This article can apply to any business as the principles are the same, but we are basing this on professional organisations such as solicitors and accountants.
To those commercial companies who have not heard of the term SEO, don’t worry since you are probably not alone. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is a massively current, relevant and important topic for all commercial organisations that are serious about their business being found in search engines by prospective customers. Without the results of SEO your company could be hard to find, and even seen as unauthoritative.
The main thrust of SEO is about making sure a company’s website appears on the first page of the search engine results pages for particular relevant keywords. Since Google is the most popular search engine, it is this which is most often focused on.
It is therefore SEO that is your advertising gateway to the world and ultimately new business and contracts. Never is this more important than in the commercial world.
Here are the important points we consider should be thought when carrying out an SEO strategy.
Having Off site exposure
Simply stated, the more links a website has to it the greater authority it is seen as having. Now not all links are equal, the more relevant and quality a site the better the link worth to yours. Think of a group of people all pointing up at something in the sky, chances are everyone would be attracted and do the same. Search engines work in a similar crowd voting fashion.
However beware! There are such things as bad links and linking to wrong or inappropriate content (or them to you) can actually scupper your rankings before you begin.
For commercial purposes, getting exposure on associations and local chambers of commerce as well as suppliers maybe the best approach coupled with a content strategy. Remember to link to deep pages on your website, not just the homepage.
For lawyers having links to associations might be the most relevant for this sector. Have you won any cases recently? It would be worth going back to companies who you share success stories with and seeing if you can build your link profile this way.
Effective Content
Content is really paramount and anything you can think of that’s from blog posting to articles and from pictures to videos ( shareable media.)
Content is popular with search engines and these ‘trawl’ (basically scan) websites looking for suitable content to particular areas and fields. Using mathematical equations these are then ranked in order of authority and quality of the article. The greater the authority carried (along with other factors), the higher up the rankings the content should appear.
For commercial companies, the key is to post regular, up to date, and engaging content. This will earn you a higher ranking and links naturally over time.
For the accountant, changes to income tax and corporation tax thresholds are good posts to write about, or how about analysis of the Chancellors budget and what this means for a typical family. Keep it relevant, topical and up to date and they could even go viral.
The Site Map
Site maps are exactly what springs to mind – a kind of path to ensure your website flows smoothly and is organised hierarchically.
It is all about creating a user friendly experience of your website. Those sites which have unorganised or seemingly random links will create a poorer user experience and thus appear lower in the rankings. This is because a complicated or lack of a good sitemap makes the search engines work harder to understand the structure. You wouldn’t want to go on and journey and take lots of wrong turnings and dead ends!
For commercial companies, ensure your website has relevant links as to what the site is about and try and create a site where the user has to make as few clicks as possible in order to navigate around your website to the desired pages.
Analyse your pages and make sure they are relevant and flow. E.g. For a solicitor are the different services you specialise in sub divided into different pages making it user friendly?
User specific queries
Saving the best till last, this is very important.
You should position your campaigns around what your end user will want to know. This can help when writing content, to planning and ordering your site to acquiring off page metrics.
For instance, what words spring to mind when you think of your commercial business? This includes describing it, what it does, what it sells etc.
When search engines scan a website, they look for numerous references to keywords, so ensure your pages and content show you are an authority around the areas you want to rank for.
Accounts may want to be found around topics such as “business accounting,” “tax accounting,” “payroll” etc.
Follow these main four tips and you will be on your way to creating a successful and well complemented SEO website.