Do You Need To Hire A Search Engine Optimization Company?
It’s no coincidence that search engine optimization companies are easy to find through Google and Bing. These firms have flourished as small businesses, and entrepreneurs seek shortcuts to propel their websites towards the top of ranking results. With an encyclopedic knowledge of trends and terminology, these self-styled SEO gurus are an obvious choice for the time-poor entrepreneur whose website is languishing on page 5 of Google.
SEO is a constantly moving target where the rules regularly change, yet it’s nowhere near as complex as other computing industries. You don’t need a degree in IT and ten years of experience to follow the common-sense principles underpinning optimization in 2018. And while search engine optimization companies provide a valuable one-time snapshot of your site’s strengths and weaknesses, responsibility for managing it often falls to you anyway.
With this in mind, we’ve prepared a checklist for small businesses. Adhering to these points on a regular basis should negate the need for search engine optimization companies on your balance sheet. Ironically, that will free up additional revenue to spend on social advertising and promotion…
- Start with a free SEO report.
Midphase’s SEO Guru service provides a detailed performance report, identifying areas that could be improved throughout any website. Revisions will be provided with step-by-step instructions in plain English, helping to boost relevant traffic while providing real-time updates on progress.
- Set up a keyword analytics account.
As beginners, it doesn’t matter whether you choose Moz, SEMrush or Google Analytics. Any of these comprehensive software packages will identify the keywords and long-tail phrases your customers are searching for – and the terms your competitors are performing strongly for.
- Investigate how frequently key industry terms appear throughout your site.
This article uses the phrase “search engine optimization companies” five times across its heading and body text, so it’ll perform well for that term. If you want to sell a particular product or service, you need to ensure it’s mentioned on every page.
- Look for opportunities to add extra SEO value.
Many websites lack metadata, which describes individual pages to the search engine algorithms ranking them. Images without captions and tags are an easy SEO win, along with adding in a sitemap and a robots.txt file. The latter both improve overall visibility to web crawlers.
- Regularly update one page with new content.
You don’t need to endlessly rewrite product descriptions – most pages will reach a point where they’re optimized. Instead, create a news page or blog within the site, which can be updated regularly to indicate a live domain. Quick responses to customer inquiries help in this regard, too.
- Generate inbound links.
Post articles on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Reddit containing links to your homepage, or submit articles to third-party websites. If you have good relations with partner organizations, reciprocal link-building is advisable, but never buy packages of links from disreputable online wholesalers.