Excellent organic SEO is the Holy Grail of online marketing for businesses around the world. The top performing companies online understand this and spend millions of dollars optimizing every page, post, tweet, video, and back link to ensure they maintain their competitive advantage. The question is, how do you establish your business online and gain the competitive edge it takes to dominate your market?
Search engine knowledge is the first key to organic SEO success. Our friends at Google occasionally change or update their algorithm which affects the ranking of websites worldwide. Keeping up to date on changes within Google, Yahoo, Bing and others as well as taking the necessary steps to develop an organic SEO strategy and implement all the tactics can become a monumental task. Most businesses don't have the knowledge, time, or man power to see organic SEO success and choose to hire an SEO professional to drive results.
That being said, here's a few organic SEO strategies you should implement immediately.
1. Integrate a blog into your website - a blog that you update regularly with relevant content can be a tremendous help in improving your search results, engaging your target market, and establishing your company as a resource and authority in your industry. Don't think you have to post a certain number of times a week, just be consistent and provide content that is relevant and valuable to your audience. I always recommend having a couple subscription options to your blog including Feedburner and an email option. Google owns Feedburner so utilizing their RSS service is a good idea.
Tip: integrate keywords into your blog title and body. Keywords in titles are worth more to Google than those in the body. Don't forget to use keywords in post tags and categories as well.
2. Have a strong, and active, social media presence - Google loves Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc and if you don't have an active account with each you need to get one. Signing up is quick and simple and there are even ways to connect accounts, including your blog, so you don't have to update each account separately. The key here is listening to your target audience so you know what they want and what they think of you. Twitter Search in particular is the perfect "fly on the wall" opportunity. Facebook and LinkedIn are both opt-in systems so if used properly they can become your most targeted audience. Since Google's acquisition of YouTube video has become more important to organic SEO. The same rules apply here, provide value and an opportunity for engagement. The most viewed videos tend to offer a side of entertainment as well, so don't be afraid to show your sense of humor. When updating your networks always be thinking value and engagement. Don't post just to post, be purposeful.
Tip: For social media management I recommend HootSuite and definitely check out Social Report for excellent social media monitoring and analytics.
3. Develop Back Links - Remember, links back to your site on other high-ranking sites will improve your page rank. this marketing strategy in a number of ways - here's a few. (1) Publish an interesting, relevant, and regularly active blog and make sure people know about it. The more people that link to it the better so be sure to share it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Groups, etc. (2) Find article directories, preferably ones your target market visits frequently, and submit your articles to be published and shared with the sites audience. I publish my articles on SocialMediaToday.com and other sites and have gained a considerable audience because of it. It can work for you too. (3) Read other peoples blogs and articles and post comments. Most systems will ask for your web address so this is a great opportunity to share your wisdom, and link, with other audiences. Who knows, if they like what you have to say they might become your audience.
Tactical Marketing Labs understands the need for collaborative and smart organic SEO that will interact efficiently with your social media goals. We have worked with our clients and developed a package that we know delivers what small businesses need: Organic search results, social media activity, a large audience and targeted traffic. Click here to check it out.
Share your secret tactics and insights below.
Yours in Service,
@BrettRelander