We get the same call at least once a month. A new business owner (let’s say has been in business 6 months) decides it’s time to launch a website. They want to start advertising their business. We explain that merely launching a website is not going to automatically create organic leads for the business. A website is important for sure – you need a platform online that represents your business, but it will take local SEO efforts for your website to be found among the 1st page of Google. If you think you have what it takes to optimize and rank your website on your own; here are some helpful tips on what you should procure and it should not take up too much of your time.
- WORDPRESS WEBSITE AND SEO YOAST
A website built on WORDPRESS is going to be easier for the average person to optimize . The SEO YOAST plugin for WORDPRESS will provide a checklist on every page and will guide you through injecting meta descriptions, key word focus and readability.
- KEY WORD RESEARCH
We use SEMRUSH software to perform all our key word research and competitor analysis. If you are not interested in paying the monthly fee for SEO software, Google Key Word Manager will help you get monthly volume data on key words that relate to your business. It’s important to know what terms are searched within your geo target.
- START WITH LONG TAIL KEY TERMS
After you have a list of key terms you want your website to rank for, it’s best to start with the long tail key terms which in most cases are less competitive. Once you rank for several of the long tail key terms it will be easier to increase ranking for the more competitive and ultimately higher searched terms.
Example:
Key Term: “Ottawa Waste Removal”
Long Tail Key Term: “Affordable Ottawa Waste Removal Services”
- DEDICATED SERVICE PAGES
Create a dedicated interior web page for every service or product. You can have a central page that showcases all services but it’s important to have individual service/product pages with a one topic focus.
- STANDARD PAGE OPTIMIZATION
Make sure that the key word focus is identified in the following aspects of each website page:
- Page URL
- Page Description
- H1 and H2 Headers
- General content (500+ word count)
- Image name and ALT description
INBOUND and OUTBOUND LINKS
In order to increase trust by Google it’s important to have outbound links to trusted related websites. It is also important to create inbound links within your website to direct users to other related content within your website.
- ANCHOR TEXT
Ensure that all links, buttons and labels contain key term content.
- GOOGLE MY BUSINESS LISTING
Creating a Google My Business Listing is easy and free. This is crucial to being searched locally. Once verified it will immediately increase your local visibility.
If DIY is not for you then contact WEBSHARK to help you with your SEO in Ottawa. Contact us at [email protected] anytime!