Waldo is one guy who just knows how to get lost. If you’ve ever tried a “Where’s Waldo” puzzle then you know how difficult it is to find Waldo amongst all the random objects in his surrounding background. The internet is very similar to these puzzles, with your website being Waldo and the chaos around him being all the other websites on the web. Your goal in digital marketing is to make it as easy as possible for a searcher to find Waldo – i.e., your business.
The Internet creates this puzzle of confusion. When users are unable to find you, they wind up on another company’s website instead. By enhancing your search engine optimization (SEO), you give internet users a clue where to find you on the web by making it easier for them to land on your website. There are two parts to SEO: on-page and off-page, both of which help your website get found by users. Below are two lists of ranking factors for both on-page and off-page SEO.
On-Page SEO Factors:
1.) Keywords embedded throughout 4 main parts of your website.
- Content/body of page in a natural way
- Headings
- Page URL
- Page title
2.) How relevant your website’s page is deemed to be by Google (PageRank).
3.) Internal links to other pages on your website.
4.) Meta descriptions and meta keywords.
5.) Alt tags on images .
6.) Mobile-responsiveness.
Off-Page SEO Factors:
1.) Other domains linking to your website’s url.
3.) Directories such as Google maps, Bing, Yahoo and more.
4.) Press releases and other news media that link to your website.
5.) Social media and reciprocal links to your website.
The best and final way to help customers find you is through SEM, or paid media. SEM acts as a catalyst for being found. While it’s possible to rank highly for SEO, having a program like Google Adwords will speed up the process and guarantee that you are being seen.
SEO and SEM play a vital role in boosting traffic to your website. Help your potential customer find you instead of turning them into a frustrated Waldo searcher – consider adding a regular SEO and SEM program to your digital efforts.
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