A closer look at the top inbound marketing skills companies need to succeed when it comes to SEO strategies.
Unlike outbound marketing, a.k.a. the old way of doing things, inbound marketing focuses on the fact that most customers today are actively looking for the product or service that’s right for them. The primary tool they use? Online search engines. For businesses to be able to connect with their target market, it’s essential that search engines list your service or product when a customer goes searching for it online; search engine optimization (SEO) is the science of making your company more visible to search engines. Here’s a closer look at the top five proven strategies for true SEO success.
1. Content Is King
The phrase “content is king” has been adopted to explain the thought process behind the latest updates in search engine algorithms. Google constantly releases a more content-focused method of determining the most relevant and useful sites to present to users. That is, their updates focus on weeding out “content mills” and instead moving truly relevant sites up higher in the rankings.
So how can you ensure that Google and other search engines recognize your content as relevant and high-quality? There are a number of strategies you can incorporate:
Get a blog. Blogging establishes your reputation as an industry thought leader and recognized voice in your field. Blogs also give companies a more human side that customers connect better with than an impersonal corporate image.
Include multimedia. Blog posts and other site content should be media-rich to add interest. This can mean including regular videos, photos or infographics along with your normal blog posts or in other areas of your site.
Focus on reader benefits. Although SEO is the end result of high-quality content, the primary goal needs to be on bringing value to your readers. By focusing on giving site visitors a positive, engaging experience, search engines become more likely to recognize your as a relevant resource.
2. Website Ease of Use
A newer topic of discussion in SEO is how website usability affects search engine rankings. In addition to providing high-quality content on your site, it’s important that your site itself maintain a focus on readability and easy-to-use navigation tools. You should also make any necessary adjustments at the back end to ensure fast page-loading times and other tweaks that will lead to an overall improvement in the user experience.
3. Learn Effective Keyword Use
In the early days of SEO, “keyword stuffing” was a common practice followed by shadier sites to artificially boost their rankings. Recognizing this as a problem, Google closed that loophole, and instead penalized those sites that showed far too many keywords to reflect organic use. Although keywords are still an important part of SEO ranking, they’re only beneficial when used correctly.
It’s worth taking the time to learn more about including keywords in domain times, title tags and subheadings, as well as learning about the fine line between sufficient density and overboard. Google analytics and other website tools can help you learn more about organic keyword use and which words or phrases will work best for your target market.
4. Use Social Media
Social media is critical for SEO. Using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are integral to any effective SEO strategy. Both you and your customers can easily share your engaging content with additional users across the web, making your site much more visible to others. To this end, you need A) engaging content that readers want to share and B) an easy way for them to share it.
5. Trust the Experts
Finally, it’s important to recognize that inbound marketing is a learned skill, and there are experts out there who can help you hone your SEO strategies for the biggest impact. Bringing in an outside team can ensure that you’re producing consistently high-quality content, using all the right elements in your web design, and even increase your lead conversion.
Seeing SEO Success
When it comes to inbound marketing, companies really live or die by search engine ranking. As HubSpot reports, more than half of Internet users around the world look up products and services online. Of the search engine results that do come up, the majority of users click one of the first three links, and three-fourths of users never bother scrolling to the second page. It’s easy to see from this data just how important SEO strategies are to your future success; incorporating the five elements listed above can help you achieve just that.
