Updating Your Marketing – Part 2: SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important marketing process that needs to be kept up to date. Your chances of attracting customers increase as your ranking in search engines rises, meaning that if you haven’t updated your SEO lately, it’s time for you to get in touch with us.
Adding new content is a great way to get the search engines to pay more attention to your website. The algorithms that power search notice changes and assign more weight to sites that have something new to say.
Changing content is also an opportunity to check on your wording, and make sure that you aren’t misusing the latest trendy terminology. This isn’t as important if you’re targeting an older audience, but if teens and young adults are your target market, do your homework.
For example, when you say “basic” to describe an affordable t-shirt, Gen Zers read “boring,” Similarly, if you think that a “vanilla” coloured shirt is going to be more popular than white, you’d be wrong. Now, it is not prudent to actually use trendy terms like “bussin” because these are going to change faster than you want to update your site again. So, the point is to avoid words that have changed in meaning.
You’ll also want to recheck your page loading times and mobile responsiveness. The technology that allows for higher speeds is advancing very quickly, and even if your site was crazy fast two years ago, it could be lagging today.
In terms of keywords, these will likely need to be updated too. Which of these terms do you think has the least competition?
- Best plumber in Langley
- Emergency plumber in Langley
- Renovation plumber in Langley
The answer, by a longshot, is “emergency plumber in Langley.” If you provide emergency services, that may be what you want to highlight, rather than the #1 award you got a few years back.
Local SEO is another area to look at. You can really improve your search results by focusing your marketing on one location, or at least one at a time. This tactic works far better than using terms that might be familiar, like Fraser Valley, but those are not the terms that people use in search.
Finally, see what you can do to update your reviews and ratings. New reviews on your website count as new content as well as influencing readers. If you’re not already doing so, ask your clients to leave a review on Google. Make sure that you are monitoring and responding to reviews too. Responding to reviews, both positive and negative, can also improve your business’s visibility and indicate to potential customers that you value feedback. Remember, to keep your responses to negative reviews simple and empathetic; i.e. “I’m so sorry you had that experience. Please call me so I can rectify this situation.”
It may seem like just last month, but you might want to check to confirm when you last updated your website. If it was more than a year, please call us soon!