Want to learn everything there is to know about SEO marketing? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Get ready to climb the SERPs with this complete guide to SEO!
Before we dive into the complicated aspects of SEO marketing, let’s take a step back. What exactly is it?
SEO marketing is all about climbing the search engine results pages (SERPs) through SEO (search engine optimisation) techniques.
When done properly, SEO marketing can help your business reach new customers, increase your traffic, and boost your sales.
The goal of any search engine is to show the user content that is most relevant to their search query. But how exactly does it do this?
There are three primary functions at the heart of the ranking process: crawling, indexing and ranking.
Crawling is how search engines find content to show the user. Search engines send out ‘crawlers’ to find new and updated content, such as webpages, images, videos and PDFs. That content is then added to the search engine’s index (see below).
Once the crawlers have sourced several web pages, they find further content by following any links included on those pages. That’s why links are so important for SEO marketing – but we’ll tell you more about that later!
Indexing is how search engines store and organise any content they found at the crawling stage. Basically, it’s a huge database of content that the search engine deems good enough for its users.
The final stage is ranking. When a user performs a search query, the search engine scours its index for relevant, helpful content. Generally speaking, the higher a website is ranked, the more useful it is to the user. That’s why it’s so important to climb the SERPs!
Before you invest in SEO marketing, you need to decide one thing… is it worth your while?
The short answer is yes. But if you want to know more, let’s go through the benefits of SEO marketing!
Let’s face it, you want to climb the SERPs, right? You wouldn’t be interested in SEO marketing if you didn’t! One of the most important benefits of SEO marketing is that you can use it to boost your website traffic. And when your website traffic increases, get ready to watch your SERP ranking soar!
Not only will your site traffic increase through SEO, but you’ll have access to the right people for your business. In other words, people who are more likely to turn into consumers. This is because those people have searched for the relevant keywords. So, they’re already searching for what you have to sell!
Naturally, the more traffic you get on your site, the more popular your business will become. And when that happens, you can move ahead of your competition!
SEO marketing is such an important step of any marketing strategy. So, you can guarantee that your competitors are already taking steps to climb the SERPs.
But with the right SEO strategy, you can keep up with, or even move ahead, of your competitors.
If you’re trying to grow your business, then you’ll love this next benefit. SEO marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies out there.
SEO content is (mostly) free to produce. It takes a lot of time and effort but, in theory, you don’t have to spend a penny.
It’s also cost-effective because the people targeted with SEO marketing are actively looking for your products online. Therefore, you’re more likely to find actual customers. Not just people browsing online.
While this next benefit will depend on the individual user, it’s still something to think about! Generally, users tend to trust organic search results more than PPC ads.
This is because users know that businesses have paid to have their content rank first in the SERPs. But with organic search results, the content has earned a spot at the top. So, naturally, we assume that organic search results are more useful to us!
Of course, that doesn’t mean PPC ads are a waste of time. In fact, they can do wonders for your business. Remember, the best marketing strategies have more than one layer!
SEO marketing can do amazing things for your business… but it’s not perfect. No marketing strategy is! Here are some things to consider if you want to handle your SEO marketing in-house:
One notable downside of SEO marketing is that it takes time to see results. And many businesses get frustrated about this when they’re handling their SEO strategies in-house.
Generally, it takes at least six months to see any results – but it can take much longer.
If you want to take care of SEO marketing in-house, there are certain things you need to be aware of. Especially if you’re a small business!
It doesn’t just take a long time to climb the SERPs, it takes a long time to see a ROI. Can you afford for an employee (or even a whole team) to spend time on a long-term marketing strategy?
Do you want to implement SEO into your marketing strategy but don’t think you have the time? Try outsourcing to a creative content agency – just like Vocal!
Now you know the benefits of SEO marketing. But what does it take to succeed? Let’s take a look at what you need for awesome SEO content…
SEO marketing won’t do anything for your brand if you don’t use keywords.
When a user performs a search query, the search engine scours its index for content that includes their search terms. Content that repeatedly includes the words or phrases searched is deemed the most relevant by the search engine. And as a result, is more likely to be shown to the user.
So, to make sure that your business is climbing the SERPs, it’s important to include keywords throughout your content. But remember – don’t overdo it! If you include the keyword too many times, you’ll be accused of keyword stuffing. And that won’t do your SERP ranking any favours!
Another vital part of SEO marketing is internal linking.
Search engines find new content by following links they find on a webpage. To ensure that more of your content is found, include links to other pages on your website. That’s what we mean by internal linking.
So, let’s say you’re writing a blog about a copywriting agency and in that blog, you happen to mention SEO. As you’re writing, you remember that you’ve written a blog about SEO in the past. That’s an opportunity for internal linking!
There’s more to SEO marketing than internal linking. You should make use of external linking too.
There are two types of external linking that you need to be aware of:
Outbound links (which are links from your website to someone else’s) add depth and value to your content. It shows the search engine that you’ve done your research and know exactly what you’re talking about.
However, this only works if you link to credible websites. If you aren’t sure about a source, don’t link to it!
Backlinks, on the other hand, are links back to your content from another website. These are harder to get your hands on, but super important for SEO marketing! When someone else is sending their audience in your direction, then the search engines assume your content must be useful.
If your company has more than one website, then backlinks are easy to source. As long as it’s relevant, you can link between your websites for quick and easy backlinks.
Other ways to find backlinks for your website include:
Want another top tip for SEO marketing? Make sure that your content is at least 1000 words in length.
Remember, search engines want to provide users with the most helpful, relevant content. So, search engines assume that longer pieces of content will be better at answering the user’s questions.
While lengthy content is super important for SEO marketing, it’s also important that your writing is clear and concise.
Search engines will only show users your content if it’s easy to read. If your blog is full of long-winded sentences, it will assume that your reader won’t be interested.
If you’re struggling to make your content super easy to read, here’s a top tip! Try and limit your sentences to 20 words or less.
If you want your SEO marketing efforts to pay off, you need to produce consistent content.
Without consistent content, you’ll never climb the SERPs. If you haven’t published anything for a while, then search engines will assume that your content isn’t relevant anymore. And the same goes for your audience. They’ll soon grow bored if you never publish anything new!
To make sure that doesn’t happen, establish a regular posting schedule. If you want your ranking to improve, try publishing content at least twice a week.
Now for our final SEO marketing tip!
As we’ve already established, search engines don’t like content that includes huge chunks of text. And neither do your readers! If your content is too hard to read, it’ll soon bounce off your page.
So, to make sure that doesn’t happen, use subheadings, bullet points and lists to break up your content.
It all comes down to one thing. If your content doesn’t sound good, then your SEO marketing efforts will have been for nothing.
So, how can you make sure that your content doesn’t fall flat? Follow these tips:
The key to producing well-written content for search engines is to do your research. Simply sounding good isn’t enough – you have to know what you’re talking about too!
When we first sit down to write, it’s tempting to just start typing. We’re writers after all – it’s what we do! But if you start writing without doing your research, you risk talking about the completely wrong thing. Or running out of things to say altogether!
Remember, only use trustworthy, credible sources. If you site unreliable websites in your content, your customers will be reluctant to trust you. And that will do your SEO marketing strategy no favours!
No matter how much writing talent you have, you need to proofread your work. And then proofread it again!
Even if you climb the SERPs through SEO marketing, it won’t matter if your post is full of mistakes. Your audience will soon bounce off your page!
Vocal’s top tip! Ask someone else to proofread your writing for you. Chances are that a fresh pair of eyes will pick up any mistakes you might have missed. Especially when you’re working with lengthy documents.
For SEO marketing to pay off, you need to think about your article’s readability. If your post is difficult to read, your audience will look elsewhere. And that’s the last thing you want for your business!
To make sure that your writing is accessible, why don’t you try reading it out loud? It’s easier to catch mistakes when we read out loud. We’re more likely to trip up over any errors in the text.
At the end of the day, the most important factor of your marketing strategy is your audience. Who are you climbing the SERPs for if not them?
So, to make sure that your SEO marketing hasn’t gone to waste, you need to keep your audience in mind. While you’re writing, ask yourself questions. Who are they? What do they want to read? What would make them come back?
Our final tip is absolutely crucial for writing successful content and will help boost your SEO marketing strategy. Whenever you write anything for SEO, make sure that you end it with a call-to-action (CTA).
A CTA could be the final push your audience needs to act. If you don’t end with a CTA, your audience might leave your page without doing a thing. Imagine how bad that would be for your business!
We’ve covered most of the SEO tactics in this blog, but the world of digital marketing is ever-evolving. This is by no means everything you could ever know about SEO, but it’s a great place to start!
Here at Vocal, we’re a full-service creative agency that knows a thing or two about content. We may be a small creative content agency, but we’re by no means shy! If you want help with SEO marketing, we’ve got you covered.
Check out our list of services to see what’s on offer.
Get started with Vocal in 4 easy steps:
Step 1 – Tell us about yourselves! We want to hear about your company’s goals and ambitions. What do you want your marketing strategy to achieve?
Step 2 – Now it’s our time to shine. We’ll do some research and create a proposal of ideas – just for you! This includes recommendations drawn from our extensive experience. Are you ready to hear our ideas?
Step 3 – There’s no point investing in your content if you don’t know what it will do for your business. So, based on our knowledge and experience, we’ll make predictions about the likely outcomes of the content. That way, you can see how our services are going to benefit you.
Step 4 – Finally, we’ll provide a quote for our services. Once that’s out the way, then the real fun can begin! We’ll get started on the website of your dreams!
Let’s get Vocal! Get in touch with a member of the team and get ready to watch your business grow.
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