By Daman Jeet, the co-founder of FunnelKit, a suite of sales tools that helps over 18,000+ businesses streamline their checkout process.
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Do you want to learn how to improve your search presence? If so, you’re in the right place.
Your search presence is how easy it is for prospects to discover your company through traditional search engines and social media.
An organic search presence is critical to your success as a business owner or marketer. If people don’t know your brand exists, you’ll have a tough time reaching your target audience, building your email list and securing sales.
There are quite a few ways to build recognition and improve your odds of appearing in the search results when people type in relevant keywords and phrases.
Optimizing your website for search is no easy feat. I’ve spent years improving my search prescreens by making sure Google and my audience get the most value from my SEO. Today, I’d like to show you what I’ve learned. We will look at four strategies you can use to improve your brand visibility and search presence in 2023.
1. Improve Loading Times
According to 2017 Google and SOASTA research, the probability of bounces increases by 32% when page load time increases from one second to three. In other words, these users are unhappy with their experience and have decided to look elsewhere for content or products.
As you can imagine, Google’s algorithm notices when people quickly leave websites. When people take this action, it sends a negative signal to the algorithm, which can cause your site to drop in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Here are a few quick and easy ways to optimize your loading times and keep visitors on your site:
• Break comments and long posts into pages.
• Upload your audio/videos on other platforms, then embed them on your site.
• Use mobile-responsive themes and plugins.
• Invest in a caching plugin to speed up loading times for repeat visitors.
2. Add Conversational Keywords To Your Content
Conversational keywords are one of the best ways to improve your search presence. These long-tail words and phrases address specific customer questions or concerns.
For example, a brand that sells outdoor equipment might target conversational keywords like:
• What is the best backpack for hiking?
• Where can I buy freeze-dried food?
• How do I plan my next fishing trip?
These phrases are extremely specific and work well with voice search. If you use clear, conversational language throughout your website, there’s a much better chance people will discover your brand the next time they say, “OK, Google.”
You can easily add conversational keywords to your content by adding FAQ pages to articles and landing pages. In the FAQ section, answer questions you’ve uncovered through your research. Since these questions have proven popular, there’s a good chance your next visitor might find your website by typing in one of the questions addressed in your post.
3. Publish More Videos
Video content is an invaluable tool that can improve your search presence.
People watch videos online now more than ever before. This is mainly due to the rise of smartphones and social media. Plus, many consumers would rather watch a video than read a blog post because they are usually quicker and more engaging.
A properly optimized video can make your brand more discoverable on Google search and YouTube, which can boost conversions and traffic.
Now, let’s look at a few things to remember when optimizing videos for search:
• Verbalize keywords and phrases in your videos.
• Add a transcript. (Do it yourself; don’t automate this step in case it gets vital words wrong.)
• Carefully select a title and description that matches the needs of your audience.
• Include tags and other backend keywords to help Google and YouTube understand the intent of your video.
• Embed videos from YouTube on your website to add another layer of SEO to blog posts and other on-page content.
4. Earn More Backlinks
Backlinks are a powerful way to help people discover your website from other places on the internet. Simply put, a backlink is a link from one website to another. For example, the Think with Google link included earlier in this post is considered a backlink to the Think with Google website.
Google sees backlinks as a seal of approval. If many different companies are all linking back to the same website, there must be something exceptional about the information on-page or the brand as a whole.
You can improve your SEO strategy and connect with more customers by getting links to your company on other websites.
One way to do this is by writing guest posts. Brands across all industries always need content for their blogs. If you connect with someone in your industry and offer to write a post, they may allow you to include a link or two back to your website.
Another way to generate backlinks is to answer questions on websites like Help a Reporter Out (HARO). HARO allows journalists to pose questions in different categories. If you have an account, you can offer your answer. When the journalist selects your answer, they will often add a link to your site next to your name.
It’s also possible to get more backlinks to your site by creating valuable, insightful content. If you use statistics and include eye-catching examples, people are bound to link to your site when they need a reference.
Back To You
It takes time and patience to build an effective search engine optimization strategy. The tips I presented today will help you connect with people who are genuinely interested in your products or services. As more users visit your website, your search presence will likely increase.
