Hello all! Today, you are getting a Word Alchemy LLC post that happens to be on Mark's page. I haven't done one of these yet, but it's always beneficial to have others post on your page and vice versa.
If you'd like to have a guest post on either of our pages and you have something that fits into our brands, please feel free to reach out to either of us! We'd be happy to work something out.
Warrior Gear: A Guide to Boosting SEO
Frustrated by figuring out SEO? Us too
You'll probably remember we left off last week on a hopeful but quite dreary spot. Mark's site hasn't marketed the way we hoped in organic Google searches. As a master's student studying things like SEO, you would think Mark would appear in searches everywhere! This week, we did quite a bit of marketing SEO strategy, so I thought I would write a guide while it was fresh in my mind.
If you are a small business owner, I dedicate this one to you!
To be clear, Mark hired me for my written abilities shortly after graduating with an English degree. I also have extensive experience in website building. Adding SEO to my business is relatively new, and I'm learning more every day.
Looking for freelance writing and design? My website is here.
Warrior Gear: Boosting Basics
There's a good chance you've heard someone, somewhere, water down SEO as choosing keywords and then using them a lot in everything you post. If you apply SEO using this generic guideline, you will be disappointed with your results. For once, having the biggest budget isn't going to guarantee the most sales. Small businesses don't need a deep pocket to show up with major retailers.
Many retailers still need to improve their SEO because they are complacent about their current sales strategy.
Take advantage of this!
Steps to finding the perfect keywords
1—Know exactly what you are selling. SEO isn't a time to be a jack-of-all-trades in your business, even if you do have a large variety. You don't want to make finding your business in a search engine difficult. For our example, Mark would have to choose between an inspirational blog and selling merchandise. His business does both, and they fit together just fine. However, this splits the target audience. (Different posts can have different keywords, but for the overall site, try not to go over ten). For this article, we will research keywords for selling merchandise.
2 - Pick a seed word to experiment with on Google. I am going to type in selling merchandise. The goal here is to figure out how potential customers are searching for the items you sell. You can pick keywords all day long for how you see your items, but if customers looking for that item don't use it in their search, it does you no good.
Are you starting to see why keywords don't adequately explain how to use effective SEO?
3 - Type your seed word into Google and hit search. Look at what pulls up to see how other companies that are showing up near the top use SEO in their headings. You might see a way to tweak your wording to help your own business show up.
4—Scroll to the bottom of the page and see similar searches to your own. When I look at what other companies use to sell Warrior merchandise, I immediately see apparel and gear in almost every result. These words appear with the top Google hits, as well as alternative search phrases for this type of product at the bottom.
5-Pick new keywords to use in place of your seed word. Mark sells more than apparel, so I will choose "Warrior Gear" as my new keyword phrase. It can still be beneficial to use the term apparel in posts, but I want to have one main word for titles and headings on the different pages across The Warrior's Will website. You may go through this step as many times as you need until you feel like you've found the best keywords for your company.
Warrior Gear SEO: Next Steps
Writing your posts with keywords
When you write the different pages on your website, it is crucial to use your keyword(s) as much as possible without sounding robotic. This is also true for titles and headings. These are the primary attachments to your site and potential customers searching for it. It's also important to put the SEO words as close to the beginning as possible because Google ranks in order of importance with words in their positioning within their titles. Choosing other catchy words to write in bold is also a great way to capture the attention of others and help you stand out.
Visually appealing pages/posts/pictures
Customers are more likely to click on links with pictures, especially if they want to buy what they see. The image needs to be clear and in good lighting. Relevant visuals throughout your website pages are also helpful. Break up posts often with new headings. Don't just change the font size. Make sure you actually click on the heading buttons, or it will not register effectively with Google.
Always use alternative text for images. It's good for SEO, but most importantly, it makes your site friendly for visually impaired visitors.
Warrior Gear SEO: Conclusion
This guide is a 101-level introduction to the world of SEO. If you would like to learn even more, I highly recommend sites like Semrush! You don't have to pay for their services to watch their YouTube videos or read their articles.
You can always hire others for help, but if you desire to learn yourself, I encourage you to seek out free resources and save your company a bit of money! It is time-consuming, so don't feel bad if you'd rather let a pro do it. You got this. You know where your time is best spent and where you could use the support. Trust yourself!
Tiff
