What needs to be on your web page if you wish to be on the top of the first page of a Google search? Good on-page SEO! Read this helpful article to learn more about how to optimize your website to rank well in a Google search and to learn how SEO lead generation can help your website.
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and why does it matter?
Search engine optimization, or better known by its acronym, SEO, is a method of finding potential clients through online search engines such as Google or Bing. Search engines use different methods to catalog web pages (not websites–this is an important distinction). The search engines use robots to scan the internet and index what different web pages are about. Whenever you type in a search query, the search engine looks at their database of indexed web pages to assess what may fit that query. They sort and present the websites to you according to the order that their algorithm determines, which usually is based on the trustworthiness and authority that your web page has as compared to other pages.
If you wish to monetize your website and use it for SEO lead generation then you want to ensure that you are on the first page of Google and near the top of the first page! As mentioned elsewhere on our site, search engine optimization is one of two primary methods of website lead generation. The other method being paid traffic through Google Ads or Facebook Ads. In fact, when coupled together, both methods ensure you’re business is always on the top of Google!
The static part of SEO lead generation
So what needs to be on your web page and website if you wish to be on the top of the first page of a Google search?
It starts with proper website design
A website needs to be set up properly. We have found the best way to accomplish this is through custom website design, which we offer (shameless plug). A good custom website would take into consideration user experience and user interface on the website. No sense in getting someone to the site only to have them leave because the site is either difficult to use or doesn’t funnel them towards a particular goal. Another mistake is to fail to give a website visitor a clear converting option. This is done by not prioritizing the ability for them to click on a phone number, or fill in a lead form, or click on an email address and contact your business.
Also in the website set up, there must be properly researched keywords that clearly establish landing pages. Those landing pages must have good on-page SEO to include the right keyword density, the elimination of keyword cannibalization on other pages, and they should have a thumbprint of keywords that represent the service or product a landing page represents.
About well-researched SEO keywords…
Good SEO keyword research is critical to establishing a landing page’s thumbprint with Google. Everyone knows that a thumbprint identifies a particular person, and thus keywords help Google to identify what a particular page is about. (Keep in mind how search engines work by reading up on our SEO page). You need to know what prospective clients are typing into Google in order to find the products or services you offer. Do you know those keywords? And let me encourage you to not think singularly as in keyWORD, but rather a string of words or a phrase that is often called a long-tail keyword. That is a natural way that most folks search, and probably the way that you search. (Whenever the term keyword is mentioned from here on, please note that we are referring to a long-tail keyword).
One way to search out a keyword is to begin typing your keyword into Google and see what auto-populates. Go through each variant it gives you that is relevant to your products and/or services. Once you’ve typed in the query you’ll land on a page and most likely see your competitors if you did this correctly. Now scroll down to the bottom of the page and you’ll see related search phrases. Both what auto-populated before while typing in the search and these related search phrases at the bottom of the Google search page are long-tail keywords you can begin to incorporate into your page.
If your website has any history with Google then another method is to use Google Search Console to see what searches you’re actually pulling up for organically. And lastly, you can use Google Ads’ keyword planner.
Other on-page factors
There are other factors that affect good on-page SEO. For instance, page permalinks should contain keywords, images should have an “alt” and “title” tags containing keywords (and they should be on the proper page), page titles should contain the primary keyword, the page’s meta description should have it as well, there should be thorough and clear internal page linking, and as everyone knows, a site must be mobile-friendly.
Also, using Schema for the site, for blogs, food menu items, events, and other such properties on your website will help with the display of your website on search engine results. How your website appears in a Google search affects your click-through rate which affects how Google ranks you “next time”.
Then there is ensuring that you use an Accessibility plugin on your site to help those that are using screen readers and other such devices for those with disabilities.
But these are all static factors. SEO will involve on-going work.
On-going SEO
One overlap between static SEO work and on-going is the task of acquiring directory citations. We will write a blog or do a YouTube video about this topic, but when setting up a site it’s good to establish consistent NAP directory citations at least with the search engines, the main data aggregators, and the Tier 1 directories. This part would be critical to the initial set up, however, a business needs to continue to acquire directory citations. These usually fall into general citations and local/niche citations. The key here is that they need to be consistent, and as it concerns the local/niche, they need to be relevant to your industry.
Secondly, a business needs to ensure that they’re adding helpful content to their website. This usually is best attained by way of a blog. Google is not hiding the fact that they base part of their ranking criteria on that of useful content. You need to think in terms of QUALITY content vs. quantity content. It’d be better to publish one blog a month that doesn’t cannibalize keywords from other pages, provides useful and helpful content to your audience, is engaging, clarifying, and resourceful than to produce a blog a week that lacks these qualities. Google knows how many times they showed your page in the search results vs. how many times someone clicked on it and went to the page. They know how long someone spends on your site. They can see if they went to other pages on your site, meaning you had good internal linking. So bottom line, quality content is vitally necessary.
We discussed the critical role of directory citations and useful content, and the last part of good on-going SEO is that of attaining strong, relevant backlinks. When a website is relatively new or lacks history, it’d be our suggestion to spend the first several months going through the main page titles, as they are the chief keyword, and getting backlinks for those. Once you’ve cycled through those you should have enough history with Google Search Console and other Google platforms to perform keyword analysis for backlink building as shown in the video below.
Concluding thoughts
There is a lot of work that goes into prepping a site for SEO lead generation as well as careful planning, consistency, and perseverance that goes into month-to-month SEO work. It will take months to see positive changes bear fruit so be patient.
Please visit our YouTube channel or our YouTube page or visit this blog for more helpful resources on how you can help your company generate more leads through SEO. If this sounds like something you’d rather outsource, Results Digital would be more than willing to serve your company through providing SEO lead generation. Contact us today!
