Improve your website content for higher search engine ranking!

1. Nail down your top keywords.

Do you know what the top target keywords are that you need to use to reflect how your customers and target audiences are searching for your type of business? Knowing the right keywords for your business is essential and will be the building block for your SEO content, so it's an important first step to actually find out what they are and then use them.

Keywords can also clue you in to what type of content you should be writing about that will be informative and engaging to people searching for your category of business.

My pro-tip: check your keyword list against what you have on your website - its a good way to tell if you're missing any important content.

So... how do you figure out your top keywords? If you don't have the budget to pay for keyword research from an SEO expert, no worries! You can do your own keyword research. There are plenty of free keyword research tools you can use to help and be sure to check out our blog post on DIY keyword research for a step-by-step guide.

2. Optimize existing content with our content checklist cheat sheet.

If you're not sure what optimization is or how to do it, that's okay! Content optimization is just a fancy term for making sure content is written in a way that it can reach the largest possible target audience.

You can follow our content optimization checklist below to easily optimize your content (without having to know what optimization means 😉):

• Add top keywords into the headers, meta tags, titles and description for each page of content you have and throughout body paragraphs as well.
  
  
• Make sure you have relevant content by comparing and contrasting with your keyword list with the sections of content or pages you have. You should be looking for any missing content about a key aspect or service in your line of business.
  
  
• Avoid 'keyword stuffing' - which is a negative ranking factor -yup it will actually detract from your search engine result page - or SERP - standing! Keyword stuffing is the repeated and often visible, obvious use of the same keyword phrases again and again in content. This is obvious because it's just poorly written content - keywords must be used in context and according to relevance on each page.
  
  *Learn more about keyword stuffing here.
  
  
• Be sure to include your location where applicable (in headers, places throughout your body content about your services, etc) so your content shows up in local search.
  
  Ex: Website designer located in Franklin, Massachusetts.
  
  
• If there are pages that don't have much text, add more content to them. Websites with sparse content don't perform as well in SERPs (search engine result pages).
   
  My pro-tip: the key here is not to just add more content, but also high-quality content. You can also add images, too!
  
  
• Don't forget to optimize product descriptions! Make sure all of your product and services have detailed descriptions with relevant keywords.
  
  
• Proofread all of your content and then proofread it again! Read it out loud to ensure your content makes sense & it flows well. Make sure there are no spelling or grammar errors and that it's simple and easy for website visitors to understand more about your business. If you need help, ask a trusted friend, family member or local content writer.
  

3. Consider using a blog for new content creation.

Creating new blog articles with fresh content specifically tailored for search engine optimization is an effective (and dare I say, fun!) way to improve your website's SEO. So you should definitely consider creating regular blog posts on topics related to your industry - like problems your customers need to solve, trending topics or educational resources.

Search engines like to see websites that update their content often and this is a great way to stay on top of that, provide value to your customers and establish your subject matter authority. As always, make sure you use relevant keywords throughout the text and in meta tags such as page titles and descriptions for all blog pages.

Most quality website builders should have an easy to use and maintain blog feature (LBF's does - thank you Duda!) that you can activate and use to publish your blog articles, so hopefully it shouldn't be too much of a lift to get going.

4. Leverage your social media profiles & have fun with it!

Posting on social media is one of the best ways to share entertaining & informative content and link back to your website or blog so your content is seen by a wider audience. It's also another way to create social proof for your business online - which is really important evidence for how customers make buying decisions online these days.

You can use images  (my favorite way to make fun images is canva) combined with captions to create content specifically for social media and share it on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Business. Yup you guessed it -  make sure you use relevant keywords and hashtags in your posts to attract more visitors to your website throughout all of your social media as well.

My pro-tip: Use linktree (it's free) in all of your social media profiles for quick links back to your website & blog content.

*Bonus! Use paid ads if you can: If you have the budget for it, consider leveraging paid advertising such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads. These can be targeted to specific keywords and audiences, so you can get your content in front of the right people.

I'll let you in on another secret- SEO content doesn't need to be boring!

My best advice? Make sure your content reflects your unique perspective, has a clear, consistent voice and speaks to the customers you're looking to attract. Using keywords and optimizing for SEO doesn't need to make your content dry and boring or repetitive - it can be as informative or fun as you make it. And it really works!

Do you feel like maybe you're not the best writer, that you don't have the time or you don't even know where to start to improve your website's content?

Local Business First can help! Whether you don't have the time or feel like your writing chops are up to par, our team of professional content writers can help you take your content to the next level.