Because marketing is such a foundational part of your business success, there can sometimes be a lot of pressure to chase trends in an effort to capitalize on the “next big thing.” However, when it comes to inviting engaged audiences to your website, search rankings and SEO maintain their value in your marketing mix. Despite that reality, many companies believe that it’s no longer viable to invest in optimization and that they should put their money into paid ads, funnel systems and advertising automation. After all, the best keywords have all been done to death, so the competition is too fierce to make an impact,
Right?
Actually, focusing on the fundamentals of SEO marketing is always a smart idea, no matter how long you’ve been in business. Search Engine Optimization is a process and a journey, rather than an event, and it can still pay big dividends when you know your audience, what they are looking for, and can position your products and mix in the right way through keyword phrases to rise to the occasion from Google search. Today, we want to discuss the elements and metrics to focus on the most, as well as showcase the value of putting your efforts into search optimization. SEO isn’t dead; it has just become more refined.
Search Engine Optimization: the Basics
While it can sometimes feel like you’re bombarded with tips and advice on how to get the most out of your SEO marketing, we want to cover the foundational elements of optimization that you need to focus on the most. These components include:
Term Ranking
Whether you are a dog walking business in Tampa Bay or a fine-dining establishment in Seattle, some search terms will define your business better than others. As you already know, keywords are the bread and butter of SEO marketing, so it’s crucial that you find the top words and phrases that people use to find your business.
Term ranking is when you get a list of these keywords ranked by popularity. For example, more people may search for “dog walker Tampa Bay” than other, more specific phrases like “friendly dog walker in Palma Ceia.”
While it’s tempting to focus your marketing on the top-ranked keywords, you have to remember that your competitors will do the same. In many cases, it’s better to utilize more niche-level terms so that you don’t have to work as hard to rank highly. Overall, you should have about three or four words that form the basis of your SEO strategy, then you’ll build your key phrases and variations around those words.
Organic Search Visitor Volume
One of the most valuable metrics to keep track of for marketing is how many visitors come to your site daily, weekly, and monthly. However, a total number can be worthless if you can’t break it down. How many of these visitors are coming from search engines, and how many are coming from other sources (i.e., social media)? You want to figure out the precise number of visitors you get from SEO so that you can refine your marketing tactics accordingly. For example, if specific keywords are getting the most traffic, you can include them more frequently on your pages.
Bounce Rate
A “bounce” is when a visitor comes to your site from a google search but then quickly clicks the back button. How many times have you done that? “No, that’s not quite what I’m looking for,” and you are off to click another search result. A high bounce rate suggests that the term or phrase you are using isn’t aligned with what an audience wants when they come to your website and see what you are offering. A low bounce rate means your offer and your keywords are connecting with an audience that’s interested in what you have to say or present.
Time On Site
The number of people coming to your business website and bounce rate are only two pieces of the puzzle. You also have to figure out how long they’re on your pages. Time on site is a valuable component of SEO marketing, as you can determine the value of your keywords more accurately. For example, generic terms (i.e., French cuisine Seattle) may have a higher bounce rate and lower time on your site than more specific keywords (Patisserie in Kent).
Those terms that balance volume of search and low bounce rate with the amount of time on site will be the most crucial for your brand.
Page Views
This metric is similar to time on site, but it offers a different insight into the minds of your potential customers. Page views refer to how many pages a user clicks through before leaving your website. For example, a person may come to a specific landing page and then go to your homepage before checking out something else.
When tracking page views, see which pages get the most traffic and how they interact with each other. For example, how often are visitors checking out your “about us” section? How many times do users visit a landing page for a particular product or service? These details can help you format your website better so that you can get the most out of your page views.
A Holistic Approach to SEO
Part of the reason why SEO marketing can seem so passe these days is that many marketers focus only on surface-level metrics such as your ranking on a preselected list of keywords chosen because they’ll look good on a report. At Green Vine Marketing, we don’t merely give you a list of high-ranking search terms and optimize your pages based on that. We evaluate these metrics and dive into the details so you can get the most value for your investment.
By paying attention to the behavior of your customers and leads, we can create a much more effective marketing campaign. Even better, we take a long-term approach to our advertising methods. SEO isn’t a “one and done” process – we need to analyze and adjust based on user data so that we can refine our techniques accordingly.
Contact us today to find out more and start getting the most out of your SEO marketing. Experience the Green Vine difference and explore our various SEO packages.
