If you're looking to drive qualified local and organic search traffic to your website–and foot traffic to your store–nothing beats SEO (Search Engine Optimization.)
Understanding how to approach SEO, and which tactics work best for you, is critical to your online success. In this short, light-hearted video, you'll discover strategies and tactics for getting to page one in Google, driving search traffic to your website, and building your business!
Don't wait! Hit that play button now (or read the transcript) and you'll be on your way to the top of the search results in no time!
Transcript
VOICE OVER (RICH):
Two directors of marketing, JANE and TOM, are having their weekly pow wow at Red Thread, deep in conversation about their respective businesses. JANE works for a specialty food store with half a dozen locations while TOM heads marketing for an HR consulting firm. Let’s listen in…
JANE
I keep hearing that we need to (air quotes) “SEO our website” but I just don’t see how that’s going to help get us more foot traffic.
TOM
I’m no expert but I’ve heard that when people do a local search, they’re likely to visit a store from those search results almost immediately.
JANE
(frustrated) Still, even if SEO can help get more people in the door, I have no idea where to start.
TOM
Agreed. Lately I’ve noticed a lot of our competitors appear at the top of Google results, but I have no idea what to do to get our business to show up higher than them.
VOICE OVER:
Looks like our favorite SEO experts, JOHN and IZZY, have picked up on the conversation.
JOHN
We couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. I’m John and this is Izzy and we’re SEO experts with flyte new media.
IZZY
We have a little extra time and we’d be happy to answer any questions you have about SEO.
JANE
To be honest, I just don’t understand what SEO is, really, or why I should be doing it.
IZZY turns away from JANE and TOM towards camera. They look confused but IZZY begins speaking with no time for questions.
IZZY
Let me guess, you think SEO is all about pleasing Google’s “bots” so that you can show up on the first page of results? I don’t blame you. Our knowledge of Google’s ranking algorithm does inform a lot of search engine optimization practices, but in reality, good SEO is all about creating the best user experience.
SEO done right starts by understanding who your audience is and what their questions and needs are. Then comes of the work of optimizing your website to best provide the solutions to those needs in the format that your customers are looking for. This in turn will help Google understand your website’s purpose and value. By establishing your site as a source of helpful, industry-specific content, you’ll improve your keyword ranking and increase your search visibility.
JANE
(nodding) That makes a lot of sense. So, the better we are at fulfilling our customers’ needs the more likely Google is to choose our website as a top result?
IZZY
Exactly! What else you got?
TOM
(excited) Well, I was just saying that it seems like a lot of my competitors are showing up on Google, but my company isn’t. What are they doing that I’m not?
JOHN
I’ll take this one. Anyone can perform competitive analysis by diving into the search engine results pages, or SERPs. Let’s go.
The shot widens and a screen appears to the right, displaying a web browser with Google open. JANE and TOM make sounds of surprise, but JOHN continues uninterrupted.
JOHN
What does your business do, Tom?
TOM
HR consulting.
As if by magic, typing begins in the search bar. “HR consulting” is entered and results appear. Insert Screen 1.
JOHN
Let’s inspect the results. First, we want to determine what type of content is the user who typed this in looking for? We see a lot of results for individual HR consulting companies. This lets us know that the intent for this keyword is to find businesses in this industry.
Next, we want to evaluate the format of those results. While most of the results are the standard organic result, there are also ads and a local map pack. Now you know that individual webpages, Google ads, and Google Business Profiles are the most common formats for results of this keyword.
Finally, we dive into the quality of these results. Examine the title tags and meta descriptions. What information do they provide and how do they motivate users to click? You should visit some of the results to understand the quality of the content on the actual webpage. Do they have information that your website doesn’t?
Synthesize this information to build a clear picture of Google’s “perfect” result for this term. Perhaps you need more descriptive and convincing page titles, or better on-page copy.
Screen 1 ends.
JANE
Okay but aside from searching our type of business, are there other searches we can rank for?
IZZY
Sounds like you’re ready to perform keyword research! There are a lot of online tools you can use to get started like Answer the Public, Moz, Ahrefs, and more.
As she lists them, each appears briefly on the screen. Insert screen 2.
But tool or no tool, keyword research comes back to understanding your audience and putting yourself in their shoes. What questions might they be asking, or what specific services and products are they looking for? What’s one of your most popular products, Jane?
JANE
People love our selection of locally made cheese.
IZZY
Perfect! Let’s start a keyword list for a page on your website all about your cheese selection. We can use “Maine cheese” as our seed keyword. You can type this into a tool to start getting ideas for keywords.
Maine cheese is entered into Answer the Public and the screen scrolls through results.
IZZY
Use your common sense and knowledge of the topic to write down ideas as you go like “maine cheese makers, cheese from maine, maine cheese curds,” etc. Don’t worry much about search volume at this point, we’re just building a topic cloud. Take a few of those ideas and type them into Google to evaluate the SERPs like John showed before. SERPs will also often contain these “People Also Ask” sections where you can find even more keyword ideas.
We could do this for hours—in fact we do as part of our work—but the idea is to eventually narrow down to a list of 5-10 target keywords that you can optimize a single page for.
End screen 2.
TOM
I think I get the idea. Once you have the keywords, what do you do with them?
JOHN
It’s time to start making optimizations. There are a lot of ways you can improve your rank on target keywords, but we’ll show you 3 actionable ways you can optimize.
He points at the screen as he goes through each example. Insert screen 3.
Number one is your title tag. This is first piece of any webpage that Google reads so adding a target keyword here can be super beneficial. In addition to keyword placement, your title tag should be unique, informative, and convincing to the user… and don’t forget it needs to be under 65 characters.
Next is the meta description. While Google doesn’t use meta descriptions to rank, they are a big part of the user’s first impression of your business. Use this space to set their expectations for the informative content they will find if they click your result. These should also be unique and stay under 165 characters.
On the page itself, you should focus on headers. These are what break your content into subtopics, like chapters in a book. They are the first bit of on-page copy that Google reads. Optimize or add new headers ranging from H2 to H4 that use your target keywords and provide a clear structure to the page.
End screen 3. By now, JANE and TOM are taking furious notes and a few people have gathered nearby to listen in. JOHN and IZZY exchange another glance.
JOHN
Should we keep going?
TOM
I have another question! Whenever I go online to learn about SEO, it feels like everyone tells me I need to blog. Is that true?
IZZY
As SEOs often say, “it depends!” Consider whether a blog will actually be helpful to your audience.
JANE
What about video content? Everyone is making videos all the time now.
JOHN
(winking) It depends! While video is a big trend in content marketing right now, decide if video content will improve your customer’s experience or help engage them more, then yes! In which case, performing video SEO can help you gain even more visibility, but we’ll talk about that in another video.
TOM
(confused) Another video?
JANE
Hold on, I’m still confused about how all of this impacts my foot traffic. I have 6 different locations that customers can visit! Do they all target the same keywords?
JOHN
Local SEO is a subset of search engine optimization with a few additional best practices. Let’s start by talking about your Google Business Profile.
The screen reappears with an example of a GBP. JOHN shows examples of how businesses can appear in the local map paks or as a side panel with business info. Insert screen 4.
JOHN
Think of your Google Business Profile like an extension of your website directly on Google. You can list services or products, have buttons to place an order, make posts announcing sales, and lots more. Treat it with care and use the space available to provide potential customers with useful information about your business.
IZZY
On the flipside, you can also optimize your website for local keywords by creating location pages. For example, Jane, your website could have a page dedicated to your downtown Portland location where you talk about that specific store, its hours, unique offerings, staff, and more.
JOHN
Don’t forget that reviews are really important!
TOM
Our CEO doesn’t want us asking for reviews because she’s afraid of customers leaving terrible ones. She doesn’t want to risk our reputation.
JOHN
That’s true, there’s always risk involved in allowing people to share their opinions about your business publicly. But Google has always messaged that what other people say about you is more important than what you say about yourself. You can focus your review generation strategy on reaching out to customers that you know have had a good experience with you and provide some gentle direction on what to write about.
You can also use any bad reviews to your advantage by responding to the review and addressing their concerns or questions. Even if this doesn’t change their mind about you, it will prove to other potential customers that you truly care about their experience and are willing to problem solve to help meet their needs.
JANE’s phone starts buzzing incessantly. Screen 4 flickers off.
JANE
Oh shoot! I have meeting with our marketing team in ten minutes, I gotta run.
TOM
I should get going too. I definitely have a better grasp on SEO and what my business needs to do to succeed, but admittedly I’m still trying to wrap my brain around how I’m going to get it all done with so little time on my hands.
JANE
Ugh, me too, I’m behind as it is.
JOHN and IZZY both smile and turn away from the DOMs one last time.
JOHN
We get it, basically every marketer struggles with finding time to meet all their objectives, and often SEO can fall to the bottom of the list. If it sounds like SEO could help drive more qualified traffic to your business—
IZZY
(interjecting) Which it can!
JOHN
–but you don’t have room in your busy schedule to do it all, there are experts like us that are ready to help! Click the link in the top right corner to get in touch with our team.
JANE
Link? Top right corner?
JOHN
(laughing) Here’s a business card!
Scene fades and flyte’s business info appears on the closing screen.
VOICE OVER
If you're looking to improve your search engine visibility and drive more qualified traffic to your website, the flyte new media crew can help. Since 1997 we've been helping businesses just like yours succeed online, with custom designed websites, social media strategies, online ad campaigns and of course, search engine optimization.
If you're wondering how you can rank higher and generate more qualified search traffic, talk to us today!