SEO, or Search Engine Optimization is a scary word to some, but if you take a step back, what matters are the little things you can do right on your website. Plus, it can be exciting to see your website rise the ranks on search result pages. Every little bit helps when it comes to SEO, and how high you rank could be the deciding factor on whether or not you get leads. If you are just starting out, don’t worry, we’re here to calm your nerves. Read along, as we discuss SEO with four individuals with different levels of understanding of SEO marketing and how it works. Your questions will be answered.
Contributors:
Amanda Aylen Heins – https://www.popclinkfizz.ca/
Alex Looper – https://www.loopsmarketing.com/
Cam Schreiner – https://hiilite.com/
Tina Walczak – https://hiilite.com/
Amanda is starting her own online social media/event coordinating business, and her goal/objective is to attract new clients online. She just recently, like many others, was laid-off due to COVID-19 and is ready to finally take the plunge and create her own company and make the most of a bad situation.
Designing a Website for SEO During Self-Isolation
One thing that really stood out to me, was her list of services listed on her home page. Knowing her rates helped me get a good idea of what she was selling, and to whom. I don’t know if you enjoy hunting around a website, but seeing numbers first always tells me if I’m in the right place. During our conversation, we gave Amanda actionable items that she could do while being locked in her home during this Global pandemic. I mean, what else is a person going to do, other than binge-watching every show and movie on Netflix?
I want to keep it [my website] clean, simple, and straight to the point. I wouldn’t mind picking up one or two clients. – Amanda Aylen Heins
The nice thing for Amanda is that the solutions we offered to her cost nothing. She can do it all for free—a word (and implication) we all like the sound of right now.
Amanda Aylen Heins mentioned, “I understand where everybody’s at right now, businesses are shutting down. Even Train Station Pub wasn’t focused online until I took over their Facebook and Instagram. I want to figure to host online events for other clients, that’s my goal.”
What’s Your First Impression of Amanda’s Website?
“It’s not terrible, but I mean there are some things that could be done to make it connect with your potential customers. Your headers should be the same colours, and then make call-to-actions pop out a little bit. Organize your site, so everything is not just centred. You want it to look custom and not just re-used from some templated web platform,” Alex Looper said.
I like the contact form, but if it gets missed the potential client won’t use it. I know Patrick, Hiilite’s SEO analyst, would kick your butt for how it says home/mysite/2 in the web browser tab, this makes it hard for people to find you when they look for events in Kelowna online.
SEO is about the small things. It’s the small things you do on your website that can make a huge difference in getting you found by potential customers. – Cam Schreiner
SEO is about titling things correctly, it’s having the right content with the right keywords, it’s having your images named with those keywords and not labelling your images IMG00012345. Instead, labelling your images along the lines of “service-company-name-location.” Follow this formula when you upload images to your website and you’ll already be well on your way to getting into SEO. Search engines look at everything on your site to get relevant results, right down to image file names.
There is so much you can do yourself. If you don’t understand SEO, or don’t have the time to learn, then you can hire a company to help you.
