SEO Behaviors for Business Owners, Founders and Content Teams.

Search Engine Optimization might be better thought of as “building a virtual location for my business online“. That way, we are encouraging behaviors and practices that contribute to an ever-growing organic keyword footprint that will drive valuable traffic to your website, while leaving the technical aspects of SERP-rank fueling site optimization to your webmaster and tech team.

“Why Don’t I Rank #1 for XYZ?”

There are nearly countless reasons why a site does not rank #1 for XYZ search phrase…in fact, Google weighs over 200 factors when determining ranking for a given word or phrase, and those factors are ever-changing in their weight and impact. So a page that ranks #1 today may fall to #30 over the course of weeks or months, then return to #15 again,  all while you have done nothing to update or change the page’s content. In truth, focusing on “ranking #1” is a crazy-making proposition, especially when we factor in the actual truth for most businesses: you want to build business, not worry about search rankings.

Your Ranking DOES Matter

Don’t get me wrong: where you rank in search DOES matter, and it matters a lot. Across virtually every vertical and every industry, the difference in CTR (Click Thru Rate) even at Position 1 vs Position 2 of a search is tremendous, so getting as high up on that on that first page benefits your cause greatly. Take a look at this 2021 chart of CTR’s in the US on both desktop and mobile below, courtesy of Platonik in the UK:

So Why Focus on SEO Behaviors?

The reason I like switching conversations with clients away from “ranking #1” to “SEO behaviors” is that without a coupling of technical best practices AND ongoing content strategy, your organic footprint will neither grow nor drive the traffic you want to your website.

So I will reiterate: hire an expert at the technical pieces of ranking for search. Find someone you trust, then get to work on doing the things that you can do to contribute to expanding the valuable organic keyword footprint of your website, with the added bonus of expanding the varied ways potential customers can find you – all while diversifying the way current customers grow with you.

What are a Few “SEO Behaviors”?

Let’s start with a few simple things you can do this week to improve your rankings:

1. Headlines: The headline is one of the most important parts of your content. It should be short and catchy, and it should also include keywords that people might use when searching for information on your topic.

2. Images (with alt tags): Images are an important part of any website, but they can also be used for SEO purposes. Make sure you include an alt tag on every image so that search engines can find them more easily.

3. Create Videos – and include captions, which are a great way to engage your site visitor and build search ranking. Your videos should be short, concise, and to the point. Your captions should be written in a conversational tone and should not sound like they are coming from a robot. The video should have an introduction that is clear about what the video is about. It is also important to include keywords in the caption so that it will rank higher on search engines.

4. Social media is a great way to share your content and get more exposure. It is also a great way to drive traffic back to your website. There are many social media platforms that you can use for this purpose. Some of the most popular ones are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. You should post your content on these platforms at least once a day if you want to get the best results from it. You can also post it more often if you want to increase the number of views that you get on each post. It is important that you link back to your website in every social media post that you make so that people know where they can find more information about what they just read or saw on social media.

5. It is important to publish content on your website regularly. This will help you to keep your readers engaged and interested in what you have to say. You should always focus on your reader when writing content for your website. If they have a good experience, search engines will reward you as well. .The website should be able to give the user a good experience. That’s what an online presence is about.

This is enough to get the ball rolling…the most important thing is to DO IT…don’t worry too much about each and every word, image, video as you get started – your website is a living, breathing thing, so you can delete content you are unhappy with down the line. Far too often, people get paralyzed by having no idea where to start, what to write or photograph…so just getting going will help free you from that paralysis.

How about start by taking a photo of wherever you are right now, writing about what you are doing, sharing that post or page on your social platforms? That’ll give your readers a little snapshot into what you do, how you do it, and who you are.

Want to send me a question? Ask.