How much does SEO really matter?
Good SEO is essential to businesses in niche markets. The smaller the segment of the general population who wants to be your customer, the more important SEO becomes. If I’m selling vanity license plate covers, anyone with a car could be my customer. If my vanity license plate covers say, “Jeff is a star!” I better make sure my ads only end up in front of people named Jeff.
Whether your service area or clientele are limited, your SEO strategy should cater to the keywords that will help your audience find you. Imagine that your ideal customer, who has never heard of your business before, finds your website. What terms and searches would they be using and what part of your site might they end up on? If 100 new customers found your website, how would the majority of get there? What other things might they have been searching?
Insufficient facts always invite danger
Having analytics on your website can be a gamechanger when answering these sorts of questions. Using analytics requires putting a section of code in your website that sends information to an analytics software. They can get you stats like what time of day your website gets the most traffic and from which geographic locations. You might find out that a big chunk of your new traffic comes from a backlink (someone who links to you) you weren’t aware of. Popular, inexpensive softwares like Google Analytics make this kind of data fairly accessible to anyone who can watch a tutorial or two.
Some blogging platforms have integrations that make installing tracking software even easier. Check out the help section of your blogging platform to see what they recommend. While you’re there, some blogging platforms have built-in SEO tools or plug-ins for their customers. Some lay out step by step instructions for you. You pay for the tools anyway, might as well use them!
Researching your competitors is an often-forgotten part of SEO. Understanding your competition in your segment of the industry can inspire your messaging strategy. Businesses that stand the test of time find ways to differentiate themselves from “the other guys” (like literally branding them as “the other guys”).
Make the big moves
After a few weeks or months of developing your Domain Authority, you can use it to open up whole other segments of business. For instance, if your business wants to expand to offer another service, you can alter your website’s metadata description to include it. This lets all your digital visitors know that both services are offered. You might find that traffic for certain services is located in certain geographical areas and be able to zero in on new segments of clientele.
Here at Avant8, we eat SEO for breakfast, with a serving of fruit and Monster Energy. We partner with our clients to develop SEO strategy that works. Our content team writes blogs, web copy, and social posts that bring in organic search traffic. If you’d rather put this stuff in our hands, get in touch with us!