Every marketing tactic gets more scrutiny when budgets face the severity of a struggling economy. Put SEO under the microscope, and it consistently delivers. But marketers need to insure they are getting the most out of SEO, especially during a recession.
With this in mind, here are 6 key tactics from Steve Riegel, director of Search and co-founder of the award-winning interactive agency, Faction Media to maximize SEO:
1. Use Analytics and plan on Keyword Platform Optimization - Internal Search and PPC provide active avenues to grow keyword targets for SEO. Internal search shows how visitors seek out products on site and what keywords they use to discover your best answers. PPC efforts when combined with success events through analytics can show you what engines and what terms covert to a desired result. Keyword platform optimization is an ongoing process of evaluating PPC, Internal Search, and SEO key terms across engines and providing expanding keyword targets for SEO and PPC efforts across engines.
2. Localize your content Whether you sell locally or through distribution channels, on average 7% of searches include a location modifier. Place your address(es) or at the very least city, state on each page of your site. We capture traffic for Denver Digital Marketing agency based on our location and Search Visibility for Digital Marketing.
3. Make sure all your pages are crawled to have them properly ndexed with Sitemaps Create both xml based for Search Engine spiders and user friendly sitemaps for your site visitors. XML sitemaps are becoming the standard fare for Search Engine crawl submissions and can provide SE based data reporting benefits. User friendly sitemaps provide additional navigation links throughout your site for users and spiders alike.
4. Optimize the title tag on each page on your site Title tags are still one of the most important elements of Search Engines Algorthims. Keep the tag under 128 characters and keep your branding to the end, make the title tag unique and descriptive for each pages content.
5. Check keyword rankings across engines for phrases just outside the top 20-30 and target those for additional efforts.
6. Validate your code often. If the search engines can¹t parse your code, they will miss your entire page around a few "simple errors". Spend the extra 5 minutes and validate your code through tools like the ones found here.
This article was written by Stephen Riegel, Director of Search and co-founder of Faction Media. Click here for more information on Faction Media.