seo – Page 2 – 5 Horizons

The Benefits of Focusing Your Strategy on Local SEO

December 12, 2023

Local SEO is a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that helps increase search result visibility for local businesses. If you rely on local customers, have a physical location, and serve a specific geographic area, local SEO is a strategy worth implementing to optimize your reach.

Benefits of Local SEO

1. More new and returning customers

With modern life being so fast-paced, people tend to add “near me” to their search engine inquiries or look for local businesses directly in Google Maps and other map apps. With successful local SEO, your business will appear in the top three results, increasing the chances of customers selecting it among your competitors.

2. Increased website traffic conversions

You can include the link to your website in directories such as Google My Business, which will result in highly qualified traffic. Site visits that come from local searches are from customers in the area who are ready to engage with the products or services your business offers.

3. Improved brand awareness

Having your business appear in global or local trustworthy publications and review sites (such as Yelp) can help generate more feedback, helping you take control of your reputation. Also, through high-quality link building, search engines and customers alike will feel more confident about your products or services, amplifying your business opportunities.

How to Implement Local SEO

Your strategy for implementing local SEO for your business stems directly from what you hope to achieve. Taking the above local SEO benefits as a guideline, here are some things you can do to rank higher in Google search, get noticed by more customers, receive better leads and targeted website traffic, and manage your reputation for increased brand awareness.

1. Perform a website SEO audit

Keeping local SEO in mind, check how well your website is performing. Does your website feature SEO elements that help ranking? Do you mention the specific geographic locations you want to target? Are your URL, meta titles and descriptions, and headers optimized? Do you have a location page on your website? Do you offer local content that could attract a local audience? These are just a few of the questions worth asking when performing an SEO audit.

2. Optimize your online presence

Create a Google My Business page and encourage your customers to share authentic reviews. Keeping this page active and updated will help your business rank higher in search results. But your online presence doesn’t stop with Google My Business. You have to make sure the content about your business continues to appear in online directories and citations. Reach out to local online publications to feature your business and link to it, which will help your website gain credibility for search engines and prospective customers alike.

3. Stay consistent

It is your responsibility to make it easy for people to contact you and find out where your business is located. Ensure your name, address, and phone number are the same everywhere online, and optimize your website for mobile to guarantee website traffic conversions for people who are on the go.

By implementing a local SEO strategy, you’ll increase your business recognition and gain more customers. Though the benefits of this approach are undeniable, building a successful local SEO strategy takes time. To streamline your journey, contact us to discuss conducting an SEO audit and other steps we can take to help your business thrive. You can also learn more about SEO by reading other blogs in our Demystifying SEO series.

Demystifying SEO

November 22, 2023

A new blog series for understanding the ins and outs of SEO.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process and strategy of increasing search result visibility for businesses. With technology changing and evolving every day, SEO strategies are constantly in flux.

In our new series Demystifying SEO, our team is doing a deep dive into the complexities of SEO and how you can begin implementing best practices into your own marketing plan.

The Basics

In the first section of the series, we’ll cover the basics:

How We Implement SEO

In the second section of the series, we’ll address the challenges surrounding SEO:

Where is SEO Going Next?

And in the third section of the series, we’ll cover where we think SEO is headed next:

Follow our Demystifying SEO series to learn how SEO is more than just content, how it requires a thorough strategy and involves intent-focused keyword research. Or contact us to discuss conducting an SEO audit to help your business thrive.

Inside 5 Horizons: Internal Linking Best Practices

June 1, 2023

Our Tech Team’s guide for identifying and implementing effective internal links in your website.

A well-built and maintained website makes it easy for users to find what they’re looking for. Internal links are critical for guiding navigation, building authority, and increasing keyword visibility.

Identify focus keywords for important pages.
Use those focus keywords as anchor text to link to those pages from other pages or content pieces.
Add links selectively and strategically.
Document content strategy, including anchor text and internal links, to avoid cannibalizing rankings from other pages.
Review page performance and then adapt and optimize according to fluctuating page rankings.

This guide explores important considerations for identifying and implementing effective internal links.

Why Internal Links Matter

Your site’s domain authority is directly impacted by how long visitors stay on your site, how many pages they visit, and how deep into the site architecture they go.

Every time you add a new page or post to your website, consider the interconnection between all of the pages on your site. Be sure to identify opportunities for linking to internal site pages. These links help site visitors access valuable content on your site rather than looking elsewhere.

Create and Maintain a Clear Content Strategy

A well-documented and maintained content strategy helps you define what you’re going to write about when, specific keywords to include, and opportunities for internal linking. Documenting the keywords that pages are targeting can help you avoid cannibalizing rankings.

Be intentional when deciding what links to add to any given page, and make sure that the included links are relevant to other page content and utilize keywords as anchor text.

Think About User Experience

While you don’t want them simply clicking in circles for the sake of clicking, you do want to provide them with easy ways to find what they’re looking for, as well as valuable information that may enhance their experience.

When your site visitors click on a link, they’re trusting you to reward them with valuable content. Therefore, the anchor text used should align with what they’re going to find on the other side.

Avoid page-stuffing with unnecessary or unrelated links. Not only will that negatively affect user experience, but the search engines are sophisticated enough to know that’s what is being done.

Be Selective About When to Link

There’s no need to make every instance of a keyword linkable. In most cases, this means only hyperlinking the keyword or phrase (e.g., program name) the first time it appears in the piece.

But consider the context when deciding which instance to actually link. For example, in a piece exploring the differences between MBA programs where each program has its own section, we’d suggest linking each program name as it appears in its section heading. This would extend to MBA as well, rather than hyperlinking the first occurrence in any intro copy.

Add Value to Your Links

Hyperlink text that only says “click here” or “learn more” are meaningless to search engines and forfeit opportunities to build domain authority. Instead, try to use keywords as the hyperlink text.

Rather than using “click here,” lead in to your hyperlink with text that adds value such as “download our brochure about [Program Name]” or “sign up for our [Program Name Infosession]” or “complete our inquiry form to learn more about [Program Name].” And rather than hyperlinking that whole sentence, put the hyperlink on the text that aligns closest to your focus keywords.

It’s worth noting that this is not talking about call to action (CTA) buttons, especially when it comes to “learn more.” CTA buttons are usually concise and adjacent to contextual copy.

Connect Users with Supporting Pages and Content

Internal links provide opportunities to guide users to information that may not be highly visible in the navigation. When you’re writing a content piece, think about other pages, content, and topics that might be relevant to the reader. Start by optimizing the content and meta data to try to attract more organic traffic.

Then you can add links to other relevant pages directing traffic to the less visible page using focus keywords. Also consider adding content pieces that highlight the keywords associated with the page you’re trying to highlight.

The Inside 5 Horizons series includes stories and perspectives from our amazing team. Get a glimpse into our company culture each month by hearing from the unique voices of our copywriters, strategists, project managers, and more.