Search engine optimization (SEO for short) gets a bad reputation for being ever changing and super complicated.
Hmm… sounds like what most men say about women too: ever changing and complicated.
So maybe search engine optimization: the practice of optimizing your website to show up in the search engines more often, is really something that comes naturally to us as women.
If you think about it, using your feminine charms you attract people to you, and unlike being pushy and running advertisements or chasing website traffic, search engine optimization is all about letting people come to you.
Search Engine Optimization: SEO Basics
Here are the SEO basics you need to know, to start appearing in the search engines when your ideal prospects are looking for you.
1. Get clear on what keywords they’re using to look for you.
There are very competitive words that are hard to show up for in the search engines, words like “weight loss” or “web design”. But these are also such broad categories, that they’re not really useful either.
Someone searching for weight loss might be writing a research paper on the topic, and not looking to hire a health coach. And it might be a programmer looking to learn web design, and not hire a web designer.
So think about the actual words people might be typing into the search engines, and think specific.
One of the most popular posts on this blog is “How to add an opt-in box at the bottom of blog posts” – you can’t get much more specific than that, but people type that type of query into the search engines every day.
2. Choose one keyword per page on your website.
Your website is made up of many different pages and blog posts, so you need to pick one keyword for each. Your website will have an overall “focus”, but you don’t need to determine that – just let the search engines do the work on that one.
Instead, focus on coming up with the perfect keyword for each new blog post you write, and for each of the main pages you have.
3. Optimize your page and interlink generously.
Fill in the meta tags on each of your pages, using the main keyword you selected for that page. If you don’t know what that means and you’ve got a WordPress website, just install WordPress SEO by Yoast and follow along with the tutorials and you’ll up and running in no time.
You’ll also want your keyword to appear in the text of your article or blog post, and you’ll want to link to related content on your site too.
4. Create amazing content that’s worth linking to which increases incoming links.
The search engines have a few different cues that tell them how good your website content is, and whether or not to list you higher up in their results.
One of them is how often your content is shared on social media and also how many times your site and pages get linked to from other websites.
So it’s in your best interest to create the best darned content you can, for both your ideal customers and because the search engines will notice and reward you for it too!
5. Make your Meta Description something worth clicking with a strong call to action.
Finally, look at the results for your keywords and think about how you can write your description to be even more clickable. Include a call to action that tells people to check out your page and then make sure they see what they were looking for when they get to your site.
So these are the SEO basics that will get you on your way to attracting more traffic and customers.
What Are Your SEO Basics questions?
In the meantime, I’d love to hear what you think about search engine optimization as a feminine approach to traffic. Love it? Hate it? Leave a comment below!
