Search Engine Optimization — or, what the cool kids call “SEO.” It takes time to understand the entirety of what SEO is and the impact it can have on your brand’s visibility and credibility — but, in short, SEO is the process of improving your site’s organic traffic and ranking on search engines (think Google, Bing and YouTube).

The analogy we always use? SEO strategies are tactics you leverage on your website to make sure search engines “throw your site in the hat” when someone searches (or Googles) something related to your brand, your offers, or your product.

A chief way to do this is crafting high-quality content to live on your website. What’s high-quality content?

Aside from being helpful — it’s typically formulated with keywords and key phrases, featured images, meta titles, meta descriptions and links to both internal and external pages.

Overwhelmed? We get it. And we’re just scratching the surface here. (Check out SEM Rush’s page for a more in-depth look at SEO.) While it can be a lot to take in, it’s certainly worth some immediate attention before you consider yourself an “SEO Pro.”

Here are 3 SEO tips you can start using TODAY.

1. Understand the language your target audience wants to read. 

This tip aligns with the “search” aspect of SEO. It’s so important to have a thorough understanding of who your core audience is and what exactly they want to read. Not what you think they should read.

So, what should you do to get to this point? Listen. Listen to your audience. Whether that be on social media, in-person or other websites. Take the time to listen to their interests, concerns and most importantly, how they talk about your topic or service. 

Once you have a better grasp of what your target audience is looking for, you can plan content truly inspired by your audience and for your audience. This also allows you to better select keywords and keyphrases to naturally incorporate into your content, boosting the chances of your piece ranking high on their search results.

2. Explore the possibilities of different search engines. 

The next tip is focused on, yep, you guessed it, search engines! Like we mentioned before, there are many search engines out there. And while Google is #1, it doesn’t mean you should disregard the potential of other engines directing readers to your site.

Take YouTube, for instance. If you don’t have any content on YouTube belonging to your brand that covers your area of expertise, it’s time to publish it. It doesn’t have to be complex. All you have to do is take an existing piece of content from your site, and translate it into video form. This can be done with or without a video or voice recording of you explaining the topic.

If you feel less comfortable with the idea of posting a recording of yourself on YouTube, you can easily make slides with your existing content that’s simple and straightforward, place some background music and even add your logo –– that’s it! The core thing to implement on YouTube after the video is complete, is to write a title and tags that accurately reflect the content and align with what your core audience is searching for. For more information on optimizing YouTube videos for SEO, check out this article.

Case and point? Don’t have tunnel vision when it comes to search engines. Take the time to understand the top 3-5 search engines (think Google, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.), the demographics of who uses them and how you can optimize content to rank highly.

3. Spruce up your website to be search-friendly. 

This is critical. Enhancing your website to ensure it’s user-friendly will help optimize your content. This can look like:

• Making your site mobile-friendly and pay serious attention to your site’s load speed.
• Including meta titles and meta descriptions on all pages. These are HTML elements that describe the content on your site page
• Ensure your site is secure and loading quickly
• Regularly publish relevant and authoritative content
• Hyperlink to other relevant content pieces that live on your site. 

Using these tactics to build a robust site structure and provide clear navigation helps search engines comb through your site quickly and easily –– which is the goal! When users land on your site, you want them to have a seamless experience and gain valuable information. This means having cohesive content, imagery, user experience and user interface. Plus –– search engines DEFINITELY pay attention to how users respond to your site, how often they visit it and how long they stay on the site. So, having a top-tier site experience is key. 

These 3 SEO tips you can start using today are a sure-fire way to take your SEO to the next level and turn your website into your number one selling tool.

Looking for a partner who can turn this pipe dream into a reality? Connect with us today!