Looking to learn more about internet marketing and ranking organically for local searches? Much like a diet, search engine results don’t happen overnight. The Search Engine Diet, as we will be explaining it, is our list of search engine optimizing essentials that will have users doing a double take of your website. Let’s start with the basics of internet marketing.

What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization is the many variables that rank you in Google’s search engine. Think of your website as your body. In order to feel and look your best, you need to fuel your body with the right things. If you fuel your body with healthy nutrients and take care of yourself, people will notice.

Similarly, feeding new and up-to-date content on your site lets Google know you are on top of your game and staying ahead of the trends. Optimizing each indexed page on your site appropriately helps Google quickly analyze that page and place it accordingly. Doing your research and giving your customers what they are looking for helps increase organic visibility. Internet marketing is not a crash diet, it’s a lifestyle.

There are many facets that go into having stellar SEO. Most importantly, internet marketing requires trial and error and constant tweaking. Just like a diet, you can’t work out once and expect to see results. Consistency is key. Analyzing what’s working and what’s not helps determine what needs to be done next. In our SEO diet plan, we will be focusing on 5 elements to jumpstart your local search rankings.

Better yet, consistently write great content. Curate content utilizing keywords that your audience shows interest in and content that is relevant. Not sure how to find those keywords? We use a tool in Google Adwords called Keyword Planner. This is the ultimate life saver. This research tool is incredible for seeing search volumes based on locations, demographics, etc. As mentioned earlier, you think about going to the gym once a month and hope to see improvements. Not going to happen.

Google ranks sites higher and favors sites that upload new content. In addition, make sure to include visuals. Combining plain text and appealing visuals is a recipe for success. Think about writing content that meets the readability and SEO expectations on the backend of your website. Therefore, pick a relevant focus keyword and make sure your content is centered around that keyword.

Keywords are like the workout classes and gym sessions you go to. These are the foundation of creating something great and becoming stronger in the long run. All pages on your site need a focus keyword and the entire page circulates around that keyword with relevant keywords and key phrases. Now, picking that focus keyword can be a daunting task. How do you know what will be the most effective?

We’ve discussed Keyword Planner but there are many other ways to find the perfect keyword for your business. This includes Google Trends, searches related to keywords at the bottom of Google and tracking what your competition is doing. Use these in the title of your page, the H1 and H2 headers, in your meta-descriptions, ALT tags and most importantly, in the body of your text. Utilizing key phrases and related key phrases are crucial and just as important as your specific focus keyword.

Step three: effectively optimizing your pages. Doing your research and describing your page effectively matters. It’s like doing your research when meal prepping. Know what is going into your meals for quality results. Many people tend to skip this process or take shortcuts by not doing this right. Unfortunately, just like in fitness, short-cuts will only set you back further.

• The SEO title tag is a 70-character description of your web page.
• Meta descriptions are 160-character descriptions advertising content on your page.

Utilizing that focus keyword we talked about earlier is crucial here. When you conduct a search on Google, you can read what the page is about by looking at the title. The description below it also provides a brief scan of the page. As a result, you’ll click if it’s relevant to your search. The SEO title, slug and meta description are all vital in successful page results. In addition, Google uses these as ways to scan and crawl your site when producing results for searchers.

What you see is what you get, Google favors sites with visuals. Videos, infographics, images, you name it. The point is to keep viewers on your site longer. Keep users engaged and give them appealing content that is a good representation of your brand. When inserting content onto your site, ask yourself how visuals can be utilized. Video and images are great for your website as they increase organic traffic and rankings on search engines.

Think of videos and images like the effort you put in while working towards your fitness goals. That extra effort can only do your body good. Most noteworthy, filling out the ALT text provides better image context to search engine crawlers, allowing them to index an image. Search engines don’t have the capability of seeing an image like we do. It’s our job to use descriptions that explain the image. In addition, ALT text puts you into searches on Google images.

When dieting, stepping on a scale every so often gauges your progress. Same goes for SEO. Even though you are not physically stepping onto a scale, using tools to track data and understand what is working is essential. Making changes comes with effective tracking, analyzing and measuring. Knowing what’s working well for your website and what is bringing you down in rankings will help with future decisions.

There are many tools to use here including one of our favorites, Google Analytics. This tool helps you, as a business, understand your customers and the actions they are taking. In conclusion, with this data, creating marketing campaigns targeting that audience is a breeze.