SEO is often an overlooked piece when it comes to digital marketing strategies. Many people tend to focus more on front-facing efforts like social media and PR. But behind the scenes efforts like SEO are just as important.
57% of B2B marketers say that SEO generates more leads than any of their other marketing initiatives. So why aren’t more businesses putting more into their SEO strategy?
SEO is time-consuming and can take months to start seeing results. That is why we recommend implementing best practices as soon as possible and supplementing it with other digital marketing tactics along the way. Another reason why SEO tends to fall to the side is it’s not really the star of the show when it comes to your digital marketing strategy.
Think of your digital marketing strategy as a performance. You have your lead performer which many would associate with your website or social media. Next, you have your supporting roles (email marketing and content creation). But just as important and necessary to the shows success are your stage crew (SEO). You don’t typically think too much about this role because they are behind the scenes, but the show would be impossible without their help.
When diving into SEO it is important to know that although necessary it requires some patience as results will not be seen overnight like with social media. We have created an easy to use SEO checklist of items to think about and implement every time you make an update to a page or post on your website.
Should You Use an SEO Plugin?
If you have a WordPress site we recommend using a plugin like Yoast so you can easily update things like your titles, meta descriptions, slug, and overall SEO. This specific plugin uses a red-light green-light system to monitor how well your SEO and readability are performing on a specific page or post so you know if you need to make updates.
How to Write an SEO Optimized Title
Your title is typically the first thing a potential visitor will see when performing a search. So this is your chance to make a positive first impression. Your title should sum up what is in the article in the shortest amount of words possible. When creating a title name you want to include the name of the page or article and the name of the site if possible. Google typically displays the first 50–60 characters of a title tag. If you keep your titles under 60 characters, research suggests that you can expect about 90% of your titles to display properly. In the example image above you can see that the title includes the name of the blog post as well as the name of the business (Kevin Brown Design).
How to Write a Meta Description
The meta description is a snippet of up to about 155 characters (this length is changing frequently) summarizing the page’s content. Search engines show the meta description in search results mostly when the searched-for phrase is within the description, so optimizing the meta description is crucial for on-page SEO. In the example image above you will see an example of the meta description for our homepage. It is concise, outlines our services, and ends with a call to action.
Using Alt Text for Your Images
Alternative text or alt text is used within HTML code to describe the appearance and function of an image on a page. Alt-text is important for a few reasons. It helps improve the accessibility of your site if someone who is visually impaired visits your site and it helps to provide more context about the page to search engine crawlers. When writing alt text keep it as descriptive as possible so that it accurately describes the image it is representing.
Choosing Keywords For Your Site
Keywords are ideas and topics that define what your content is about. These are also the words and phrases that your audience would enter into search engines to discover your content. It is important to identify a list of keywords that work well with your overall brand and message. These keywords can be worked into the different pieces of content you develop. Be mindful of how you use keywords on a page. Using a keyword too often and out of context is considered “keyword stuffing” and Google will penalize you for this.
What is a Slug?
A slug is the part of a URL which identifies a particular page on a website in an easy to read form. In other words, it’s the part of the URL that explains the page’s content. For example, this page URL is https://kevinbrowndesign.com/your-seo-checklist but the slug is your-SEO-checklist. It is important to keep this concise and just a few words long that sum up the article.
Using Internal Links
Every website consists of internal and external links. Internal links connect pages and posts on your own website and external links connect your pages to other websites. It is important to develop an internal link strategy early on which will help search engines understand the hierarchy of different pieces of content.
Writing SEO-Optimized Content
Copy is important for helping crawlers understand what your site is about. You will want to make sure that the copy on your page is ultimately written for the reader first but optimized with keywords, links, images, etc so that Google knows exactly what your site is about! Learn more about how to optimize your copy for SEO.
Ready to start implementing SEO into your digital marketing strategy but don’t want to do it yourself? Get in touch today for a free consultation with Kevin Brown Design!