It's time to get up to speed on all the best practices for search engine optimization in 2023. Here are some helpful tips to keep in mind: 1. Develop an Intuitive Site Architecture - Make sure your site architecture is intuitive and easy for both bots and human users to navigate. 2. Speak the Algorithm's Language - Make sure your content speaks to the algorithm in terms it can understand, by including keywords that accurately describe what you offer. 3. Optimize Images & Videos - Don't forget to include ALT tags, captions, descriptions, and filenames for all the images and videos you include on your website. 4. Prioritize Mobile Optimization - The importance of having a mobile-friendly website can't be overstated. Make sure your site is optimized for both desktop and mobile browsing experiences. 5. Leverage Internal Linking - Make it easier for Google to crawl your site and understand the structure of it by using internal links. This will help boost your SEO ranki...
Basic digital marketing methods to improve your small business.
Social Media
By now, everyone's either used social media or knows someone who has. It's a great way to connect with others, including family, friends, or consumers. Since every social media application is free, you might as well toss your hat into the ring and create an account or two. While it may be tempting to sign up on every application, keep in mind that you'll need to manage those accounts with consistency, meaning it may be difficult for a single person. Still, nothing beats free!
Paid Advertising
Paid advertising is attempting to reach an audience by paying to appear in the search results or on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. For search engines, that could mean Google, Firefox, or Bing. Basically, you're bypassing the organic searches by spending money. You'll need to spend money to do this though, so check your budget before either undertaking the paid ads by yourself, or hiring a digital marketing agency to do it for you.
One thing worth mentioning is that you'll need to do your research if you're the one doing it. Keywords need to be chosen with intention, and you'll need to know how realistic the results will be. By using Google Ads, however, you can create full spreadsheets to keep everything in order. Take some time to learn it before jumping in, or as stated before, hire an agency that knows what they're doing. Otherwise, you may end up losing money.
Organic Search/SEO
On the flip side of paid advertising, organic search or SEO is improving your site to raise its total SEO score. With this score, you can build relevance and trust with a search engine such as Google, giving you the opportunity to rank higher in the organic search results. While SEO may be time-consuming if your site is riddled with errors, (I've seen more than 5000 errors on one site alone), you shouldn't be deterred from improving your SEO score.
In addition to allowing you to rank higher, a higher SEO score will make paid advertising even easier. This is due to the fact that Google takes into account your site's overall value. So, if you're providing relevant content, have a healthy site with a great user experience score, then you're already ahead of other sites who don't have those things. Again, you can either do the work yourself, or hire an agency to do it for you.
Email Marketing
Email marketing can work wonders when done the correct way. That is, when you've built up an email marketing list, have products to sell, and run email marketing campaigns from time-to-time. These campaigns can last anywhere from a week to a month, but two weeks is what I've personally seen work the best.
If you're interested in email marketing campaigns or if you have a list but haven't tried running them, I'd recommend downloading an app like MailChimp to construct 7-14 emails, then simply schedule send one email per day per email. So if you're running a 14-day campaign, write out 14 emails.
Now, these emails should be persuasive since they're meant to sell products, but what I think is even better than just a sales pitch is a long story. Each day, tell a little more of the story, ending each email with a hook, or cliffhanger, to build intrigue for the following day. This is a fun exercise that'll generate both sales and email openings.
As for email marketing in general, you need to be consistent. If you can't send out a daily email, or maybe three days per week, then perhaps it isn't the best route for you. Or, and you can probably guess what I'm going to say, you can hire an agency to help with the load. I'd recommend a sales copywriting to handle email marketing. Bloggers are great, but it's a different type of writing.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is working with other businesses to provide mutual benefits for both parties. For instance, let's say I own an online shoe company that sells leather shoes. You own a business that sells shoe polish and can repair leather shoes. Since we're both selling to a similar, yet slightly different, audience, we can work together to help each other reach more people.
To do this, build up a list of businesses that sell products to a similar audience, but one that you may not be currently reaching. Again, you'll have to do the same for the other business. Once you've built up your list, start reaching out to the businesses and work on building relationships with them.
If you end up reaching a mutually beneficial deal with them, then start recommending their products to your own audience. And in return, make sure they're sharing your business and/or products as well. Affiliate marketing should help both parties. Not just one.
Comments
Post a Comment