5 Key Questions to Ask Yourself About SEO
I spend my days working with some of the hardest working small business owners out there: real estate agents. They work all hours of the day, 7 days a week, helping their clients navigate the exciting homeownership experience. In this relationship-based world, it can be challenging to take the time to grow your online business, too. You accomplish this through SEO, and here are 5 key questions to ask yourself to make sure you’re on the right track.
What are you doing to get noticed online?
With more than a billion websites, you need to do more than just have a website to rise above the digital noise. You need to get noticed online, and the key strategy to accomplishing that is SEO. Create a basic SEO strategy that aligns with your consumers’ needs and business goals. Depending on your business goals and budget, you may also want to consider adding some PPC and social media promotion to your digital strategy. Effective SEO takes time, but adding these additional tactics to your marketing plan can increase your online exposure and drive more traffic to your site in the meantime.
Tell me about your SEO strategy.
According to a joint study conducted by The National Association of REALTORS and Google, Google searches in the real estate space have increased more than 253% since 2008, and that number is only expected to climb. Having an SEO strategy to increase your business’ online exposure is no longer optional – it’s necessary for success. Yet not everyone has realized this. Don’t have a strategy yet? Try these 10 tips for better SEO to get you started.
Do you have a Google+ page?
Having a presence on Google+ is a good strategy to increasing your overall search-ability. While active monthly Google+ users are still just a fraction of the active monthly Facebook user count the search engine savvy are realizing that there is value to being on Google+. Google+ is part of the giant Google search engine and Google garners more than 64% of the online search traffic in the U.S, according to comScore. It would be in Google’s own interest to favor their own channels just a little, don’t you think? With that being said, it seems pretty obvious that having a presence on Google+ is a good strategy to increasing your overall search-ability.
How does your SEO strategy align with your social media strategy?
Your SEO and social media strategies should complement each other. Maximize your efforts by utilizing the hub-and-spoke model (imagine an old-fashioned wagon wheel in your mind). Your main website is your hub – the center of your online presence. All of your other online efforts, including social media, are your spokes – pointing back to that center hub. Use your social media efforts to drive traffic back to your website by linking to your site in your posts and profiles. And when you post new content on your site, use your social channels to promote that new content. This approach will not only boost your SEO efforts, it will provide you with more immediate exposure to your website.
Is your site optimized for mobile?
With so many people using mobile devices to start their search online, optimizing your site for mobile devices goes a long way towards making Google happy and making your visitors happy, too. To make your site both user friendly and SEO friendly, consider these items:
- Use responsive design to allow your site to display properly no matter what size device it’s displayed on.
- Watch your load times on your site as mobile connections are generally slower than traditional internet connections.
- Make sure your videos can be played on mobile devices by avoiding Flash and other proprietary technologies.
