The importance of SEO in digital marketing cannot be over stated! Often when people think about SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, they think of the more technical aspects. There are plenty of on-page technical aspects to pay attention to, but this post isn’t about those things. Our digital marketing company believes that pairing SEO with content marketing yields the best results.
Of course, if a client only wants us to fix the technical SEO or only wants us to create a content marketing plan, then we can do that. But it’s our firm belief that the best SEO ROI comes when you do take a tandem approach.
SEO Strategy
We’ve found a great SEO strategy that has produced great results for clients, even national clients. But the foundation goes back to the importance of SEO. Many digital marketing companies will tout their SEO results, but not disclose that those results were for local queries. Local SEO, is much easier to rank for, than a national campaign.
For example, the key phrase “SEO Redding Ca”, is much easier to rank for than say, “SEO services”. “SEO services” doesn’t have a local keyword included in the phrase. “SEO Redding Ca” has a keyword difficulty of 34.51 (out of 100, with 100 being most difficult). Yet, “SEO Services” has a keyword difficulty of 68.02. Some businesses are even paying more than $15.00 per click to target their advertising for that keyword! Can you see the difference, and the importance of SEO from the beginning?
Local SEO
Local SEO is much easier to rank for. Granted, the local market size does directly influence how competitive keyword rankings are for that market. Ranking for the Redding, Ca market will be much easier than ranking for the Sacramento, Ca market. This is even though they are only a couple hours apart.
For larger “local” markets like Sacramento, or Los Angeles, you can then target districts or even neighborhoods. For example, in Sacramento, you could SEO target El Dorado Hills, Folsom, Davis, or other areas like that. This is especially true if your business has a storefront that would benefit from foot traffic.
Google My Business
If your business has a storefront, it is extremely important to make sure you’ve signed up for Google My Business. It’s free and fairly easy, it just takes a little time. Google My Business is obviously directly tied to the Google Search Engine. If you’ve set up your Google My Business (GMB) correctly, then you should start showing up in Google search results, when people are searching for local businesses related to your business. It does take a little time, as Google does take the time to verify your business. But given the importance of SEO to your local storefront, it’s well worth the effort.
Content Marketing’s Role In SEO
Getting back to the importance of SEO strategy, content marketing plays a vital role in helping to rank your website on Google’s first page. Because, after all, that’s where you want to be!
About 75% of clicks go to the first three results on Google’s first page of search results.
That’s right. If you’re not on the first page, then you’re really only fighting for 25% of the market, along with most of your other competitors!
You have to start with SEO. Otherwise, you could create content that very few people will actually see! So you start with SEO. Understand what keywords and key phrases people are actually using to find content related to your website. Once you understand that, then you create your content plan, from the foundation SEO. Again we cannot overstate the importance of SEO from the start! We’re not going to totally give away our system of how we do that, but just understanding the basis of the strategy will put you miles ahead of your competitors!
If you’re interested in learning more about our SEO strategy and how we might be able to improve your website rankings, contact us for a free consultation!
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