By definition, SEO is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website that you have earned through organic web searches on Google, Bing and Yahoo. And, it is something to which your business should be paying attention. More traffic results in more consumers coming to your business, meaning more of your products or services being sold.
Research shows that 86% of people searching on the web trust organic SEO listings more than sponsored/paid listings and 85% of clicks result from an organic search rather than from paid ads. These numbers are important to keep in mind when strategizing how to market your business or practice.
To get your business more organic traffic, we have laid out 13 key things you can do for SEO… on your own:
- Mention keywords where they matter most. (In the site title, domain name, description, tagline, keywords, blog categories, page titles and page content.)
- Link to internal pages on your site.
- Use page URL structure that includes keywords. i.e., https://www.centralohioperiodontics.com/patients/patient-forms/
- Remove anything that slows down your site. (Page load times are key for rankings. Remove music players, large images, flash graphics, videos, unnecessary plugins)
- Name your images and use keywords in the names.
- Update your website frequently with new content.
- Add a blog to your website and write in your blog weekly.
- Write content like a real person thinks (example: hygiene vs. cleanings).
- Make sure your website is indexed by search engines. Submit your website to Google.
- Utilize Local Business Listings/Local SEO to accurately submit your website to online directories.
- Link to other websites with relevant content. (i.e., ADA, ODA, etc.)
- Have other websites link to your website.
- Keep your domain name.
The age of your URL is a key factor for site search and rank. Change it only when you are changing your practice name, etc.