“Doing SEO” at home, for small and medium-sized businesses
All in all, a fairly typical case, which we have seen frequently: a potential customer wants a Social Media Marketing strategy to increase the visibility of his communication, but above all of his products/services.
Faced with some observations and suggestions on the importance of a completely revised website, the true fulcrum of the marketing and communication strategy (not social, which is a key in most cases), the customer cuts it short: “no thanks , I only want social media.”
The unstructured definition, for me, could be:
From this point of view, even without huge budgets, SEO is born directly in the company, be it a tiny company with few employees or even by a single professional. This is because SEO is communication and therefore content marketing. This is why in my opinion “always having an SEO-oriented approach” means having “the obsession” for the production of effective and quality communication.
Content architecture:
The more easily Google understands what your site is about, the better it ranks. A site must be clear to consult like a book: that is, with the contents organized according to a logical thread, divided into chapters, sub-chapters, paragraphs. Get in touch with us for SEO Services in Calgary
On a site this corresponds to main pages, secondary pages, articles (if you have a news area – but they are always web pages), in turn organized into categories and grouped transversally – if necessary – into tags if you use CMS that provide them.
Internal Links:
But how to structure internal links? The right answer is always “with simplicity and rationality”, so for example:
- By structuring easy and obvious navigation: from each page it must be clear how to return to the hierarchically superior page or category; in a blog news item, the other categories of the blog, the related articles, any tags, the other posts that exhaust the topic or that deal with nearby, related topics must be visible; in an e-commerce product page you must link to other related products (cross-selling), any pages relating to shipping or return information; and so on.
- By preparing a simple main navigation menu, even (and above all) from mobile: it must be tested and re-tested to find any problems or improvements.
The creation of Content for a site from an SEO perspective:
If the previous points are good practices that above all require an initial effort, the contents instead require a continuous and demanding effort in terms of man-hours. But also very profitable: having a constant production of new content that continuously updates the user on topics of interest guarantees enormous advantages:
- You progressively increase your chances of having greater visibility on search engines along an ever-increasing number of keywords.
- You communicate to users that yours is a constantly updated, well-manned site, always “on the mark” regarding the topics covered. From a perception perspective – which is a key factor in marketing and sales – it is a factor of great value.
But how to create content? Where to start from?
This quality content brings positive effects:
- Website visits increase; the time spent on the site also increases (from a few seconds to around 30 minutes)
- Incoming links to the company website are increasing, another central aspect of SEO: producers’ blogs and external sites link to the RiverPool blog for insights into common doubts. This very natural link building activity further strengthens the positioning of articles.
- The perceived authority of the site increases dramatically: RiverPool becomes an online reference, a site of experts on the topic of swimming pool installation.
- Google robots identify your site as a frequently updated virtual place, with new and probably authoritative (if well done) content: this gives further input to good positioning.
What do we learn from this SEO case study?
- You don’t necessarily need to be an SEO or online writing expert to communicate effectively online, even from an SEO perspective.
- The customer (the user) is at the center of any SEO strategy, with his doubts and needs.
- It is a formidable channel of communication – it improves your dialectics and commercial approach.
- It allows you to find new ideas and trigger a dialogue with customers.
- It humanizes a company, the moment you put your face to it.
- It becomes a natural way to also talk about your products/services.
