Let's talk about getting things right. What's your margin for error? If you're making pancakes and you don't get the mix right - no problem. Add a little water or a little powder from the box and you're good to go. But what if your task is to manage a profitable bottom line for your business?
How you optimize your website for search engines could mean the difference between a very Merry Christmas or not meeting payroll. It's hard to ruin pancakes, but it's easy to mess up a business.
This is one thing every company should know. It's common sense…or is it?
We're talking about your findability online by people who are interested in you. In other words, your "organic search engine optimization strategy."
In one sense, it's pretty simple. Only two things to think about, but, it turns out to be not as simple as it seems when you get into the middle of it. However, you must start somewhere! Here are the two places to get you started on your commonsense approach to building your visibility online:
Quality in your Website
Google and other search engines are getting smarter, as you'd expect. They do so much more than simply look for a few keywords or phrases and bump the site with the most of them to the top of the search returns. No, friends, Google can actually read your blog entry or web page for criteria that determine an overall quality score. One certainty is that it's a robust combination of different things, from word count and article age to the actual accuracy of the information presented.
How does Google decide on quality?
Like a physician taking a pulse, there are vital signs that vary from site to site. A healthy site whose vitals are in the quality range are given a higher score. Here's how to up your Quality Game:
Organic search engine optimization strategy #1: User Experience (UX)
How does Google "see" my UX (how the Average Josephine searcher interacts with the pages on your website)?
A reader has a better experience if the main content is credible.
Original research, links to more information, customer reviews, citations included in articles, a biographical sketch of the author and her credentials (photos add even more credibility), a balance of both specialized jargon and everyday language understandable to your ideal customer - really anything that makes a visitor feel like they have been treated like a guest, not patronized or overwhelmed. Depending on your main content, you may want people to linger or get-in-and-get-out. Think like someone who is beginning their research on buying.
Main content should be completely unique and specific. Also, for many readers the quality of the writing is a critical factor. Grammatical and spelling errors don't do you any favors. Forget about ranking well on search engines for a moment - we'll get to keywords later, but try not to sacrifice readability to cram your keywords in sideways.
Use design elements to focus the reader, not distract them. Simplicity is your goal. If you want to offer more information than fits on the first screen, add a link to it! Let them decide if they want more or not. Graphics should invite curiosity and lead to answers. Engage readers with new content, comment areas, and social media conversations. Make every photo, color block, headline - even white space - serve the purpose of the page and get rid of anything that moves the viewer in another direction.
One way that Google determines Quality is through the use of human quality raters.
While search engines understandably don't reveal all their secrets, we do know that Google employs an army of human page analyzers who perform searches just like anyone would, and submit scores against an ideal website. Any website so reviewed adds to Google's ability to return the best resources (read: sites with the best UX) in response to a search term.
Some of the criteria we know about from Google's recent guideline manuals for human raters are instructive. A high score for UX is given to sites that show:
- A satisfying amount of high quality main content (pertaining to the central purpose of the site).
- The page and website are expert, authoritative, and trustworthy for the topic of the page.
- The website has a good reputation for the topic of the page. In addition, the page and website should have most of the following:
- A satisfying amount of website information, for example: About Us information, Contact or Customer Service information, etc.
- Supplementary content (photos, videos, links, etc.) which contributes to a satisfying user experience.
- Functional page design which allows users to easily focus on main content and use supplementary content as desired.
- Overall, a website which is well cared for and maintained.
As human raters learn to distinguish between bad, medium and good websites, the process can be to some degree replicated in algorithms used by web crawling robots. Some isn't too hard to parse - the number of times a product is mentioned on a particular social media outlet, for example. Authority is a bit different and more subjective, but it can still be digitized. For example, the more times a site is quoted or linked to raises the possibility that it is seen in general as a good source.
"You’ve got to imagine all these quality ratings are getting passed along to the engineers at Google in some form (at some stage) to improve future algorithms – and identify borderline cases." - Shaun Anderson, Hobo internet Marketing
A word about Keywords and Quality
The Keyword used to be one of only a few criteria that search engines used to return the best results. Then keyword stuffing and hiding made search engines realize that there had to be a better way. While keywords are still very important, search algorithms continue to get smarter about them. Definitely use your keyword or phrase in titles, subheadings, page URL, and the body text, but don't go overboard. In the body text, you can even split up the phrase and still get credit. It's all about signaling to a robot that the page text is relevant to the search term that led them to your page.
Organic search engine optimization strategy #2: Distribute your quality content through multiple channels
Links
Links are like votes to Google and other Search engines. A link on Page X to your page is like a vote of confidence from page X, especially if page X has a high reputation. We're talking here about natural links as opposed to unnatural ones that are available for sale and are obviously there to simply make you look more popular.
How do you get links?
- Answer questions on websites like Quora, or HARO (help a reporter out).
- Hang out on industry forums and get in on conversations in a polite, helpful way.
- When you insert a link to an article or website in a blog or article, email the lucky webmaster and ask them to link back to you. A bit of quid pro quo makes the world go round!
- Do a roundup post in your blog. Get comments or opinions on a single topic from as many industry leaders as you can think of, and post responses with links to their sites. Then politely ask for a link back when you share it. This helps both you and your respondents!
- Look for comment sections in articles or blogs, on news sites, product reviews, and leave informed, relevant responses. Don't be spammy, but put your link in your response. Usually comments sections aren't the ideal place to get a link, but if it's relevant, germane to the discussion and short you'll get some exposure. Look at this as an indirect way to find links.
Social Media
Every blog post should have a blast of postings on all your social media outlets. This may sound like a simple deal, but there are some finesse points to making SM work for your content.
Don’t make your tweet or update sound sales-y. Your job is to interest the interested, to invite them to find out more. Questions are a great way to pique interest, especially if it's a thoughtful and truly relevant question that speaks to the pain points of the reader. For example: "Read this article with information about widgets," vs. "Wish you could re-use your old widgets?" or "Nine new ways to cut your widget budget." Or a challenge: "Nine out of ten people don’t know how to use widgets properly - do you?"
Or a phrase that evokes a question from the reader: "Widgets could solve your company's productivity problems."
The point is to know your audience. Who is reading your SM posts? Why are they reading them? What would make them click through?
Polish your image
The use of photos in posts and tweets can be a critical brand-association practice. Our brains are hard-wired to study an intriguing or beautiful picture, especially one that inspires an emotion or awakens an instinct.
Spend time crafting your Social Media posts. Many internet-savvy companies are hiring a Social Media Manager to their marketing staff because they understand how important it is to not only create excellent posts, but monitor and incubate conversations in online social space.
Email/Direct Mail
The future of paper in actual mailboxes is not as dominant as it once was. Smart marketers use a mix of both direct mail and email for general campaign use, but for online content like a blog, white paper, article, press release, or an updated website it seems a little weird to promote or distribute the content or access to it using paper.
Effective emails are short, catchy and serve the purpose of shouting out one bit of information to as many people as possible. For example, an email with the title of your latest blog entry in the subject line and in the body text - a link to the page and a thanks for reading. That's it.
Content Syndication
You can amplify the impact of your online content by finding partners that will post a link to your blog, or the entire text, as a permanent feature on their website. There are both paid and free ways of doing this, so choose accordingly. This is a means of grabbing some eyeballs from other sites' audiences, so when you have an article that is relevant to a wider audience and it would make sense to publish it on a bigger, better website, try content syndication!
Getting it right can be a huge boost to your bottom line. It may take a while, but with some willingness to experiment, your brilliant content will make a splash on the internet. Doing nothing is not an option, by the way. United WebWorks of Savannah, GA has been helping businesses like yours stay ahead of the curve for many years.
It's time to whip your organic search engine optimization strategies into shape! Are you ready?