SEO

5 SEO Tips to Increase Traffic to Your Website

March 12 in Marketing, Small Business, Strategy by SunUp Group | No Comments

One of the top concerns for many business owners is increasing traffic to their website.  SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process that can help increase visibility of your website via “natural” or “organic” search results, but you probably already knew that!  Without SEO, however, your website will just be floating “out there” on the internet, not really doing much.  So, if you’re a small business owner who wants to increase traffic to your website, we have some SEO tips to help you:

  1. Do your research. Keyword research, that is.  Utilize the Google Keyword Tool, Google Insight, and Google Suggestions.  Once you get your list of keywords, we suggest downloading them into an Excel spreadsheet, find the keywords that match your website content and products/services, then sort the list by daily searches (this will be given to you by the Google Keyword Tool).  The most relevant/popular phrase or keywords should be used in the <title> tag.  Gone are the days when keywords guaranteed a high ranking, but use of unique keywords in title and description can certainly help in your quest for better ranking.
  2. Content is king! Google loves content that is unique and has a high level of quality.  Webpages clearly written for spiders will be penalized, so it is important not to go overboard with the keywords.  Content should definitely be optimized for search engine optimization, but it is important to strike the right balance of keyword usage.  A smart piece of content may have 2-3 keywords in it.
  3. Create backlinks. Backlinks are incredibly important right now. Google looks at backlinks as an indicator that your site is a good one in regards to the subject matter. Try to get as many backlinks as you can from reputable sites.  For example, you could offer to write a guest blog post for a particular website, in return for the opportunity to place a link to your website. That being said, make sure the backlinks are high quality and relevant.  Search engines may even penalize your page if it has too many irrelevant backlinks, as that can be considered SPAM.
  4. Get social! The current top 5 social bookmarking sites, in order of popularity are:  Twitter, digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and Pinterest.  You may not have thought of Twitter as a social bookmarking site, but it actually is.  These 5 websites (and many more that we didn’t list) are very well optimized and cached by search engines every day.  If your content and links are bookmarked on these sites, you can expect your site to get cached by Google within 24 hours as well.
  5. Blog. Search engines, specifically Google, love blogs for the fresh content and structured data.  If you have the time, post to your blog twice a week. They don’t have to be really lengthy blogs, but as we said in tip #2, post unique and quality content to your blog.  Reading and commenting on other blogs can also increase your exposure and help you acquire backlinks, as we discussed in tip #3.

There you have it – 5 easy ways to increase traffic to your website by using SEO techniques.  Above all, be patient.  SEO is not always about instant gratification.  Results can take months, especially for small businesses who have just started a new website.  Commit yourself and your website to the process, and call us if you have any questions or need help!

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Should My Small Business Should Be On Google+?

February 1 in Marketing, Small Business, Social Media by SunUp Group | No Comments

Have you heard of Google+?  Google+ is a social networking platform that is Google’s rival to Facebook.  Google has basically created an innovative new way for staying more connected & having more control of your information. It makes your life easier by adding some new ways of filtering the information you receive as well as the information you share.

Many big brands are familiar with and using Google+, but Google+ is definitely not a mainstream social networking platform yet.   In fact, it was estimated recently that only about 40% of small businesses are aware of what Google+ is.  We’re not surprised by this, since small businesses are just getting the hang of Facebook, which has been around for several years.  As we discussed in last week’s post, about 50% of small and medium businesses are currently using social media, and among those the question lately that arises is “Should my small business be on Google+?”

This not an easy question to answer, since there are many pros and cons for Google+.  However, if we had to give a general answer to this question, our answer would be “Yes”.   And there is one main reason why we think so:  its algorithm.  SEO experts claim that just by setting up a profile, businesses can get a boost in their SEO ranking in Google.  Of course, you will need to check your Page at least once a week and add new content in order to get all the positive signals that Google uses in its algorithm, but Google+ will supposedly be powerful in the future for your SEO rankings.  Though this is by far the biggest reason why we think small businesses should use Google+, there are other benefits as well.

Some companies are also finding that Google+ is also a great platform for content distribution.  Phyllis Khare, the social media editorial director of iPhone Life magazine, says “It took us almost a year to get 1,000 Likes on our Facebook Page, and three days on G+ to get that number to Circle us.”

In addition, there is a feature in Google+ called “Circles”, which basically allows you to segment people you follow into specific interest groups. When you do this, you can share select content with specific audiences.  As we all know, the ability to target your message with a laser focus is a marketer’s dream!

Certainly there are reasons to be skeptical about Google+, considering Google’s history with products such as Buzz, Wave and Hotpot, to name a few.  However, the unofficial estimate  is that Google+ is adding over 4 million users every week, and by the end of 2012 some experts say Google+ will have approximately 400 million users, which is about half as many users as Facebook has.  These numbers, along with the SEO boost convince us that small businesses should set up a Brand page and start engaging their audience in Google+.  Is your small business on Google+ yet?  What are your thoughts on it so far?  Please share with us in the comments!

Tagged , , , , ,

Get Cloud PHP Hosting on CatN