Baltimore SEO Company
MarketKeep: Baltimore SEO Company
Are you ready to generate customers through your website? Are you are looking for a Baltimore SEO Company that will produce RESULTS? An SEO Company that offers strategic insight on how to position your business online? You have come to the right place. MarketKeep is routinely listed as one of the top Baltimore SEO Companies and is proud to support small businesses and start-ups with their SEO efforts.
If you are a small business owner that doubles as the marketing director you probably receive countless emails a day from SEO companies and SEO consultants promising to increase your website traffic by 5 to 10 thousand visitors. All of these email requests are from SEO firms located outside Maryland or overseas. This makes it harder to judge who is good at SEO and who is just scamming the system. Wouldn’t it be nice to partner with a top-rated SEO company located here in Maryland?
As Your Baltimore SEO Company…
While you don’t need to partner with a Baltimore SEO Company, why wouldn’t you? While technology has made things easier, nothing can replace a good old fashioned in-person meeting. And technology certainly can’t replace a company that understands your target audience and where they live, because they work and live in the same area. So whether your business is located in downtown Baltimore, or just located in the greater Baltimore region, make sure to connect with us! You can stop by our office in Towson, or we can meet you at yours. Either way, contact MarketKeep toady and let’s set up an in-person meeting to review your SEO strategy.
Baltimore SEO Services Built Around Your Budget & Needs. Affordable SEO Packages for Small Businesses.
At MarketKeep we pride ourselves on being the digital marketing agency for small businesses. That is why we don’t just offer template-based small business SEO packages. Rather we customize each SEO campaign to fit your budgets, needs, and aspirations. Below you will find examples of our SEO packages for small businesses, but remember each campaign is custom designed. So if you are looking for an SEO plan that works and fits within your budget, make sure to give us a call or fill out the contact form below!
The Starter
Perfect for business owners just starting out on their SEO journey, or businesses with defined service radiuses, the Starter SEO Packages combines the power of local, on-page, and off-page SEO with the benefit of a cost-effective budget. Clients who elect to utilize the starter SEO package routinely find that through our small business SEO services they are able to connect with their customers in the moments that matter most to them, and increase their website traffic through important sources such as Google My Business and Organic Website Traffic. Elements of The Starter SEO Package include:
- Minimum of 20 keywords ranking
- Initial Keyword Audit/Analysis
- Competitor Analysis (2)
- Monthly Site Audit
- GMB Optimization
- 15 Local Citations (one-time)
- 5 High-quality Backlinks per month
- All current pages are optimized with proper Meta Tag Titles/Descriptions
- All current pages revised for on-page and off-page SEO Success
- 5 new pages developed per month
- 2 new blog posts per month
** Budget is determined based on the size of the website, and competition level, all of which is discussed in your initial SEO evaluation.
The Foundation
For business owners that want a powerful SEO campaign while still protecting their digital marketing budget, The Proven SEO Package is an aggressive style SEO campaign designed to scale quickly and maximize organic search traffic on a regional leve. So whether you are a one-store location or a business with a large service radius you can be sure that your customers will find you regardless of where they are searching from. Elements of The Proven SEO Package include:
- Minimum of 35 keywords ranking
- Initial Keyword Audit/Analysis
- Competitor Analysis (4)
- Monthly Site Audit
- GMB Optimization
- 35 Local Citations (one-time)
- 15 High-quality Backlinks per month
- All current pages are optimized with proper Meta Tag Titles/Descriptions
- All current pages revised for on-page and off-page SEO Success
- 10 new pages developed per month
- 4 new blog posts per month
** Budget is determined based on the size of the website, and competition level, all of which is discussed in your initial SEO evaluation.
The All-In
Ready to make a splash online? The All-in SEO Package is designed for business owners that are ready to dominate online search. Whether its an aggressive local SEO campaign designed to draw customers in, or maximize a website’s reach nationally or internationally, The All-In SEO Package is designed to dominate local SEO, and organic SEO anywhere. Essentially connect with your customers anywhere. Elements of The All-In SEO Package include:
- Minimum of 50 keywords ranking
- Initial Keyword Audit/Analysis
- Competitor Analysis (6)
- Monthly Site Audit
- GMB Optimization
- 85 Local Citations (one-time)
- 30 High-quality Backlinks per month
- All current pages are optimized with proper Meta Tag Titles/Descriptions
- All current pages revised for on-page and off-page SEO Success
- 20 new pages developed per month
- 4 new blogs post per month
- Weekly SEO Meetings
** Budget is determined based on the size of the website, and competition level, all of which is discussed in your initial SEO evaluation.
Ready To Drive Traffic To Your Website?
Fill out the form below to find learn, what keywords perform best in your website, how well your competitors rank online, and what improvements you can make to your website. All so you can rank higher and drive more traffic to your website!
Our Small Business SEO Services Include
Keyword Research
Connecting you with your customers in the moments that matter most. We find the most profitable keywords and search phrases to help you connect with your target audience online.
On-Page SEO
From keyword implementation to optimizing meta tag titles & descriptions our team will enhance each page of your website so you rank higher and generate more traffic.
Off-Page SEO
To increase your website’s popularity our team will work to improve your site’s relevance, trustworthiness, and overall authority through local citations, backlinks, and citation campaigns.
Content Creation
Content creation is key to SEO. Our team will enhance existing content and crew new pages and blogs to help create an authoritative website that drives website visitors and converts them into leads.
Blog Writing
A well-maintained blog will help to boost your website’s SEO by positioning your website as a relevant answer to your customer’s question. This tactic also leads to more SEO keywords being inserted into your website.
Schema Markup
Schema markup helps improve your website and the way that each page is displayed in search engines by enhancing rich snippets that are displayed beneath each page title. Making your website stand out online.
UI Experience
User Experience drives conversions and revenue. At MarketKeep our team will look at this data to optimize the performance of key pages and increase the number of conversions on your website.
Analytics
Each week receive custom analytics reports which detail your website traffic, top-performing pages, and where your website ranks for each keyword currently in use.
Competitor Analysis
As part of your small business SEO package we will monitor your competitors to see what keywords or search phrases they are using, what blogs are driving website traffic, and where they are generating their backlinks.
FAQ’S About Our Small Business SEO Services
What is the value of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an extremely valuable investment. Why? Because you are not paying per click like you would in Google Adwords. Think about it this way. If the average keyword you want in Google Adwords costs $10 and that keyword brought 100 visitors to your website you just paid $1,000.00 for one keyword.
With our SEO services, you can bring that same amount of visitors to your website for much less. Why? Because our most expensive SEO package is $850 and that’s if you REALLY want to be aggressive. Plus with SEO you aren’t just limiting yourself to one SEO keyword, you can have as many as you want!
What is technical SEO?
Schema markup or schema is a great way for your website to stand out from your SEO competitors in an online search. Schema once added to your website enhances your search engine result (SERP) and produces a rich snippet. Helping to improve your search visibility and improve your overall click-through rate.
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that helps your business be more visible in local search results on Google. Any business that has a physical location or serves a geographic area can benefit from local SEO.
At MarketKeep our team will optimize your website for local searches so that. you can connect with your customers in the moments that matter most to them.
What is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page SEO refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized. To excel at on-page SEO a website must be technically proficient, offer authoritative content, and provide a flawless user experience.
At MarketKeep our team is committed to optimizing your website for on-page SEO success. First, we will make sure that your website is working properly and that your technical SEO is up to par. Secondly, we will create or optimize existing content to make sure that it is user-friendly and focused on the right keywords for your website. Finally, we will work on the usability and speed of your website to help potential customers and search engines find the content they are looking for on your website.
What is Off-Page SEO?
Off-page SEO refers to actions taken outside of your own website to improve your rankings within search engines. Optimizing for off-page ranking factors involves improving search engine and user perception of a site’s popularity, relevance, trustworthiness, and authority. This is often accomplished by other reputable websites linking to or promoting your website and effectively “vouching” for the quality of your content.
At MarketKeep we understand the importance of off-page SEO and that is why we are committed to developing high-quality backlinks for our clients on a consistent basis.
What are backlinks?
Backlinks are links from other websites that can be viewed effectively as vouching for the quality of your content. High-quality backlinks help improve a company’s relevance, trustworthiness, and overall domain authority making it easier to rank online.
At MarketKeep though we believe not all links are created equal. Quality matters. A link from a high-authority page is worth more than one from a low-authority page. That is why with each backlink we generate for our clients we focus on the overall domain rank of the website and ensure that it is a do-follow link helping to boost your overall domain rank and search visibility.
What is domain rank and why is it important to SEO?
Domain authority is a search engine ranking score developed by platforms like Moz or Ahrefs to predict how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs). Domain Authority scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores corresponding to the greater likelihood of rankings.
At MarketKeep we are committed to boosting our client’s overall domain rank by focusing on the quality and quantity of content and overall backlinks to our client’s websites.
Do you optimize my existing content?
Yes, we do! As previously mentioned SEO is all about authoritative content. Each page of your website matters, and that is why our team at the beginning stage of each project will make sure to optimize every page of your site from a technical, on-page, and off-page performance.
Do you write new content for my website?
Yes, we do this too! New content that is authoritative is the lifeblood of any successful SEO strategy. Whether we are adding local landing pages, developing new product or service pages for your website, or developing a steady blog we are always publishing new content to your website.
This helps us to improve the overall quality of your website, incorporate new keywords into your SEO strategy, and enable search engines to continue indexing your website. All designed to help increase your search visibility overall domain rank. Generating more traffic and more opportunities to turn website traffic into customers.
What is a competitor analysis report?
Your competitors are a goldmine of information that can inform every aspect of your SEO strategy and help to skyrocket your website’s organic traffic.
In concrete terms, performing an SEO competitor analysis lets you:
- Learn what works and what doesn’t in your industry.
- Find competitors’ weaknesses, and capitalize on them.
- Find competitors’ strengths, and replicate them.
- Understand what SEO tasks to prioritize going forward.
- Understand how difficult outperforming competitors in the SERPs is likely to be.
By performing a competitor analysis on a regular basis, we are able to incorporate keywords into your SEO campaign that your competitors are using and find new ways to connect with your target audience.
What is a site audit?
Site Audit crawls all the pages it finds on your website – then provides an overall SEO health score, visualizes key data in charts, flags all possible SEO issues, and provides recommendations on how to fix them.
At MarketKeep we run monthly site audits for our clients because we believe that in order to have continued success with your SEO strategy completing an audit report helps check for errors and issues that can be addressed. An audit gets down to the root of the problems, so changes can be made to enhance the search visibility of your site.
What are meta tag titles and descriptions?
The purpose of your SEO title is to make people click on it, visit your website and read your post or buy your product. If your title is not good enough, people will ignore it and move on to other results. Essentially, there are two goals that you want to achieve with a title:
- It must help you rank for a keyword;
- it must make the user want to click through to your page.
Google uses various signals when deciding how relevant you are for a specific keyword. Even if you’re initially ranking well, but nobody is clicking on your result, your rankings might deteriorate over time. The opposite is also true. At first, you may be positioned lower in the search results. But, if your title gets people to click on it, Google will notice. Consequently, over time, your rankings may improve.
The meta description is a snippet of up to about 155 characters – a tag in HTML – which summarizes a page’s content. Search engines show it in search results mostly when the searched-for phrase is within the description. So optimizing it is crucial for on-page SEO.
Its purpose is simple: it needs to get someone searching with a search term on Google to click your link. In other words, meta descriptions are there to generate click-throughs from search engines.
Search engines say there is no direct SEO benefit from the meta description – they don’t use it in their ranking algorithm. But there is an indirect benefit: Google uses click-through-rate (CTR) as a way of working out whether you’re a good result. If more people click on your result, Google considers you to be a good result and will – based on your position – move you up the rankings. This is why optimizing your meta description is so important.
How does the SEO process work?
Our SEO process is simple! We do all the work for you, you just make sure to show up for our weekly meetings. Our team will find the best keywords and search phrases for your business so that way you can meet your customers in the moments that matter most to them online.
We will then implement them into your website through on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and Local SEO tactics. At the end of each week, you will receive a report showing just how effective the strategy is.
How long will the process take?
The starting position of your website plays a key role in how long the process will take. For sites that have just launched the process may take longer, while established businesses may only need a few adjustments to start seeing results.
Establishing consistent rankings online can take anywhere from 1-3 months. For a better sense of how long it will take your website to rank make sure to fill out our SEO Evaluation Report.
When should I expect to get leads/sales
As soon as your website gets a search result on the 1st page of Google, you should start to expect sales/leads. Keep in mind that SEO has its best results once you have joined the top 3 rankings on search results.
How long are your contracts for?
Unlike traditional SEO agencies who expect 6 or 12-month commitments, our SEO contracts renew on a month-to-month basis. We always ask for 45 days to showcase our work but we want our clients to feel comfortable with the SEO process which is why we don’t ask for long-term commitments.
What do you need from me to get started?
3 simple items. Access to your website, access to your Google My Business Profile, and access to your Google Analytics account. That’s it!
Small Business SEO Services: Industries We Serve
Our Commitment to Small Business SEO Services Starts Here
Transparency
DoWe send you a weekly SEO report showing your keywords and past & current rankings. So you can always check our work.
Customer Growth
We provide your business with the exposure it deserves online by increasing your ranking on search engines like Google and Bing.
Friendly Commitments
We don’t force our customers into lengthy contracts. Give us three months and then it’s month to month commitments.
Content Creation
SEO Audits
SEO In-House
All of our SEO efforts are done in-house. There are no short-cuts or short-comings with your SEO strategy.
93% of all online consumers start their web experience with a search.
Google makes up 75% of all online searches globally.
What is SEO or Search Engine Optimization Anyway?
According to Moz.com, SEO is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. So to help further understand how SEO can help your business, you need to understand three important components: the quality and quantity of website traffic, and the importance of organic results.
- Quality of Traffic. You can attract all the website visitors in the word, but if they are coming to your website because they think you are an Apple Store when really you are a farmer who sells Apples in his store, is that really quality traffic? Your website needs to attract visitors who are genuinely interested in the products you offer.
Quantity of Traffic. Once you have the right people clicking through to your website from those search result pages, the more traffic the better!- Organic Results. Your website traffic needs to be organic, Google Adwords and Social Media Paid campaigns do not count towards your SEO search ranking.
So here are three key components to building a strong SEO presence online and how to boost your overall performance
- First, you need to build a website that search engines can crawl and find it. Your website will need to load fast, be secure (have an SSL Certificate), and mobile-friendly.
- Second, you need to build unique content. Each page of your website should be unique, remarkable, and optimized for SEO.
- Third, you need references. You must commit to building online citations, links, and generating references from websites with strong domain authority or
are considered industry leading experts. So contact us today to get started on your SEO strategy.
Small business SEO
“It is more difficult to stay on top than to get there”. Mia Hamm, one of the most prestigious women’s soccer players of all time for the United States of America on finding success. This quote is not only true about sports but also about small business SEO.
The family-run business that is trying to surpass its regional or national competitors when it comes to gaining new customers. Unlike in the past however when whoever had the bigger marketing budget won, there is a new playing field for businesses.
The internet, and to be more specific, search engines.
Small Business SEO or search engine optimization is often one of the most critical components to finding success online, but also one of the most misunderstood tools that every business has access to.
Just as Mia Hamm puts it, with SEO it is difficult to reach the first page of search results, but sometimes even harder to stay there. To find success with search engine optimization sometimes it can take as long as 12 months to reach the first page of search results, but once you are there, SEO has the ability to completely transform your business.
For instance, did you know that 92.96% of all global traffic comes from Google Search, Google Images, or Google Maps? Think about that. That means only 8% of all online traffic comes outside of search engines. So if you are thinking about growing your business, your most effective means of doing so is through small business seo.
Small business SEO can help any small business owner compete for a place on Google’s 1st page of search results.
Does SEO Really Help A Small Business?
When it comes time to invest in a digital marketing strategy small business owners have a variety of options available to them. So why engage in small business SEO over other marketing strategies such as social media, email marketing, or paid advertising?
Because it works, and that’s just not a matter of opinion, but a fact. SEO drives 1000% more traffic than organic social media to a website according to research provided by BrightEdge.
Search Engine Optimization is a long-term strategy that helps business owners develop qualified traffic that leads to phone calls, contact form submissions, and sales. Small business SEO is a form of inbound marketing that drives customers who are searching for the products or services you offer right to your doo step. It is a strategy that drives consistent and stable traffic to your website.
How do we know this? Because at MarketKeep, the digital marketing agency for small businesses, we known first-hand how effective small business SEO is. Through hard work and dedication our company has been able to appear on the first page of search results for keywords like small business SEO services and many other terms that drives qualified traffic to our site.
That is why we have never had to rely on paid digital marketing ads or the dreaded cold-calls to grow our business. With effective small business SEO, we are able to connect with our ideal customers in the moments that matter most to them
So how effective is small business SEO?
Before investing in a small business search engine optimization strategy, a business owner must make sure that it works right? Well, luckily there are tons of statistics out there that prove just how effective small business SEO is.
97% of people learn more about a local company via the internet than any other marketing avenue.
Listen, we get it. Word-of-mouth is king, but there are other ways to grow your business! Meeting your customers in the moments that matter most to them, such as search results can help generate new clients or customers to your website!
49% The top-ranking page on search engines gets the most amount of search traffic which is almost half of all searches!
When it comes to SEO it pays to be a winner. If your business is the 1st organic search result that appears, you will direct 49% of all search traffic to your website! So for instance, if there are 1000 searches a month for financial advisors near me, you can generate almost 500 new clicks a month to your website!
76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day
You don’t just need to have an online store to succeed with SEO. If you rely more on foot traffic, local SEO is where you need to succeed. 76% of people who search from their smartphone or mobile device will visit a store within a day or two.
Think about all that foot traffic that can come through your door! Taking that one step further according to Think With Google 54% of smartphone users search for business hours and 53% of people search for directions to a local store. So it is time to get that local SEO strategy in gear!
SO one of the best things you can do when it comes time to SEO services is invest in your free Google My Business Profile. A Google My Business Profile is a profile that each business owner can claim and verify and contains important information such as your company’s website name address and phone number. For local businesses that are relying on foot traffic, it is imperative that this information be filled out correctly so that people can find your product or service.
But it is not just your Google My Business Profile that you should be concerned about. It is your other Business Listings too. For any local business, you need to make sure that all of your business listings are claimed online and that they contain the correct website name address and phone number.
So how do you get started with small business SEO?
As humans, we have a tendency to shy away from things we don’t understand. And small business SEO is something that a majority of us shy away from.
But it doesn’t have to be! This is the internet! You can learn so many great things including how to optimize your website for search engines.
Listen if the typical internet user will use Google Search 4 times a day, and there are roughly 1.7 billion internet users per day, that means there is close to 7 billion searches per day! So its really time to invest in small business SEO.
If you are a business owner that is a complete beginner to search engine optimization there are a ton of online resources to help you get started. Below are some of our favorites!
But keep in mind that Google has over 200 ranking factors that you have to consider for every piece of content you build. So if you don’t have the time to do small business SEO effectively, it’s important that you hire someone who can do it right the first time, and every time!
So how do you find the right small business SEO strategy?
Regardless of whether you are doing it yourself or are hiring a small business SEO agency to manage your website’s growth, its vital that you understand the difference between good SEO and bad SEO.
Why does it matter?
While you can post just about anything online, that does not necessarily mean it is going to be found. Search engines like Google, Bing, and even DuckDuckGo have complete control over the quality of content that appears on their search engines and even the order in which they appear.
So how do you get a website to the first page of search results with small business SEO?
Google and other search engines use spiders to crawl through billions of pages to decide what pieces of content match best with the person searching. All within one one-hundredth of a second. So what makes it to the top?
There is an old saying that the cream always rises to the top, and that is true for search results too. Take a look at the graph below.
As you can see how search engines choose the first page of search results depends on a few things.
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The meaning of the search query
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The relevance of the website pages to the search query
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The quality of the content on the website page
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The usability and functionality of the website page
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The content and the settings
Remember just like your business, search engines are also a business. That means they make money the more people return to them. So at the end of the day they want to please their customers too. That is why they want to supply the person searching with the best search results possible.
So the role of small business SEO is to optimize website pages that coupled with the search query will be able to rank well and be something that humans will want to interact and engage with.
But why focus on Google SEO?
In this article about small business SEO we have spent a ton of time focusing on Google, and rightfully so. How come?
Because 92.47 of all internet searches are done on Google according to Statista.com. So if you are looking to fish in the biggest pond possible, Google is your best bet!
So what are some best practices when it comes to optimizing your website for Google Search Results? Well, there are 9 best practices actually.
#1 Add Your Main Keyword Early and Often to Your Content
It’s no secret that you should repeat your keyword on your page a few times. However, you may not realize that the location of your keyword matters as well. At the very least, you should mention your main keyword once at the top of your page. What is the significance of this?
The terms that appear at the top of a webpage are given more weight by Google. Keyword research is vital to this approach. If you are able to focus on finding the right keywords for your website you will have success! Some SEO Tips that are often overlooked focus on keyword selection. Long tail keywords are vital for small businesses. Business owners that can identify the right long-tail keywords for their website will see not only a dramatic increase in organic search traffic but people being able to clearly find their product or service online. These long tail keywords can be placed in a variety of places on your site including your title tags, meta description, blog posts, and general pages. This will help your website rank faster, be more relevant to potential customers, and grow your overall market share.
Some of the best resources for keyword research include the Google Keyword Planner, the Google Suggestions, and UberSuggests. At MarketKeep, we have done a ton of keyword research for every industry so pop on over to our marketing trends blog to learn more!
#2 Write Content That is Unique and Has Eye-Catching Titles and Descriptions
If you publish a page on your website, that page’s content must be completely unique. This rule is simple to follow if you have a small blog with a homepage and a few blog posts. Writing unique content for each page can be difficult if you own an eCommerce site with thousands of products.
It’s a challenge, but it’s well worth it.
If you’re having trouble coming up with content for each page, group pages with similar content together. Alternatively, you can use the canonical tag.
#3 Optimize Your Title Tag for SEO
When it comes to on-page SEO, the title tag is extremely important. “It’s important to use high-quality titles on your web pages,” Google has said. Here’s how to make the most of the title tag on your page: Front-load Your Main Keyword: “Front-load” simply means that your target keyword appears first in your title tag.
What is the significance of this?
Search engines, on the other hand, pay close attention to the terms you use in your title tag. This is why your keyword should appear in the page title.
#4 Make Sure Your Website Loads Fast
Google rarely discusses the factors that go into their algorithm’s ranking.
So you KNOW it’s a big deal when they talk a lot about a specific ranking signal such as site speed.
One of the few ranking factors is the speed with which a website loads. There are a few things you can do to speed up the loading of your website.
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Image Compression: This is a big one. The majority of a page’s size is usually taken up by images (in terms of KB). That’s why I recommend shrinking your image sizes with a tool like Kraken.io.
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Using Lightweight Themes is a good idea. WordPress themes that are too large can slow things down. So, if your theme isn’t speed-optimized, think about switching to one that is.
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Use Lazy Loading: Using lazy loading images can increase the speed of your site by up to 50%. The disadvantage is that images appear as users scroll down the page, which is not ideal for user experience. As a result, it’s a trade-off.
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Use a content delivery network (CDN): CDNs serve images and other media on your site from servers located near your users.
#5 Track Your Results With The Google Search Console
You’re flying blind with your SEO if you don’t have Google Search Console set up. The Search Console is similar to a live dashboard that displays information about your site’s performance in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). The Search Console has a lot of useful features and tools. However, you are unlikely to require the majority of them.
#6 Optimize Images for SEO
Image SEO isn’t just for Google Images rankings. According to a recent Google announcement, properly optimized images can help your pages rank higher in Google web search. So, if you’re going to use images on your page, make sure they’re SEO-friendly. Fortunately, this is a cinch. All you have to do now is remember these two image SEO best practices. Use descriptive filenames for your images: Google is unable to “see” images (yet). And one thing that helps them understand the content in your image is the filename.
#7 Maximize Internal Linking Strategies
Internal linking is one of the most straightforward SEO best practices. All you have to do is create a link from one page of your website to another. You don’t want to just add a bunch of random internal links, though. Yes, haphazard internal linking is probably preferable to none at all. However, if you want to get the most out of internal links, follow these guidelines. Use Anchor Text That Is Keyword-Rich: Your anchor text is used by Google to determine what a page is about.
#8 Publish Amazing Content
You’ve probably heard about the importance of “high-quality content” if you’ve tried to learn SEO before. It’s true: creating unique, useful content can help you rank higher in Google. If you want to rank your content today, you’ll need to up your content marketing game. Which usually entails a financial, time, and personnel investment… or all three.
#9 Generate Backlinks To Your Website
Links to your site are particularly beneficial to SEO because they represent a “vote of confidence” from one site to another. This is called backlinks.
Backlinks to your website are essentially a signal to search engines that others endorse your content. When a large number of websites link to the same webpage or website, search engines can deduce that the content is worth linking to, and thus worth surfacing on a SERP. As a result, obtaining these backlinks can improve a site’s ranking position or search visibility. So something that every small business can benefit from is generating links to your site.
So Small Business SEO Sounds Great But How Do You Measure The Success Of It?
It’s been said that if you can measure it, you can improve it.
It’s no different in SEO. To demonstrate the value of SEO, professional SEOs track everything from rankings and conversions to lost links and more. Measuring and refining the impact of your work is crucial to your SEO success, client retention, and perceived value.
By measuring your SEO on a consistent basis it can also help you to pivot when something is not working!
Beginning with the end in mind is a good way to go.
While it’s common to have multiple goals (both macro and micro), it’s critical to have a single primary end goal.
Goal-setting advice for small business SEO
Measurable: You can’t improve something if you can’t track it.
Don’t let ambiguous industry marketing jargon water down your objectives.
Share your objectives: Writing down and sharing your goals with others has been shown to increase your chances of achieving them in your studies.
Know who your client is.
Understanding your client’s website goals requires asking the right questions.
Measuring
Now that you’ve established your primary goal, consider which additional metrics might be useful in assisting your site in achieving its ultimate goal. Additional (applicable) benchmarks can assist you in keeping a better pulse on the current state of your site’s health and progress.
Metrics of engagement
How are visitors behaving once they arrive at your website? The goal of engagement metrics is to answer this question. The following are some of the most popular metrics for determining how people interact with your content:
Rate of conversion
The number of conversions divided by the number of unique visits (for a single desired action/goal). A conversion rate can be used to calculate anything from an email signup to a purchase to the creation of an account. Knowing your conversion rate can help you estimate the potential return on investment (ROI) from your website traffic.
Time spent on the page
How much time did visitors spend on your page? If a visitor spends an average of 10 seconds on a 2,000-word blog post, the chances of that content being consumed are slim (unless they’re a super-speed reader). However, a URL with a short time on page isn’t always a bad thing. Consider the page’s purpose. For example, “Contact Us” pages typically have a short average time on page.
Per-visit pages
Was your page’s goal to keep readers interested and lead them to the next step? If that’s the case, pages per visit can be a useful engagement indicator. Low pages per visit are acceptable if the goal of your page is independent of other pages on your site (for example, a visitor came, got what they needed, and then left).
Bounce rate “Bounced” sessions indicate that a searcher came to your site, looked at the page, and then left without looking around. Many people try to reduce this metric because they think it relates to website quality, but it actually tells us very little about a user’s experience. Bounce rates have risen for redesigned restaurant websites that are performing better than ever. People were simply looking for business hours, menus, or an address, then bouncing with the intention of visiting the restaurant in person, according to further investigation. Scroll depth is a better metric for determining page/site quality.
Depth of scrolling
This metric measures how far down individual webpages visitors scroll. Is your important content reaching your visitors? If not, try experimenting with different ways to get the most important content higher on the page, such as multimedia, contact forms, and so on. Take into account the quality of your content as well. Are you leaving out words that aren’t necessary? Is the visitor enticed to continue down the page? In Google Analytics, you can set up scroll depth tracking.
Goals can be set up in Google Analytics to track how well your site achieves its objectives. You can set up a goal for a form fill if that is your page’s goal. You’ll be able to see it in your reports once site visitors have completed the task.
Although search traffic ranking is an important SEO metric, you can’t stop there when evaluating your site’s organic performance. The goal of appearing in search is to be chosen as the answer to a searcher’s query. You have a problem if you’re ranking but not getting any traffic.
But how do you know how much traffic your site receives from search engines? Google Analytics is one of the most precise ways to do this.
Using Google Analytics to learn more about traffic
Google Analytics (GA) is bursting at the seams with data — so much so that if you don’t know where to look, it can be overwhelming. This isn’t an exhaustive list; rather, it’s a general overview of some of the traffic data available through this free tool.
Separate organic and paid traffic
GA allows you to see your site’s traffic by channel. This will help to alleviate any fears that may have arisen as a result of the switch to another channel (ex: total traffic dropped because a paid campaign was halted, but organic traffic remained steady).
Over time, the amount of traffic to your website has increased.
GA allows you to see total sessions, users, and pageviews for your site over a given time period, as well as compare two different time periods.
How many people have visited a specific page?
Site Content reports in GA are useful for assessing the performance of a specific page, such as the number of unique visitors it received over a given time period.
Traffic originating from a specific campaign
For better attribution, you can use UTM (urchin tracking module) codes. After you’ve decided on the source, medium, and campaign, add the codes to the end of your URLs. When people click on your UTM-code links, data from GA’s “campaigns” report begins to accumulate.
Rate of click-through (CTR)
Your CTR from search results to a specific page (the percentage of people who clicked on your page from search results) can tell you how well you’ve optimized your page title and meta description. This information can be found in Google Search Console, a free Google tool.
Furthermore, Google Tag Manager is a free tool that allows you to manage and deploy tracking pixels to your website without modifying the code. This makes tracking specific triggers or website activity much easier.
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If you are a small business owner that is looking to learn more about small business SEO and how it can help boost your visibility online, attract more leads, and grown your business please contact us today for a free SEO Evaluation.
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