January 4, 2018
How To Choose The Right SEO Expert In Orange County
There was a time when ranking high in online search results was as simple as spamming your preferred keywords, over and over. Not exactly a recipe for user satisfaction!
Fortunately, today’s search engines are smarter – and so are the SEO professionals working to optimize their clients’ webpages for Google, Bing, and similar sites. To stand out in a hyper-competitive marketplace, you’ll want the help of a dedicated SEO expert.
What Does An SEO Expert Do?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists use strategic tactics to boost organic traffic to your website, and to improve its ability to rank well in major search engine results.
These strategies include:
• Keyword research – standing out with high-level keywords like “restaurant” or “consultant” is nearly impossible when you’re competing with the biggest businesses in the nation. But proactive keyword research can help you to identify the relevant phrases that your audience is searching for – especially ones with low competition and high profitability.
• Diagnose/fix technical issues – there are countless tiny ways to improve your websites ability to interact with search engines: and many of them aren’t obvious on the surface. From fixing broken links and redirects to creating optimized site maps, an SEO consultant can make your website look more navigable to the search engine robots.
• Competition analysis – “know your enemy”, as Sun Tzu said in The Art of War. And while you may not technically be at war with your competitors, knowing their SEO-related strengths and weaknesses (as well as their online audience profile) helps you structure your web presence strategically.
It’s not all back-end changes, either. Usability is a huge part of search engine rankings, and SEO specialists will also look at on-page criteria including:
• Bounce rate – how many customers leave your website entirely after reading the first page they reach vs. continuing on to other pages? And which customers are leaving vs. staying?
• Time-on-page – do users tend to exit your website almost immediately, or do they stick around for a while? If visitors are only averaging a couple of seconds on your site, it suggests to search engines that the user didn’t find what they were looking for here.
• Keyword density – while it’s true that unnatural “stuffing” of keywords leads to search ranking penalties, you don’t want a complete lack of relevant terms either. SEO specialists can help audit your on-page content and ensure you’ve found that “sweet spot” of search-friendly terms and user-friendly information.
Ultimately, SEO experts are there to make sure that your website has the features sea, and to find ways of improving the user experience a little bit for your customers. Both of these things contribute to higher search rankings for the keywords and phrases that matter to your business.
What To Look For In An SEO Expert
When searching for an SEO pro to help your business rank better with relevant audiences, it’s best to look locally. Search engine results are tailored in part based on your location, and while ranking #1 for your preferred keywords nationwide may be a serious challenge, it’s just as useful if you can rank very high for users in your actual geographical area. Local SEO experts should be very familiar with your region, as well as the competition you face nearby.
The best SEO consultants will stand by their results. Check their website for a portfolio that demonstrates success, and perhaps a list of satisfied clients with whom they’ve worked in the past. You should also feel free the experts any questions about their work process and how they measure results.
Finally, be wary of any SEO consultants that promise a #1 ranking – this isn’t actually a guarantee that anyone can make ethically. Search engine optimization is not an exact science, especially with the highly specific details of ranking algorithms being kept a closely guarded secret.
Looking for an SEO expert in Orange County? GreatLike Media is an Orange County SEO company that specializes in custom web solutions for business owners large and small, right here from our Irvine offices.
Get in touch for more information, and let us know how we can help you thrive
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