service review companies. It is also an increase in spending, but they will actively promote your company. This also makes your site very visible on websites that are themselves very visible. You are also back linking with this method. As we said before, this can possibly increase how much attention Google gives your website.

Embrace Social Media

If you want to be seen by a mass audience, why would you not go to a service that reaches thousands daily? Social media marketing is a growing field that is embraced by more companies every year. Both B2B and B2C companies are realising just how important quality social media content is. If you have not revamped your Facebook and Twitter presence already, consider optimising it to get as many likes and follows as possible. Advertising sales, new products and promotional events can garner attention from anyone who happens to be browsing their feed.

You can give your potential customers an even greater reason to return if you interact with them. This is social media after all. People love it when businesses reach out to them to field their complaints, listen to their praise or just share a joke. It shows them that you care about their opinions and needs.

This option can be difficult. Being picked out among the millions of tweets and posts that get made every single day can be a long-shot. However, internet promotion is all about being at the right place at the right time. If you are not there at all, you won’t even have the chance to be seen.

However, the benefits of social media usually far outweigh the costs. A social media presence only requires time and great content. The majority of social media accounts are free to create and use. Compared with posting paid links on other websites, this avenue of marketing can greatly aid your website with little financial cost.

More Optimisation!

You need to know that there are several design choices you can make to make your online business stand out even more. This is not so much SEO design choices as they are options that will make navigating your website more pleasant for the customer.

First, when you post a link, make sure that it leads to the thing it is indicating. A link for blue jeans should take you to the blue jean catalogue for that website. If that link leads you to the home page instead, it can turn away customers. A customer might assume that it is a cheap trick to get them to look at more products or that the link is faulty. Both of these results can harm your image with a potential customer.

Secondly, take a look at your website’s visuals. The images and photos that we recommended should also look professional and high-quality to customers. Shopping online is just like shopping in the real world. A customer will only return to a store if they feel welcome and safe. Websites that look like they were made with minimal effort and contain low-quality images can jeopardise the legitimacy of that website. If you do not have the camera or the skills to create high-quality images of your products you may want to contact the manufacturer. They should have some stock photos they would be willing to share with you.

Conclusion

After you have implemented on-page SEO, the journey is not over. Introducing your site to the internet at large will take a lot of effort and creativity on your part. These tips should help you along your path to building a reliable and returning customer base for your business.