If you are trying to strengthen your online presence, it is important for you to think about search engine optimization. Usually referred to as SEO, this is the practice of developing an online presence that is friendly to search engines.
When search engine robots are crawling the internet looking for relevant results, you want to make sure that your website ranks highly for relevant terms and phrases. To make this happen, you need to understand what search robots are looking for. Web crawlers care about:
- Classifying the data by various categories and industries
- The quality of the content they are pulling up
- The overall credibility or “domain authority” of the website
If you are able to develop a strong online presence with these key points in mind, there is a good chance that you are going to be able to improve your search engine rankings. What are the most important components of search engine optimization?
Comparing On-Page, Off-Page, and Technical SEO
There are a lot of factors that play a role in developing a strong SEO campaign. In general, these factors can be divided into three separate categories. They include:
- On-Page SEO: On-page SEO involves the content that is on your site. For example, if you have blog posts, videos, and images on your website, you need to optimize it for relevant keywords. Furthermore, that is also a good idea for you to focus on the experience of your users. The better your user experiences, the better your SEO is going to perform.
- Off-Page SEO: Off-page SEO focuses on inbound links from other websites that feedback to your site. Quantity and quality are both going to play a role when it comes to the strength of your inbound links. The more links you have pointing back to your website, the better your off-page SEO is going to be. On the other hand, individual lengths that come from authoritative websites are going to be worth more than your typical link.
- Technical SEO: Technical SEO is an aspect of search engine optimization that is focused on how well web crawlers are able to navigate your website. The easier it is for search engine robots to index your content, the better your SEO performance will be.
This is just one way that you can divide the various components of search engine optimization. If you want to develop a strong digital marketing campaign, you need to think about these aspects when you are orchestrating your SEO.
What Is Local SEO?
As search engine optimization continues to grow, there are niche areas that are starting to develop. This is where local SEO services can be found. If you run a small business and would like to be able to compete with large corporations, it is going to be a challenge to do on the national stage. The good news is that you are able to compete with these larger corporations in your own backyard.
Local search engine optimization refers to the practice of developing your website to meet the needs of local users. If someone performs a local search, search engines are going to track their IP address and pull up search results that are close to their geographic location. Some of the triggers that someone is performing a local search include:
- Searches with zip codes
- Searches with city or town names
- Searches that include the free “near me”
If you want to increase not only online traffic but also physical traffic, you need to think about local search engine optimization. In order to improve your local SEO rankings, you should:
- Make sure that your name, address, and phone number (NAP) information are consistent on all online directories
- Completely fill out your Google My Business profile so that Google has an easier time finding you
- If you have multiple locations that you served, make sure that each individual location has its own page on your website with its own address, phone number, and business hours
If you put in the work to improve your local search engine optimization, your rankings will improve. That way, you will be able to compete against large corporations in your individual location.