3 Easy Ways To Improve Your SEO
Do you realise that if you don’t focus on learning how to improve your brand’s visibility in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), you’ll be missing out on a significant portion of the business that comes from search engine platforms such as Google, Yahoo, Bing etc?
When it comes to promoting a business online, search engine optimisation is crucial. You can increase the number of people who visit your website by raising its profile and ranking high in search results. By focusing on search engine optimisation you will improve your website’s traffic and have a significantly better return on your investment.
When you are checking to see how your company is ranking you should use an “incognito search” so that your browser IP address is not recognised – which means that your results will be tainted in favour of websites you have already visited – such as your own!
So, how do you get to the top of page 1 on the search engine results page (SERP) organically – ie. without paying for ads…?
This is what we do for our clients:
UNDERSTAND WHAT THE INTERNET NEEDS TO KNOW
Start by understanding that anything you put on the internet needs to explain to the search engine what it is about and who is the correct audience to show that page, article, post (etc) to.
We work primarily with estate agents, letting agents, and property industry businesses. So we start with listing all of the keywords and key phrases that we believe an estate agency audience would type into a search engine if they were looking for the type of service or product that our client could supply. Here are some examples:
- Best estate agent in [town] [county] – this will apply to all of the villages and towns that our client would sell property in. Avoid phrases such as “and all local areas” – that will not explain to a computer the locations that you are trying to reach.
- Selling an [house] in [area] or close to [landmark/school/train station].
Even with these 2 initial phrases you will make 20-30 different phrases using all of the various towns [you can even specify roads or developments] and all of the different landmarks near each of these areas. This same plan works for all types of businesses, you need to put yourself into the shoes of your customers and think about what they might type into Google in order to see your business come flashing up on the first page.
Now list all of the different types of people that you would do business with and make sure you are speaking to each of them. Try not to lump everyone into one category so instead of thinking ‘I sell houses to people in [my town]’ think ‘I sell studio apartments to single people moving out of their family home for the first time’ or ‘I sell studio apartments to professional people working away from home’ – you could even stretch this out by mentioning all of the local businesses who employ people, who might want a ‘work home’ nearby. The same would apply if your estate agency is also letting property and may rent pied-a-terre apartments to local business people.
Get yourself a Google Sheet going and keep adding all of the different search queries that your potential customers might type into a search engine in order to find your business. This should be your ‘digital bible’ and will probably keep growing!
NOW TALK TO THE INTERNET
So now you need to ensure that these keywords and key phrases are used in your words online. This includes anything that you are putting onto the internet, so your property descriptions, your website, your Google Local Business Listing, your blog articles your videos, your social media posts, your newsletters (etc).
You need to pick the relevant ones for the audience for the post you are doing – you do not need to use them all on every post or you will confuse yourself as well as your audience and the internet. If you are selling an apartment that is likely to go to a first-time buyer or perhaps a buy-to-let investor then you need to pick out those words and phrases and make sure that you use them. If you have a flat to rent next to a tube station then mention the station by name – don’t just put ‘close to the station’ there are lots of stations! The more you can tell the search engines about your property or product or article then the easier it will locate the right people to show it to, it’s as simple as that.
REMEMBER YOUR IMAGES
I come across so many companies who do not name their images, they just upload them with a generic code like “IMG0012345” and that is a very wasted opportunity.
Using a platform such as GEOIMGR you can locate your business profile and add keywords, tags and alt-text to your images. The EXIF data allows Google to analyse your pictures: Along with alternate texts and filenames, EXIF and IPTC Meta Data enables Google to better understand your photographs so don’t disregard them. The future of SEO is through pictures. This is already happening on social media platforms; if they are not optimised for social media sharing, post-performance is substantially lower.
Google Image trends:
- Google keeps putting more money into artificial intelligence for pictures;
- Policymakers are putting a lot of pressure on Google about copyright laws. As a result, Google has made an agreement with international groups to show copyright information in Google Images search results.
- Google is showing more and more photos and pictures in SERPs.
- Google has added a paid search tool for people who want to look for images.
If you would like any help with implementing an SEO strategy into your business – let us help!
QUICK ENQUIRY FORM
https://www.social-angels.co.uk/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-youtube-seo/
https://www.social-angels.co.uk/how-to-geotag-your-images/
https://www.social-angels.co.uk/what-is-alt-text/
Jane Gardner
I work all over the UK with various business owners, dedicating my creative and expert property knowledge from 35 years in the industry. I am a Level 4 ARLA Propertymark examiner, I sit on the board of Agents Giving Charity and I love everything property related! I can be contacted on 01923 627777 or by email to jane@social-angels.co.uk
