Are you in hiding? 5 ways to improve online visibility

This post is for those who have already identified their primary offering and key messages and are ready to transmit those messages to the world. If you’re not quite sure yet what your company’s primary offering is, read the previous blog: “Ready to stand out? A 7-step plan for writing your brand story.”

1: Turn your key messages into SEO missiles

How do you turn a key message into an SEO missile? You look at the message and ask yourself, “If I were searching for this on Google, what would I type in?” When you search, do you use marketing phrases like “how to boost my business by revving up my online presence.” Probably not. Search engines don’t work that way either. A much more typical search might be: “How to increase my visibility online.” When you want to find a tile setter, would you search for a “expert contractor with lots of tile setting experience” or a “handyman who does tile work.”

2. Use Google’s keyword tool

Once you re-write your key messages as if you were typing them into Google, you may stumble upon key words or phrases for both your industry and your service.  For example, the most widely searched term in the organizing industry is “professional organizers.” Once you know where to start, you can type that term into Google’s keyword tool at https://adwords.google.com, then select Keyword Tool from the tool menu. When you enter “professional organizer” into the Keyword Tool, you find that last month they were over 130,000 searches using this term. That’s a lot of searches. The tool also gives you clues as to how you might better target people looking for your service. There were 1,900 searches for “Certified Professional Organizer,” and “organize your home” had 9,900 searches. Look through the list of related search terms to identify what terms your target market uses to search for your service.

3. Grow a long tail

A long tail is when you combine search terms together for a more specific search. For example, a business providing professional organizer certification might want to combine the general search term “professional organizer” with another term “certification and training” to target people looking to get certified as professional organizers.

Formula 1

General Industry Search Term + General Action Term = SEO Missile

“professional organizer” + “certification & training” = “professional organizer certification & training”

Another formula for creating a long-tailed search term is to add your general industry search term to a much more specific search, such as your name, your business name or a particular service your business offers.

Formula 2

General Industry Search Term + Specific Search Term = SEO Missile

“professional organizer training” + “Clear & Simple” = “Clear & Simple professional organizer training”

4. Use your long-tailed search terms everywhere

Once you create your list of long-tailed search terms, you need to plug these into every website page, every blog post, even Facebook posts and tweets. Here are some ways you can ramp up your keyword usage.

• Add you main search term to your home page name. Your home page name is what appears after the www in your url.  In the example above, the home page should read www.clear&simple.com/professionalorganizertraining
• Add your main search term as the meta description tag. This is what shows up in Google when your business appears in search results.
• On each website page, rename the page to include once of your search terms.
• Use SEO-friendly search terms in all blogs, Facebook posts, tweets and social media profiles descriptors

5. Change your marketing speak to SEO-speak

Next time you write a blog post (or a Facebook post or even a tweet) re-write your headers and lead paragraphs to include more search engine friendly sentences. For example, you might change the header “Transform a chaotic workplace into a tidy one” to “5 ways to organize your workspace.” Words like “transform” and “chaotic” and “tidy” are probably not included in frequent search terms. It’s much more likely they are using terms like “How do I get more organized at work?” By changing the header to one more search-engine friendly, you’ll rank higher in search engine ratings and your targeted market will be able to find you easier.

If you see the importance of using SEO-friendly messages, but don’t want to write them yourself, you came to the right place. Contact Sharon at info@newinkcopy.com and become more visible online.