Why you’re doing it all wrong. Probably.

The Search Engine Optimization game changes A LOT, and if you’re not getting your SEO strategy right, then you’re definitely losing potential customers. Since the rules change so often, businesses need to have a solid plan in place to improve SEO rankings. Lucky for you, there are some relatively simple things that you can do to stay ahead of the game.

First of all, you have to know your customers (or potential customers). Knowing your audience will allow you to have an idea of how people search for your product or one like it. A retiree or Baby Boomer is not going to search the same way as a teenager or Millennial. So, think about what segment your biggest consumers come from. Or, in what segment of your consumer population would you like to see the most improvement? What phrases would your target use to search? If you’re not seeing good SEO results, you need to re-think who (and how old) your target audience is?

Next, keywords. Trying to be too specific or too broad is going to get your searchers and your company lost in a loooong list of competitors. Also, using single-word keywords instead of long-tail keywords is a MISTAKE. How do YOU search for something? Like a caveman? Ugh. Shoes. Grawp. No, you use whole sentences and sometimes even a question mark. Using very broad or popular keywords and hoping to get noticed is also a bad idea; keyword phrases should have a conversational feel, and be as specific to your company or product as possible.That way potential customers will be more likely to type in some sort of combination of your keywords. Trying to force keyword use in your on-site content is awkward and unnecessary too. If your brilliant keyword phrases worked and got the client to your site, then they want to see valuable content, not random reference words in nonsequiturs.

Additionally, if you’re not using digital marketing tools, you won’t know if your strategy is working, or if it needs some help. Management tools allow you to both better understand and track SEO. They let you see results more than just through an elusive “increase in business”. Analytics trackers and goal trackers are necessary for data visualization and being able to track your SEO efforts. Optimizing your SEO results and website takes time and constant improvements and data trackers are the best way to see how you’re doing.

Sources:

Here & here