How to Use SEO to Boost Your Reputation Online

05 May How to Use SEO to Boost Your Reputation Online

There’s an anecdote in the digital marketing world that says the best place to hide a dead body is on page 2 of Google Search Results. And that’s the reality of making it in today’s digital world: If you don’t have at the very least a basic search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, your name and website will rank lower on search results pages than other people and businesses with similar names and services.

What Can SEO Do for My Reputation Online?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, influences the visibility of your name on search engine results pages, making it easier for people to find your website, business, products, and services online. With the right SEO services, your online content will appear at or near the top of search engine results pages, enhancing your reputation online by drawing interested clients and targeted audiences directly to your website and other online platforms.

What Do I Need to Know About SEO for Individuals?

Many digital marketing companies try to overcomplicate SEO to the point where many individuals and small businesses feel overwhelmed about the idea of doing it themselves. But SEO is really nothing more than integrating the technical aspects of your website with high-quality and relevant content.

SEO depends on 3 things:

• The technical elements of your website and pages, including search terms, coding, urls, backlinks, and page speed.
• The quality and relevance of the content on your website and pages in relation to search engine user search terms.
• The quality, relevance, and amount of the online circulation of your content on platforms, such as social media, beyond your website.

How Can I Get Started on SEO?

If you’re wanting to boost the visibility of your website on search results pages, here’s some of the basics you need to know.

1. SEO should work in conjunction with your overall marketing plan. It cannot be a stand-alone marketing tactic. All this talk about keywords doesn’t work unless you have an overall plan in place that dictates a strategy for why you need to rank for a specific keyword or phrase.

2. Write your page or blog content first. Keywords should emerge naturally from your content—not the other way around. The originality and quality of your content is one of the most important factors in SEO, so don’t stifle the quality of your writing by trying to write around a specific search term or phrase. You can always go back and edit your content later to make sure the keyword appears enough times.

3. Spend time brainstorming about your keywords on a page by page (or blog by blog) basis. Create a list of at least 20 keyword options. What do you want your page to rank for? What words or phrases do you imagine internet users typing in order to find your page? What is your page or blog about?

4. Do a little research so you know what other content is available when you type your keyword. Don’t select keywords or phrases that have hundreds of thousands of search results. This usually means your phrase is not specific enough, or you’ve chosen too competitive of a phrase. Sometimes changing or adding one word can make all the difference between a vague, overly competitive phrase and the perfect niche for you to rank your content.

5. When you find a keyword that you think your page or blog can rank for, make sure the keyword or phrase appears several times into your content. The keyword should appear in the url, in the page title, early in the body of your text, in your H2 title(s), and a few times throughout the content on the rest of your page. You can also add the keyword as alt text to any images you use on your page.

6. BUT don’t try to over-stuff your content with keywords. The appearance of your keywords should flow naturally. This is why I suggest writing your content first and allowing keywords to emerge naturally. It shouldn’t feel like you’ve inserted the key word every other sentence. Overstuffing with keywords can bring penalties from search engines because it will appear as if you are trying to cheat the search bots.

7. Don’t compete with yourself. Be strategic with search terms so that you aren’t making it harder for yourself by trying to make two different pages rank for the exact same term. This is where an overall marketing plan comes in handy. And if you have two pages or blogs that address similar topics, choose different but related search phrases for each page.

8. Monitor the success of your search phrases by using an analytics tool or software. This is probably the most important part about SEO. You need to understand what your target audience is searching for and how you are filling that need with your content. Once you get a better understanding of what people in your field are trying to find, it will get easier to structure your content and online persona around those needs.

How do I Get the Most Out of SEO?

The most successful search optimization solutions begin with an integrated strategy that combines SEO with other online marketing tactics, such as social media marketing, so that you get the most out of your investment in digital marketing. Individuals and businesses that approach SEO from this more holistic vantage point achieve higher rankings on search engine results pages through a combination of efforts.

And this is where the team at SpiderMode can really help you step up your SEO game. We know the ins and outs of the SEO game, so we’ll be able to perfect your keyword strategy and advise you on making strategic content choices in the future. But our real strength lies in how we integrate these SEO solutions into a customized and holistic reputation management package that addresses your online persona across all platforms—search engines, your personal website, social media accounts, guest blogs, industry publications, and online forums and reviews.

Contact us today to talk about your unique reputation management needs.