When people say SEO, businesses automatically think of Google ranking. They are not misguided to think that’s what it’s all about, but they might be looking at a small part instead of the big picture. Though SEO means search engine optimization, it’s a disadvantage to the company if you disregard the human aspect when designing your website.
Here’s how you can target both search engines and humans when making changes to your website:
Use Natural Language
Organic links are much more valuable than paid links and spam links. Quality beats quantity, and any provider of SEO services in Denver will know that. It’s too high a risk to fill your website with spammy links and be penalized by Google when the easier and safer option is to let links come naturally.
How do you make people want to link to your pages, though? That’s where natural language plays a significant role. Natural language is meant to be understandable to humans who will be reading them, instead of Google spiders, which will only scan them for links and judge relevance based on specific keywords. Natural language means sentences make sense and paragraphs flow smoothly. Everything is cohesive, and they contain not only keywords but also related terms.
Introduce Your Brand to the Community
An old website might not think the About page has any importance to their business. It’s just another page to fill with text, so the site doesn’t feel too bare, right? The reality, however, is that this page is one of the top-level pages you need for your website to give clients an idea of who you are, what you do, and how you do it.
The “how” aspect of the business is important for humans, though it might not mean anything to search engines. It’s the “how” that determines why you focus on specific aspects and choose to do things differently. It’s what differentiates cruelty-free makeup from just regular makeup, faux leather to real leather, and sustainable practices from wasteful practices. In a time when customers are becoming more conscious of their purchases, you’ll want to distance yourself from practices that deter them from conducting business with you.
Create a Community of Engaged Customers
Search engines take what’s given to them and use this along with several other metrics to rank pages according to relevance. You can only do so much to tweak and optimize your pages. When all that’s done, switch your focus to how your social media accounts attract and keep customers engaged. Create content worth sharing, which increases your reach as customers share your post to their walls or groups. Start conversations and encourage interaction. Plan contests that reward customers for their time or patronage.
Search engines do not interview users to ask how you are as a company, but customer engagement says a lot on your behalf. Use your cards right, and you’ll be turning them into brand ambassadors without any additional effort.
SEO is not just about ranking well on SERPs. You also want to look good for your customers to attract more of their peers.
