Improving Your SEO and Why It’s Important

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art and science of helping people to find your website more easily via search engines like Google. This is important for taking charge of your online reputation management because making your site the most prominent source for information about you gives you a huge advantage in defining your reputation online.

You have a reputation to establish and maintain. There’s no better way to establish yourself than to have a vibrant, well-maintained site where people can find you easily.

If you want effective online reputation management, there’s no better way than having lots of traffic coming to your site to show who you are, what you do, and whom you do it for. And the best way to do that is to make your website optimized.

Joke: “Where’s the best place to hide a dead body?” Answer: “On page 3 of Google’s search results.” The only way to be influential is to be found via search engines!

There are a number of search engines out there, so SEO can seem a little overwhelming. I have good news, however: You really need to pay attention to only two search engines, Google and Bing.

If you can win Google and Bing’s affections, you’re set in the world of search engines because all the other major search engines in the Western world get their information from these two big kids on the block:

Yahoo! gets its information from Bing

Comcast, AOL, and EarthLink get their information from Google

Defining SEO keywords

People love to find a site that matches what they thought they were getting when they entered their keywords into the search window. Google does too, and if your site gives people what they want, Google will reward your site with higher rankings.

Rankings are another way to say “search results.” You want to be as close to number one for your subject area as possible in order to influence public opinion about your organization more effectively. By properly researching SEO keywords, you can reach that goal.

An SEO keyword is a word or phrase of up to five words that people can use to search for you or your organization online. It’s the thing that you put into your Google search window when you’re looking for an answer to a question or a service. By setting the correct keywords for your site, you can ensure the right audience comes to you.

Some people run a business for years without ever defining their keywords. Maybe you’ve been in the flower delivery business for years without knowing that your shop isn’t showing up in web searches for floral delivery at all!

Here are some reasons why it’s worth taking a couple of hours to refine your keywords:

Keywords help you understand what your market is looking for. Sometimes people are using different terms to search for your kind of business than you might expect.

Keywords drive more traffic to your site. Since you’re interested in managing your online reputation well, it’s always good for people to come to you first when deciding how they’re going to evaluate you online.

Some goodies that can show up when you do your keyword analysis are

You learn fabulous new keywords that never occurred to you to use

You can save yourself some trouble by weeding out keywords that aren’t being used much anymore

Keywords are as essential to your online reputation management as correct breathing is to exercise. Just as a color scheme can define the decor of your home, your SEO keywords can determine your entire online reputation management strategy.

You need to represent your organization with clear, easy-to-understand branding, and keywords are the bedrock of getting your site found and understood. When correctly used, your fresh keywords show up in your site’s architecture, copywriting, posts, and status updates.

SEO keywords help you establish and manage your online reputation, and they’re also useful for boosting sales, increasing donations, and generating positive name recognition! When you use SEO keywords, you will see positive results across the board.

It’s helpful to think of ways other people may perceive what you offer and approach it from their points of view. For example, if you sell a pain reliever, it’s helpful to think about what kinds of pains that your product relieves. People often search for answers online by asking questions. Try to anticipate those questions via your keywords. Sometimes it’s easy to assume that everybody knows as much as you do about your field, and you may underestimate how clear you need to make your SEO keywords. Think about how casual web surfers may search for your company.

When your marketing infrastructure runs on current keywords, you’re a communications powerhouse! People who understand and love your brand will even be willing to share your messages with their own audiences. This is a major benefit when you’re looking to extinguish online forest fires relating to your brand. It’s also a lot of fun when you produce a great video or have an uplifting story to tell. People love sharing positive stories with their audiences. It lifts everybody up and creates warm and fuzzy feelings for your brand that are better than any amount of advertising. Positive stories have heart!

Staying up-to-date with search engines

To stay at the top of your field, you need to stay at the top of a search engine’s results. However, only one thing stays the same with search engines: change. Google, the granddaddy of all search engines, is always changing. Google continually refines its search engine algorithms so that people can’t easily “game the system” by using keywords that don’t really contribute to the discussion.

Failing to optimize your SEO keywords is like leaving money on the table.

SEO is a continuously moving target. Even the most experienced, respected experts review their keywords and monitoring tools periodically to stay current.

Organizations at the top of their game hire SEO professionals who constantly investigate and adapt their strategies to Google and Bing’s ever-changing, top-secret refinements to their search algorithms. Occasionally, search engines will announce a change in the way their search algorithms work to make sure truly useful sites come up first in their search rankings, but experts debate what these changes mean and how they impact the current thinking and best practices in SEO.

You can keep a jump ahead of most of your competition by starting with a solid keyword analysis and then reviewing it periodically. These are your best approaches

Hiring a reputable SEO professional: Make sure you investigate any candidates. Check referrals and get solid before/after data to make sure your candidate really knows what she’s doing.

Doing it yourself with some free and/or paid tools online: Later in this chapter, I show you step-by-step instructions for using Google’s AdWords tool, as well as introduce you to some reputable fee-based services.

Assigning it to an in-house team: Make sure your team members have the tools they need — either the tools I share here or something equally comprehensive and well documented. Ideally, your team will comprise a dynamic duo of tech and marketing so they can fuse smart SEO with your branding.

One of the most important things you can do once you identify your best SEO keywords is to make sure that everybody in your organization learns about them and keeps them in mind. You can even publish an interoffice list of keywords that gets refreshed periodically so that everyone on the team is (literally) on the same page.

You’ll be delighted with the results if you make sure your content creators, social media team, and crisis team are on the same page as your IT department. Having one clear vision to guide your organization is highly effective when it’s been accurately researched, as yours is about to be.