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The Basics of SEO

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Keyword Research: The Basic Steps to Take

Prior to building an effective content strategy, one of the first things you must tackle is keyword research. With the continuous evolution of search engines, it’s crucial to consider the approach to keyword research differently than in the past to ensure a solid content strategy now and going forward. Here are the basic steps to take when developing keyword research to set your content strategy up for success. 


Related Post: The Importance of Local SEO and Why You Should be Investing There ➢


Think About Your Buyer Personas 

Before you dive into your computer to do a little research, you should always begin with finalizing your buyer personas. Who is visiting your site? Where are your leads coming from? These are questions you need to ask yourself to specify their goals, needs, challenges, etc. Putting yourself in their shoes is a great way to get a better understanding of what they’re searching for and answer any questions you may have. Keep in mind, you can have as many buyer personas as you’d like, just don’t overdo it.

Do Research  

Once you have built out your buyer personas, start researching other top-ranking blogs within your industry. This will give you a better idea of what other businesses and competitors are talking about, which will help you produce a few topic ideas, ultimately providing you with a good bucket of keywords to use going forward.  


Related Post: 4 Tips to Optimize Your Business for Local SEO ➢


Don’t Shy Away from Keyword Tools 

If you’re feeling stuck and are having trouble brainstorming more keywords, I highly recommend using a keyword generation tool. There are several tools out there to give your keyword pool a boost. I find Google’s Keyword Planner tool to be the most effective and user-friendly. Inside, you can view the search volumes of your keywords to narrow down the terms most applicable and worth your time.  

To get a better look at what keywords are attracting visitors to your site, use Google Analytics. By being able to see specific queries individuals are using to get to your site, you can efficiently plan the content you create.  

Take Some Time to Analyze 

Finally, spend time going through your keywords to decide what terms you have the opportunity to rank for. The more you build-up the Domain Authority for certain terms, the higher the likeliness you will rank for competitor terms. Only a select number of your keywords are likely to rank if domain authority is closer to 100, so the more keywords you have the better.  

As you can see, keyword research is a necessary part of building an effective content marketing strategy. Content is what helps your business grow, therefore the more time and effort you throw into keyword research the better.   

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4 Tips to Optimize Your Business for Local SEO

Local SEO uses a variety of strategies — getting your site ranked on search engines like Google, business directories such as Yelp, Foursquare, Yellowbook, Google My Business listing, Bing Places for Business page, localized content on your website, online reviews and other strategies.

Below you’ll learn 4 of the most important strategies to improve your local SEO presence.


Related Post: The Importance of Local SEO and Why You Should be Investing There ➢


1. Optimize your Website’s ‘Localization’ Information

This means you should be including your address, city, county or region name naturally throughout your site (with schema markup). For businesses with several locations, this may involve creating individual pages for each location and optimizing those pages with location-specific content and keywords about your various services or offerings.

2. Claim your Google My Business Page

This should be the first online directory you take ownership of and is a first step towards helping your business display on important Google services (i.e. Maps and Google+).  Only 44% of businesses have claimed their Google My Business listing, which means by starting/investing in local SEO already puts you ahead of your competition.

3. Create/Claim your Business on Trusted Online Directories

Reliable and trustworthy online directories also play a big role in the impact of your local SEO efforts.  By creating/ claiming your business listing in these types of directories you accomplish a number of things including showing Google that your business services and information are present and consistent across the web, and you open your business up to being seen by more potential customers utilizing those online directories. Examples of these trustworthy directories include Yellowbook, Best of the Web, Yelp, Foursquare, etc.

Note: it’s important that your citations (address, phone number, website, etc.) are consistent across the various online directories. If there are any discrepancies Google will most likely avoid listing your business in the local 3-pack.

4. Get Reviews and Ratings

Reviews are critical for two main reasons, they:

1.) Portray the quality of your service

2.) Send signals to search engines telling that your site and services are trusted (yes, they are a ranking factor Google utilizes)

88% of local consumers trust online business reviews.  The number of reviews you receive, the overall quality of the reviews and the authority of the review sites themselves are all important factors for local search rankings.


Related Post: How Long Does it Take for SEO to Produce Results? ➢


Why Use Parqa Marketing

Local SEO companies help you to position your business on search engines and other digital marketing platforms/directories so you’re seen by potential customers — on their terms.

Parqa is a Digital Marketing Agency that specializes in SEO, SEM, Local Search Optimization, Marketing Automation, Social Media and content creation. We help grow your brand and drive leads through a variety of inbound marketing tactics.  See how our experts can help your business grow through search engine optimization.

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What is SEO? – Beyond the Keywords

More times that I can count, I hear people say things like “I don’t need SEO services because my site already has keywords included.” What I love to do is help people learn and understand that SEO isn’t just about the keywords on the page, but about the overall experience search engine crawlers have on the site and, in turn, how consumers see and interact with the site.


Related Post: How Long Does it Take for SEO to Produce Results? ➢


 

It’s true. SEO used to be about things like keyword stuffing, link farms, etc. We all remember the black-hat days of SEO, where a few timely keywords could shoot a page up the rankings. Luckily, today’s search environment is much more sophisticated.

As search engines have evolved and become more knowledgeable on how consumers search as well as what consumers want to see. SEO has become much more about finding the relevant content for the consumer based on the intent of their search, and much less about sleezy tactics that once dominated the industry.

What does that mean for my business?

It means you have more opportunity!


Related Post: 6 Signs You Need a Content Marketing Strategy ➢


 

Search engines are evaluating your web pages with a much broader scoring rubric. Think about it like the SAT. If your SEO strategy is focused exclusively on keywords, it would be like only studying for the math portion of the SAT. While you may crush that portion and yield an outstanding math score, you’re going to have your overall score get dramatically dinged when you tank your reading, writing, and language portions of the exam.

Yes, like math, keywords are still important, but so too is the other vital components of SEO like the readability of your content, how easy your site is to navigate, the internal and external linking maps your site is deploying, and the overall user experience your site is providing readers. Each of these areas presents your business with opportunity to increase your organic traffic and capture the eyes of more prospective customers.


Related Post: SEO vs. PPC: Which One Should I Focus On? ➢


 

So, the next time someone tells you that you have opportunity to increase overall organic visibility on your site, hear them out. Ask them pointed questions about how they plan to drive marketing success.

And if you do find yourself starting a partnership with a marketing agency, here are four ways to build an effective relationship.


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Black Hat vs. White Hat SEO: What’s the Difference?

The difference between Black Hat & White Hat SEO refers to the techniques used when trying to improve a website’s search engine ranking.


Black Hat SEO:

Focuses on utilizing techniques and strategies to deceive search engines into ranking their particular websites higher on search results.  It’s typically used by those looking to see immediate & quick results, rather than a long-term investment.  Often times Black hat SEO focuses on only search engines and not so much a human audience. Black Hat techniques that are seen as deceptive and violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines include:

  • Keyword Stuffing: “Keyword stuffing” refers to the practice of loading a webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in Google search results.
  • Hidden Text: i.e. using white text on a white background, setting font size to 0, hiding a link by only linking one small character—for example, a hyphen in the middle of a paragraph, etc.
  • Link Farming: Links intended to manipulate PageRank1  or a site’s ranking in search results (i.e. buying or selling links that pass PageRank, excessive link exchanges (“Link to me & I’ll link to you”)
  • And More

While these techniques can provide quick and immediate SEO results – and may seem appealing in the short run -consequences can result in your site being banned from a search engine (most likely Google) and or ranking penalties.  This means people won’t be able to find your site organically, defeating any short lasted traffic/sales/leads you may have gained from Black Hat techniques.


“Black hat SEO focuses on search engines and not so much a human audience.”2


White Hat SEO:

White Hat techniques target human audiences rather than simply search engines.

Techniques and strategies typically utilized in White Hat SEO include: conducting keyword analysis and keyword research, rewriting meta/page titles and meta descriptions to speak more specifically about what the page is about, writing and creating quality content for HUMAN READERS, internal backlinking and natural link building, just to name a few.  However, probably the most important White Hat SEO technique is creating quality content.

White Hat SEO is a long-term investment and takes time to build and see ROI, however the pro is that the results last a long time.


Related Post: How Long Does it Take for SEO to Produce Results? ➢


“Creating quality content may be time consuming, but it will be well worth it in the long run. […] The more content-rich your site is, the more valuable it will appear to the search engines and human visitors/ customers/ clients.”

Related Posts:


1 PageRank – (PR) is an algorithm used by Google Search to rank websites in their search engine results, and is a way of measuring the importance of website pages. IT IS NOT THE ONLY ALGORITHM USED BY GOOGLE to order search results

2 & 3 Quoted from Unamo University – online marketing resource center

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SEO: What It Is and How It Affects Your Business

What is SEO and Why Do It?

In this day and age most modern business owners, and certainly the majority of marketers, are aware of what SEO is and their need for it. However, if you still wonder what SEO is and why you should invest in it, you’ve come to the right place.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization which refers to the art of improving a website’s visibility within search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo in order to increase the number of visitors the site receives. SEO is the study of how search engines work and the factors that can be manipulated to increase a website rankings within a given SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Search Engine Optimization utilizes numerous tactics, both on- and off-site, to influence the hundreds of search engine ranking factors. The sought after result is achieving top rankings within a SERP for a high volume search query related to your product or service, which provide a significant amount of quality organic (not paid) traffic to the website.


Related Post: How Long Does It Take for SEO to Produce Results? ➢


Why is SEO Important?

How many times have you used a search engine (like Google) to find a product or service this month, this week, or even today? According to Google, there are more than 100 billion searches performed each month on their search engine alone. More than 90% of this traffic clicks somewhere on the first page of search results within a given search engine. In fact, more than 50% of traffic clicks on the first three results. This means that if your website does not rank on the first page of search results for a search query related to your product or service, your consumers are unlikely to find you.


Related Post: PPC vs. SEO: Which One Should I Focus On? ➢


The internet never sleeps and your website is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year long (discounting maintenance downtime). It helps people understand your company, contact your business, provide leads, and generate sales. In SEO, as in anything, visibility can make or break your business. So, if you’re looking to increase your website’s visibility, investing in Search Engine Optimization is one of the best ways to do so. Learn more about Search Engine Optimization or to contact our Digital Marketing Team about our SEO services to get started.

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