I recently had a meeting with a prospective client and the subject of SEO popped up.

I began by discussing various on-page SEO techniques and keywords which we would look at implementing on the website - more on these techniques below.

However, when I began talking about other tactics we could use to assist with our SEO efforts, especially around content, social media and user experience, there was a look of trepidation on the client’s face.

This type of reaction is not uncommon. SEO is one of those subjects that can give experienced marketers, and business people alike, the heebie-jeebies.

Sometimes clients have a good grasp of SEO and how to implement it. However, more often than not, they’ll have limited knowledge which leads to confusion - and that’s perfectly okay! There’s a good reason why people and companies specialize in SEO.

Why is there so much confusion around SEO?

A common definition is:

“SEO is a combination of strategies, techniques and tactics to help you achieve a high page ranking on search engines (SERP) like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.”.

However, what does this actually mean; how do I make improvements and what are these strategies and techniques?

To begin getting to grips with this topic, I believe it’s important to think about the big picture or as I define it as “360 Marketing”. ‘360 Marketing’ is about aligning your various marketing strategies and tactics to assist in improving your overall SEO.

The time, effort and money you put into developing your Website (design and content), Content Marketing, Pay-Per-Click and Display ads, Social Media, User Experience and so on, all contribute to your overall SEO.

This, in turn, will build up your authority and improve your page rankings.

360 Marketing - How to be fully optimised for Search Engines.

Below are 7 key elements which will help you begin to understand if you’re contributing to your SEO in an optimal way. These include:

Site Layout
Keyword Research
On-page SEO
Blogging
Local SEO
360 Marketing Strategies
Analytics

By researching, implementing and monitoring the following tactics, you’ll be able to significantly improve your SEO while increasing your searchability, sales and revenues.

1. Site Layout

An essential part of SEO is the layout and architecture of your website - check out our in-depth post outlining the benefits of good website design

However, on top of good design, it’s imperative that your website and content is structured in a way that is easily readable to both humans and search engines alike.

As a search engine, like Google, crawls your website, it needs to understand what it is your website is displaying to the viewer. However, what you see and what the search engine sees may vary greatly. That’s why it’s vital on your site to have - ‘Indexable Content’.

‘Indexable Content’ allows search engines to read the content on your site. It helps them understand the content displayed and store it correctly within the search engine so it can present the relevant information when a user has a comparable search query.

Search engines can understand content in HTML or text format. When developing a website, it is recommended to use HTML and text formats as the main content source.

Where search engines struggle, is when content is presented in formats such as images, videos, Flash and audio. These type of formats are known as non-Indexable Content. These can be converted from non-indexable content into indexable content, however this is a more complex process and involves extra coding.

The key take-away - anything important that you need Google to index must be in a text format on your page.

Finally, when building your site, make sure it’s mobile responsive. With responsive web-design, visitors to your website will be able to load it correctly on any device and improves the overall user experience.

2. Keyword Research

Keywords are the cogs in the machine of your SEO strategy, so it’s vital to research and choose your keywords wisely.

“Keywords” itself is a little confusing here because when we’re talking about keyword research, we’re not talking about researching and finding single words.

We’re looking for combinations of words or phrases that our audience are actively searching for, as well as phrases that have little in the way of competition.

Your website homepage should include copy based on your product or service's key benefits and features, as well as your chosen keywords. By displaying keywords on your homepage, search engines will have greater accuracy when indexing your content.

Every piece of content you create, be it for landing pages, blog posts, ads, etc. should contain a number of identified keywords.

When beginning your research, understanding your customers pain points and the types of questions they’re asking is a great place to start. Simply type some relevant questions about your industry into Google Search toolbar and from drop down menu, see what are other type of questions people are asking.

To listen in on your audience and get a better understanding of their issues, check out websites like Quora and Reddit. These are free sites where people are more than likely asking questions about their problems. Check out industry specific forums and make notes of any common questions or themes.

There are also a number of tools to assist your search for these elusive keywords. These tools include:

With this information, start building up your keyword list and develop content around them.

3. On-Page SEO

Improving your on-page SEO, also known as onsite SEO, involves optimising web pages and blog posts with appropriate ‘titles’, ‘tags’, ‘content’, etc. with your targeted keywords. Below are some of the key items to include when optimising for on-page SEO.

Title tags

Title tags (eg. the title of a blog post) is the most important aspect of on-page SEO. Title tags should be relatively short - around 50-60 characters - with your keywords front loaded at the start. For example, this post is called “360 Marketing and SEO - A Guide To Getting Your Business Found Online”

Page URL

Simple rule: avoid long, ugly page urls such as - cocastudio.com/category/360-marketing-and-seo-a guide-to-getting-found-online
Your page URL should closely match your title tag, be short and include your keyword - cocastudio.com/category/360-marketing-seo-guide

Meta Description

This is a tag in HTML, that summaries your page's content. This snippet is generally under 160 characters so make sure it’s clear and concise. Search engines display this description in their search results.There are some plugins, such as Yoast for Wordpress, which helps when adding descriptions to content. It’s also possible to add meta description to Squarespace blog posts.

Header Tags

Header tags are another important element to consider. These tags include <h1>, <h2>. <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, <h6>. Header tags works like a hierarchy with <h1> being the most important and <h6> being the least. Title tags should always be in the <h1> header tag - sites like Wordpress and Squarespace automatically add <h1> tags to titles. Subheadings should be wrapped in <h2> and so on.

Image Optimisation

As mentioned earlier, search engines have difficulty reading non-indexable content like images. To combat this, use ‘Alt Tags’ to convert images into readable text for search engines. Use simple plain english when adding descriptive text to your ‘alt tags’ and do not overload with keywords. Also, where possible, reduce the file size of images. Large file sizes will lead to slower loading pages and increase the bounce rate of your visitors.

4. Blogging

Starting and maintaining a consistent and relevant blog is another critical element of improving SEO. When optimising a blog, the two previous points we’ve just discussed - ‘Keyword Research’ and ‘On-page SEO’ - really come into play. Having previously identified your keywords, build out your content strategy based on them.

Other areas to consider when blogging include:

Your Audience

Really think about the audience you’re trying to reach. Without identifying and outlining some essential elements like understanding your audience - their wants, needs and issues, the content type to use, etc. your efforts will be in vain and will not resonate with your readers. Create useful, shareable content that adds value to their professional or everyday lives.

Compelling Headlines

Remember to write headlines that will captivate the reader and make them want to click. Also, add your keywords in the first 100 words of the article and do not overuse the same keywords throughout the post.

Internal & External Links

If you’ve written previous content on a related subject on your site, link to this content using internal links. Internal links helps improve site navigation, outlines the structure and hierarchy of the site, as well distributes page authority throughout your site. If you’re going to add links to external sites and resources, make sure they are high quality and reputable. This will improve your reputation with users and search engines.

Long-form Articles

Another tip is to write more long-form articles. Studies have shown that longer-form content general ranks higher on Google. The best performing posts had roughly 1600 words and took around 7 minutes to read. Use social sharing buttons on posts so viewers can easily share content.

5. Local SEO

When marketing your business locally for SEO, there are several steps which can increase your ranking.

Firstly, make sure you have either a ‘Contact Us’ or ‘About Us’ page that clearly displays your Business Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP). Having your NAP consistently presented across the website (contact page, footer, etc.) is fundamental.

Next, set-up a ‘Google For Business’ account.

When setting up remember to:

Add a long, unique keyword-rich description of your business.
Select the appropriate category for your business
Add your local phone number
Add your business address
Add your business opening - closing hours
Upload as many photos of your business as possible (use “Alt Tags” to index content).
Get reviews

Some additional steps which help with local SEO include getting reviews from customers on sites including Google reviews, Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc.

Building trust and authority with ‘customer reviews’ is critical not only for your business but is a key element of local SEO. On your website, you could have a dedicated page highlighting how customers can leave reviews or perhaps even incentivise reviews by offering a discount.

Also, developing to ‘citations’ and ‘local link building’ is another tactic in Local SEO. This is the process of getting your Business NAP and website URL hosted on other sites such as local directories. Having citations from high-ranking authoritative sites again improves your trust and builds your ranking locally.

For example, if you’re a Dublin restaurant, you might think about adding your listing to sites such as rai.com, indublin.ie, dublintourist.com, restaurantsireland.ie, goldenpages.ie, yelp.ie, and so on.

6. 360 Marketing Strategy

360 marketing is about looking at the bigger picture. This includes trying to improve your SEO on channels which are ‘offsite’.

Mark Walters, an SEO consultant, describes off-site SEO as:

“the process of promoting your website across the web. The purpose is to build brand awareness, improve rankings in search engines and attract visitors from 3rd party websites.”

So how do we do this? Well, let’s look at some action points below.

Social Media

Being active on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. is essential. Create valuable, shareable content on your website and post updates with links on the social channels where your audience participates the most. Encourage people to ‘like’, ‘share’, and ‘repost’ your content while building up links back to your site.

PPC

Use ‘Pay Per Click’ on Adwords and Facebook to attract new visitors to your site. Constantly monitor campaigns to improve your click-through-rates (CTR) while reducing your overall cost-per-clicks (CPC).

User Experience

Although this could be considered a part of onsite SEO, the overall experience a user has when accessing your site or content is vital. There are plenty of ‘scrollmap’ and ‘heatmap’ tools out there that can give insights on visitors on-page behaviours. Minimise the use of pop-ups and be sure to implement security SSL certificates. This ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral.

7. Analytics

Analytics plays a crucial role in measuring your SEO performance, as well as providing invaluable information on the type of content you should be creating. Some key areas to monitor are:

Landing Pages
Exit pages
Changes in Traffic
Slow loading pages
Bounce rates

Google has provided helpful tips and resources on analysis techniques for Google organic search and SEO. Another useful article by Kissmetrics ‘5 Must-Know Google Analytics Strategies To Measure SEO Success’ also offers useful tips on how to measure and analyse the effectiveness of your SEO campaign.

Wrapping Up

Search Engine Optimisation is an ongoing process that can always be improved and refined.

As we’ve shown above, SEO, at the end of the day, involves coordinating and aligning your various marketing strategies so they are all working together in harmony.

Remember - all your online activities and efforts contribute to SEO and play an important part in improving your overall page rankings.

I hope you found this article useful and informative and may be able to implement at least one key element into your ongoing SEO strategy.

I’d love to hear some thoughts and comments from our readers on your experiences with SEO and any tips or insights you may have or would like to share.

360 Marketing & SEO - A Guide to Getting Your Business Found Online