Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving your website’s visibility in organic search engine results so that you can bring in more visitors at little or no cost.
While SEO certainly isn’t as important to business as it used to be, with over 80% of all online traffic now coming from social media, it’s still vital to your success. The great news? Creating an SEO Canada strategy doesn’t have to be complicated!
Step 1 – Audience Research
Whether you’re new to SEO or not, knowing your audience is critical for ranking well on search engines. The more you know about your visitors and what they are looking for, the better!
Use Google Analytics and other audience research tools to find out where your traffic is coming from and how engaged your visitors are.
It’s also helpful to look at where competitors rank on search engine result pages. This can help uncover trends that might be working in your favour.
For example, if a competitor ranks well because they are already focusing on language translation then you may want to explore this as well.
Step 2 – Keyword Research
Search engine optimization is the process of improving your website’s visibility on search engines like Google and Bing.
The first step in any successful search engine optimization strategy is, naturally, keyword research. Using tools like the Google Adwords Keyword Tool and Amazon’s Kindle Singles Search Optimizer, you can find out which words and phrases people are using when they look for information about what you offer.
The better your keyword targeting, the better results you will get from your campaigns – it pays to do some research upfront!
Step 3 – On-Page Optimization
- Keyword research
People use different search phrases when looking for a product or service, and as a result, it is important to find out which keywords are the most valuable.
Doing keyword research will also help you determine which keywords to include on your site, what content to create and how that content should be formatted.
To start your research, simply type ‘keyword’ into Google’s search bar followed by the word ‘tool’. I recommend using either of these free tools: Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool or Moz’s Keyword Explorer.
Step 4 – Content Creation
As a search engine optimization agency, our content creation work is a cornerstone of what we do for clients. The idea here is to create content that, when optimally utilized, will rank well on search engines.
Ideally, this leads to more organic traffic and engagement for the brand. Without it, a company’s best-laid plans can go awry.
To help you get started with a successful content strategy from the start, we’ve put together this list of guidelines 1) Publish high-quality, original content that your target audience wants to read.
2) Use call-to-actions at the end of articles or blog posts to drive website visitors to download your ebook or subscribe.
3) Include images and videos where appropriate.
4) Keep your content relevant and up-to-date.
5) Link back to other relevant pages on your site throughout your post.
Step 5 – Social Media Optimization
You’ve created a beautiful piece of content and you have been sharing it all over social media channels, but how can you maximize its search engine visibility? There are several techniques to optimize your content on social media for optimal search engine optimization.
One thing that you can do is include hashtags when posting a link. This will allow people who do searches with the given hashtag or click on the given hashtag page to see your post when they go there.
You might think that this limits your audience, but if you provide content that is valuable and entertaining then other users will share it as well and take care of marketing your posts.
Step 6 – Link Building
SEO is about more than just creating content, it’s also about driving links from other websites and online news. Link building is not easy and requires a lot of work but if you do it correctly it can significantly help your SEO rankings.
You should consider three things when you are choosing which links to build: who links out, what they’re linking out to, and where they’re coming from.
Links that come from sites that rank high on google search results pages (SERPS) are worth the most, so it may be necessary for you to visit forums or social media groups that post content or blog entries relevant to your business and reply with a link back.
Step 7 – Monitoring and Updating
You’ve followed these steps and implemented your SEO strategy, but don’t stop there. Your website is never done and will change over time.
Keep up with trends, industry changes, and algorithm updates so that you can keep up with the competition. Make sure you have a budget set aside for analytics tools to monitor rankings, page views, conversions, traffic sources, competitors’ rankings, search engine results pages (SERPs), content relevancy data for keyword ranking analysis, and site health metrics for on-page optimization such as HTML tags or site speed.
