05 Intro to SEO

Remember, digital marketing is so much more than just social media. To leverage digital marketing we want to mix and match tactics to reach our objective in the most efficient way possible.

To do that, we need to understand each digital tool at least enough to know when to use it.

Let’s talk about SEO or Search Engine Optimization

This is literally exactly what it sounds like – SEO is all about making your content look “good” to Google and other search engines. Make it clear, make it organized, make it high-quality and you’ll be rewarded with more traffic from searches. It sounds simple, and in many ways it is once you get the gist of it.

Why this is relevant to you?

For most of our clients we like to see about 60% of their website traffic come from organic search – basically Google. People searching for your products or services are likely ready to buy – they don’t take a lot of convincing. So it can be high value traffic.

SEO takes a long time to get moving. We consider SEO very much foundational to your digital marketing because it touches everything you do.

But the key takeaway here is that if you get just a little training you’ll use the techniques everywhere and you’ll start to see more and more traffic from Google. It’s slow and steady…but boy is it magical when it starts to click.

When we talk about foundational or technical SEO, we look at 6 core elements. This week I want you to just learn what they are so when you’re coding up your next web page or blog post you’ll think “oh yeah, that’s what Michelle was talking about”.

1. Site structure refers to the way your urls are setup. Much like a filing cabinet, a proper structure makes it easy for people, and search engines, to find what they need.
2. Meta titles are the larger text snippets that show up in a search on Google for example. You have some control of this! Make it count!
3. Descriptions are the smaller text snippets that show in a search. They are written to entice readers to click to read more. Be specific and include a call to action!
4. Headings are on your web page itself – most of the time your H1 (or heading 1) is what you named your page. Headings usually range from H1 through H6. If someone were to scan your page, would the get the gist of it from reading just the headings? If not, try to be more specific.
5. Images can help you! Name them thoughtfully and keep the file size small – ideally less than 150k to keep your website fast.
6. Make sure there is a lot of valuable content on each page of your site. This helps search engines understand your site and provides value to your human readers. This benefit goes well beyond SEO.