Thursday, November 10, 2022

Don't Get Burned By SEO...

 




You're a business owner. Your passion keeps you up at night, staring at various screens, numbers, and documents in an effort to make tomorrow better than today. Better means more business, more sales, more smiles for your team, your customers, and if time permits....you

Trying to untangle the web of information about Search Engine Optimization out there is a rage-inducing exercise. Don't try it. You'll leave with more questions than answers.

Let's start with the basics. What is SEO?  SEO means Search Engine Optimization and is the process used to optimize a website's technical configuration, content relevance and link popularity so its pages can become easily findable, more relevant and popular towards user search queries, and as a consequence, search engines rank them better.

That cleared it up, right? It's a confusing concept. Making it even more confusing are the "Office Experts" who always seem to know everything about every topic. Maybe it's a neighbor....or a family member. There's always someone who knows exactly what's best for your business without risking anything in the process. 

Unfortunately, there are just as many "agencies" out there who are not much more than an Office Expert with a pretty website. You owe it to yourself....do it right. Do it in a way that you can easily understand and passionately defend because you will probably be asked to do both. Partner with an actual expert who can propel your business. 

If your website is not effective, you won't rank highly in searches. It's as simple as that. When that family who needs a very expensive, emergency plumbing call, you will not be the one to hear the phone ringing if you can't be found. Network all you want, but unless you participate in the Google game, you're not going to be found when it counts. But what is it that Google looks for when they rank businesses and their online presence?

There are tons of things Google looks at when weighting businesses within their search parameters, and they change frequently, but here are a few general areas in which any HVAC or Plumbing business should focus their SEO strategy.

Social Media Signals
- What are people doing with the stuff you post? Are they sharing it? How the community responds to your messaging is an important factor in Google's rankings, so be careful what you post. Make it relevant. Make it professional. Not every post is going to go viral. That's not the point and shouldn't be your goal. That's like building your family's financial plan around the chance you may win the lottery. If your financial plan includes lottery tickets instead of investments and property it's destined for the same catastrophic failure as a marketing strategy built on the hopes of a viral content piece. Consistency, relevance, and loyalty to your brand are what's going to bring you the best results. 

Content & Blogs - As previously mentioned, your social media presence is a key piece of your SEO puzzle, but the prettiest social media page in all of the world isn't bringing you anything unless there is quality content within it. Get creative. Your business is interesting. Take it to the people who want to learn it and your business will grow. Blog articles about topics that seem elementary to you may seem otherworldly to a beginner. (Or a prospect)

On-Page SEO (aka On-Site SEO) - When you post a link to your website or Social Media or elsewhere on the internet, that's an external link. More on those later. On-Page SEO are the links within your site itself that lead users to other parts of your site. The longer they stay and the more things they click on, the better your ranking, but like everything else in this crazy game of digital marketing....you can overdo it and make yourself look very amateurish. Let us help.

Link Building - Remember way back in the previous paragraph when we mentioned posting links elsewhere on the internet? Those "external links" direct users from a foreign site to yours. That's Link Building. It's another piece of your puzzle that can have catastrophic results if done without expertise. 

As you can see, there are a lot of things that go into the ranking system at Google. It feels like a lot, but remember....your world is equally overwhelming to us. Let's work together and do what we both do best. Our passion is marketing for Service Industry Professionals. What's yours? Can we tell people about it together?









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