How do you show up on Google?

SEO stands for:

• Search 
• Engine 
• Optimization

It is the process of getting your website pages, content, images, and videos to rank higher on SERPs.

SERPs stands for:

• Search 
• Engine 
• Results 
• Pages

This means, Google, Bing, Go Go Duck, etc. Before you can begin trying to rank higher, it’s important to first understand how the whole process works. So let’s start with a few basics.

Why do you need SEO?

I can write allllll day about this, and probably will in a different blog, but to put it simple, SEO increases:

• Traffic
• Awareness
• Visibility
• Leads
• Conversions
• Trust
• and Authority

Most businesses say the best marketing is word-of-mouth. And I do agree, word-of-mouth is amazing marketing because you already have a level of trust and authority built in by respected referrals. But you get those naturally by good service – so is it even marketing, or is it just good business practices. 

But then what do you do when connections run out? At some point every business needs to figure out how to reach out and acquire new clients. This is where SEO shines. 

Search Engine searches are high-intent. It’s not like social media where you just repeatedly show up in people’s feeds. In SEO you show up directly for people who are looking for you. They’re looking regardless if you’re there or not. The difference being, if you are there, you’ll get the sell. If you aren’t, then your competitor gets the sell. 

How does Google select what shows up first?

Google results show up based on an algorithm that is constantly changing. Because it is constantly changing, SEO is never a set it and forget it type thing. The algorithms primary goal is to get the user the most valuable information as related to their search request. Google doesn’t care about your company. Google cares about their users. They want to give each user the best experience they can when searching online.

Remember in elementary school when you learned the 5 W’s? Well those come into play here too. Who, what, where, when and why. Search engine algorithms use these 5 W’s to determine what results to show you when you type in search criteria. As technology progresses, so do the search results.

Early on, search results were very basic, primarily focusing on keywords in the search box in relation to keywords in the results webpages. But that’s not the case anymore. 

SERPs take into consideration all of the 5 Ws

1. Who: Search Engines give ranking priorities to those domains that have a higher trust and authority on the issue. 
2. What: This is where the keywords come into play. What the user searches for and the relevancy of that compared to your web pages.
3. Where: Location matters! Especially as of late with all of the new Google Maps interface. 
4. When: Things change quickly now, so posts and pages can get outdated, quickly. Nothing is more irritating then when a search query returns outdated information. And the search engines recognize and acknowledge this.
5. Why: This one is the biggie. This one factors in the User’s Intent

How do you build Trust and Domain Authority?

There is no perfect way to build trust and authority with search engines. It is one of the hardest and longest parts of SEO strategies. It is a complex system and mix of backlinks, high traffic, reviews, social shares and an abundance of relevant content. It’s also more personal and less technological. 

The first step to building trust and authority though is through high-quality content on a large array of topics pertaining to your industry. 

How do you rank for keywords?

Keywords are Queen (Queen’s the boss, don’t get it twisted)! But quick warning – keyword stuffing is a HUGE no no. If you want to get blacklisted, sure, do it. Otherwise, let’s play nice with Search Engines. 

Hiring out a good SEO will help with keyword research. There are many different types of keywords, and many wonderful subscription based services to help you track, manage and target based on keyword volume, ranking difficulty and traffic potential. A few of my favorite subscription SEO tools are:

• Ahrefs
• SEMrush
• Moz

Once you choose your keywords, start creating that content. Every page should have one main focus keyword. That keyword should be present in the URL. The meta title and meta description should include your keyword. Keywords should be in titles, and the copy. And don’t forget to add those alt texts – bonus if they can include your keywords as well!

How do you rank for location?

Local SEO has definitely started to take a surge, and with good reason. One of the largest search phrases is “near me”. Users are overwhelmingly looking for businesses that are near them. This is where GMB comes in. 

What does GMB mean? 

• Google
• My
• Business

Google My Business is a free asset for all local businesses. It optimizes your business directory directly in google search results. Not only that, it also optimizes your location on Google Maps. As your SEO grows, your location will also begin to rank locally for keywords. So not only will you show up in the SERPs, but you’ll also be showing up in google maps leading people straight to your door.

What is User’s Intent?

You may hear the phrase Users Intent a lot when researching SEO or pay-per-click or any kind of ads, but what does it actually mean?

User Intent is the ‘why’. Why did they search for those keywords? Why did they come to the search engine? For knowledge? For help? For “how-to” advice? To make a purchase? To find a location? Why are they here. What is their user intent? 

How do you appeal to User Intent with SEO work?

You can focus your webpages and posts towards user intent by using structured data. Structured data, also known as schema markup, can be added to you pages and posts, and tells search engines how to organize and display your content. It can also help get you located in enhanced and featured SERPs like:

• Featured snippets: A paragraph, list or more information is displayed directly in the SERP
• Rich search results: Includes styling, images, and other visual enhancements
• Rich cards: A variation on rich search results, similar to rich snippets and designed for mobile users
• Enriched search results: Includes interactive or immersive features
• Knowledge Graph: Information about an entity such as a brand
• Breadcrumbs: Breadcrumbs in your search result
• Carousels: A collection of multiple rich results in a carousel style
• Rich results for AMP: To have your AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) appear in carousels and with rich results, you’ll need to include structured data

Structured Data and schema markup options are broken into types:

• Creative works: CreativeWork, Book, Movie, MusicRecording, Recipe, TVSeries …
• Embedded non-text objects: AudioObject, ImageObject, VideoObject
• Event
• Organization
• Person
• Place, LocalBusiness, Restaurant …
• Product, Offer, AggregateOffer
• Review, AggregateRating

You can also see a full list of all schema item types, listed on a single page.

SEO PRO-TIP

Warning though – SEO takes time. It requires consistency that many small businesses may not be able to maintain on their on - so trust me, its worth the investment to hire out.

Good luck, I’ll see you in the SERPs ??