To Get Found on Search Engines, Put on Your Customer SEO Hat!
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Acquiring decent rankings in search engines doesn’t happen by osmosis. When I started this journey decades ago, getting ranked was relatively simple, primarily because there weren’t as many websites. Now, there are billions.
Basic SEO practices incorporated into your site did the trick, especially considering there was limited competition. Online was an equalizer for small businesses back then, but that, too, has changed.
By creating your site correctly, from code to content, you had a decent chance of getting found when searched for back in the day. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case, and I am surprised how many still believe it to be true. Wishful thinking?
Think about this…
There are currently at least 1.1 billion websites, with around 252,000 new ones being created daily (November 2024). That means up to hundreds of thousands are competing with you for that top page’s above-the-fold visibility.
Above-the-fold refers to the results displayed after a search before scrolling to see more. Bumping out the sites already enjoying those spots will take lots of effort and years. So, it is time to get to work!
SEO has not changed much in three decades. Instead, the changes have been more technological—for instance, the addition of social media, mobile responsiveness, server, and site speed performance.
Creating relevant, valuable, well-written content that your site visitors will appreciate is naturally optimized for SEO. Therefore, quality content will always be at the core of attaining relevant rankings.
Where Do I Start SEO’ing My WordPress Site?
Many believe WordPress has built-in SEO, and there is nothing the site owner needs to do. Yes, WordPress (and premium themes) are SEO friendly, but you still have to create the content that needs to be SEO’d.
Check out my article that will help you get your feet wet
on the basics of “how to learn about SEO.”
While several plugins assist with this process, I recommend Yoast SEO. But understand that no plugin is the be-all and end-all.
It won’t miraculously “SEO” your pages to the top page of search engines. Instead, SEO plugins make recommendations based on your content.
It is best to do keyword research to identify relevant keywords and incorporate them into your site. In addition, mapping out how you will structure and organize your information to be user-friendly is an essential part of the process.
If you have an established site, look at your stats. You can see how you are being found and the most popular content. Build on that.
Either way, you need to have a plan.
SEO is Not Entirely About You
I always advise clients to get into their customers’ heads when determining keyword phrases for their SEO efforts. Determine and target the terms that your potential customers are using.
Please do not fall into the trap of optimizing your website based on only how you want, think, or prefer to be found. When you look at your SEO from this perspective, you may be surprised that your target market uses an entirely different set of terms.
The industry terms you use may be unknown to your target customers. The terms you want to be found by may not be the terms your potential market knows about. This is where keyword due diligence is so critical to your online endeavor.
FREE: Find new keywords for your market…
Guessing or thinking doesn’t cut it. Knowing precisely what folks use is imperative to your “findability.”
Having the data to figure this out means you have no excuse for not knowing. Determine what phrases are searched for and integrate those terms throughout your site.
What are the “Right” Keywords for Your WordPress Site?
Not keywords — phrases! Keyphrases. To expect to rank for one-word search terms is impossible. So, instead, let’s go for phrases:
Now go to my post on Bullseye Marketing, which has a PDF you can download to help you determine your target phrases and begin actively SEOing your WordPress site.
So go ahead — get to work!
At your service,
