We’ve been talking about the multiple rainbows that lead to a bigger pot of gold in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. Last week, I introduced you to Natta Krakd, a mnemonic device that helps you remember the basics of On-Page SEO.
On-Page SEO is huge. Equally as huge is Off-Page SEO. The difference is obvious: everything you do on your website to be seen on search engines is On-Page SEO. Everything you do for SEO that involves your website’s information, but lives outside of your website. This would be things like business listings, social media, reviews on websites and Social Media interactions.
While putting your business name and information out there may seem redundant because it already lives on your website, there’s a great service that it provides to you in regard to search engines. For the most part, search engines like to find the same, relevant information about you in as many places as possible to confirm you are, in fact, you.
This is where NAT (Name, Address, Telephone) comes in to play. Primarily, in the listing, you make sure that this information matches what is on your website as exactly as the listing will allow.
Ideally, you want to find somewhere that will allow you to put together a description that contains your primary and secondary keywords you generated during keyword research.
Social Media is a must. I know it’s not everyone’s favorite thing and you don’t have be on every single network. You do want to be where your customers and supporters are, however.
It all comes back to our favorite phrase: “It depends.” Where are your customers? Where are your potential donors or volunteers? If your answer is, “I don’t know.” All it takes is getting a little feedback from them and finding out where the majority hang out.
We get this question all the time: “But, what if I only have one or two people on each social media network?” Chances are you don’t. You probably have people that define “on” differently than you. For example, you might ask, “Are you on Facebook?” When you get an answer in the negative it might not mean that they do not have a Facebook account, rather, they have a Facebook account they just aren’t “on Facebook regularly.” Being clear in your questions about Social Media can help a lot here. Instead of asking, “are you on” insert-social-media-network-here,” maybe ask, “do you have a Facebook account?”
While I doubt that you really will have feedback that tells you absolutely no one is using any social media at all, I’ll pretend it can happen. Because of the way that Social Media is being used, they are likely to search for businesses and non-profits through Social Media. So, you might choose to do Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so that you can build that online presence you need. You’re not wasting your time through Social Media if you’re using it for SEO purposes.
Based on your findings, you want to pick the networks that a majority of the people that gave you answers are on. This allows you to creatively communicate with the people that already follow you.
Pick one network that would be a good content generator for you. For example, if you make red harmonicas, you could have an Instagram account that shows off your latest creations. This allows lovers of harmonicas on Instagram to like your post and show search engines your content is relevant to your harmonica website.
When people post reviews, a majority of the time it is to discuss a great experience that was had in an interaction with your business or non-profit. Search engines see this as value added to your web presence through content, not created by you, that builds your credibility.
Unless there is a genuine issue within your business or organization that you are dealing with, the good should always outweigh the bad, especially if your excellent reviews are excellently written by those that gave them. However, most often you are able to publicly respond to them You can use them as an opportunity to show the “customer is always right” or the “donor is always valued.” Don’t look at them as dings on your record, look at them as ways to build rapport with and audience and a far greater benefit.
You “get points” with search engines by interaction when interacted with. Don’t panic, build the brand, the philosophy and capitalize on it.
You also build your web presence by having people comment and like and retweet and do all the things that Social Media networks allow them to relating to your Social Media. Facebook offers a lot of ways you can have your audience build that relationship with search engines.
The goal here is to find ways for you to have your audience interact with your social media to show search engines you are present on Social Media.
Whenever you can, especially with your Social Media, provide a link to your website. Do it in your profile space and if there isn’t a field provided, put it in your description. Each post should have some type of link to your website. If you make a simple statement, include it at the end of your post on whatever network you’re using!
And there’s the rainbow of Off-Page SEO!
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Still not sure what exactly to do with all this? Don’t worry, we can help you get your direction.
