How to create a successful SEO strategy

December 17, 2021

There are no tricks or secretes when it comes to local Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

The goal is to make your website as clear and user friendly as possible. Google has an advanced algorithm that is updated daily to try and find the most relevant site to what people are searching. We focus our local SEO strategies on making it as clear as possible to Google what your business does and where you are located. This strategy combined with an amazing mobile friendly website design will give you a massive edge over your local competitors and push your website to the top of Googles search results.

Here are some of the key aspects of local on page search engine optimisation. By reading this short article you will be equiped with the basic knowledge of creating a successful local SEO strategy for your business.

Keyword Research

The first and most important step in any successful local search engine optimisation strategy is to research keywords. You need to really focus on finding keywords that are related to your product or service, have a decent amount of traffic and are not overly competitive. When your website is brand new it has no ranking or authority online, this means you will need to focus SEO efforts on long tail keywords. Long tail keywords are much easier to rank for and are generally less competitive. For example, trying to rank your website for a keyword like ‘mens clothing’ is going to be almost impossible. But trying to rank for a long tail keyword alternative like ‘affordable but stylish mens clothing’ will be much easier.

Website Performance

The next step to a successful local search engine optimisation strategy is to make sure your website is SEO friendly. If your website’s code is poorly optimised for SEO the Google bots will not be able to crawl and index it correctly. Make sure that the formatting of every page is correct with a clear hierarchy for text, images and links. URLs need to be relevant to the keywords you are trying to rank for and easy to understand. Technical SEO is very difficult and time consuming. If you are not willing to put in the time and effort to do it correctly you are better off looking to a professional SEO company to help out.

Money Pages

Money pages are specific pages on your website that focus on the most important keywords you are trying to rank for. They are called money pages because these pages are designated to promote the products or services you offer. By creating a web of linking pages on your site that point back to your money pages you will be able to gain more authority for keywords you are trying to rank for. As your website grows over time you can link more and more pages back to the money pages. The most important page on your website is always the home page it and it should focus on the primary keyword you are trying to rank for.

Targeting Keywords

Every web page on your website has many different areas that need to include the keyword you are trying to rank for in the local search engine optimisation strategy.

Page URL

Include the main keyword or phrase you are trying to rank for in the URL for the page. Google will read the URL of the page to check it is relevant for the search query. An example of this would be something like /affordable-dog-grooming-service/ if you were offering dog grooming.

Page Title

The page title is where you should use the main keyword you are trying to rank for. You want to have the keyword at the start of your page title if possible. Make sure that the page title makes sense when being read by a human.

Main Heading (H1) Tag

The main heading of your page should contain the keyword you are trying to rank for. It is recommended to only use the (H1) tag once per page. Every other heading on your page should move down the hierarchy starting with a (H2) tag.

Image Titles and Alt Tag

You should always have at least one image on every page of your website. It is important to properly name your images while including the keyword you are trying to rank for. The image alt tag should also be used and have the primary keyword included in it.

Page Meta Descriptions

The page meta description is sometimes picked up by google to be displayed in the search results. It is important to describe to the searcher what your page is about and how it is relevant to the search they have performed. If you are using WordPress for your business website consider downloading a plugin which will easily allow you to edit the meta description for each page on your website.

Page Content

Each page on your website should have a minimum of 600 words about the topic you are talking about. You should include your targeted keywords as much as possible while still making the article easy to read. Make sure that your article contains something of value for the reader and is unique without being copied directly from another source. It is often worth hiring a content writer to create articles for you if writing is not your primary focus.

Consistent Content

An important part of your local search engine optimisation strategy is to make sure that the topics you talk about on your website are consistent. Everything you offer should relate in some way to the other pages on your site and relevant keywords should be included on every page. This makes it easier for Google to understand what your website is about and rank it for the correct search terms. Content you create for your website should be related to your businesses industry and provide value to people who are trying to do research on that subject.

Linking Internally

Think of your website like a spider web, all the pages should be linking together making it easy to jump from one topic to the next for a viewer. Linking pages internally also helps Google figure out what content they show for specific search queries. When using internal links be sure to use relevant target keywords for the page you are linking together.

User Experience

Google looks at a whole lot more than just the content on your website. It takes into consideration the experience users have when they visit your website as well. How long people spend on a page, how fast the page loads, if they click into another page and many other factors can effect your search ranking. It is important to give your visitors an excellent experience with great web design and fast loading pages.

Social Media Sharing

Being able to share content directly to social media is becoming an important part of SEO. It is important to make it easy for your visitors to share information from your website on their social media pages. One of the easiest ways to do this is by including sharing buttons on pages that offer a one click solution.

The topics we have highlighted are considered to be the very basics of a good local search engine optimisation strategy. There is more to consider when starting a SEO campaign. Other things that are not part of your website such as high quality back links is another topic entirely. If you are not planning on putting in the time and effort to your local search engine optimisation strategy another good option to look at would be pay per click ads.

Keep in mind that if you do the wrong thing when it comes to SEO it is very easy to harm the rank of your website and cause damage that needs to be fixed in order to rank again. There is no quick way to rank with SEO and you should avoid anyone trying to sell you a quick solution.

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