If you are looking for a search engine optimization consultant in Kentucky, it is because you know the importance of SEO in business and the boost it can give to your sales and your brand.

In this article, we will talk about the key aspects we consider when doing SEO on your own or when hiring an external SEO service.

It is essential to mention that each industry and each region behaves differently. However, the information that we share here will help you cement your strategy’s general structure so that it is successful in the medium and long term.

Why should you be doing search engine optimization?

You need to do search engine optimization because it is the most effective and cheapest way to attract potential clients and make your brand known.

The goal is to attract visitors interested in your products or services organically without paying directly for traffic. Contrary to popular belief, SEO is not free since resources are used to create the content that will drive your strategy, however, those resources have a better ROI than any other type of advertising strategy.

Because paid advertising is accessible to any advertiser, regardless of its size, the available advertising space is more expensive, and it becomes increasingly costly to advertise on the internet search. You don’t want to get into a budget war with your competition because the only beneficiary will be Google.

Search engine optimization is the best way to show your audience that you are an expert in what you do, know what you are talking about and that you are the best option available in the market. However, it is not enough to tell them that you are the best; you need to prove it.

The best of all is that you already have the essential resources, you have the knowledge, you know your products or services perfectly, and all you have to do is translate it into content formats that people can and want to consume.

What SEO strategy do we follow?

The best overall SEO strategy is to create informative, entertaining, or helpful content and do it in different formats. Your audience is always first, so you should focus on what they are looking for and their needs.

It would be best if you never created pieces of content for the sole purpose of ranking your page in search engines. It may work in the short term, but with constant updates from Google, it will most likely be penalized in the medium and long term.

Depending on what you sell and where you sell it, you should consider a local SEO strategy for Kentucky and a national or global SEO strategy.

The more specific you are with your keywords, the lower the competition. Avoid targeting very popular keywords because the competition can be so great that your page does not appear even on the first page of results, and the traffic will be practically zero.

If you don’t know what pieces of content to create, ask your customer service department what the most frequently asked questions are and start by answering them in detail, either in an article or with a video.

No strategy will work if you are not consistent in the content creation. Try to set a goal and post content at least once a week.

How do we improve the SEO of your website?

Now we will see different aspects that affect the search engine optimization of your website, some are in your control, and many others are not.

Keyword research

This is one of the most important aspects of SEO, choosing the words on which you will optimize your content pieces.

Usually, the most prominent words are the ones that are used the most and the ones with the most traffic. It must be taken into account that the competition is directly proportional to the popularity of the keyword.

The last thing you want is to compete against websites with more resources and have more time to generate content.

Try to be very specific when choosing your words and try to make them as long as possible so that your chances of ranking well are much better.

The content must be granular. For example, it is much better to try to create ten pieces of content that generate 100 visits each than to try to make one piece of content trying to get 1000 visits.

The idea is to build a site with a lot of specific content on the same topic, and visitors will find each of their questions clearly and quickly.

On-page SEO

Title:

The title is perhaps the most crucial part of on-page SEO since it is the name you will give to your page, and it will be the main words with which Google will index you. Always include the chosen keywords in the title.

Description of the page:

In the description, you should give a small introduction to what the website is about. You have up to 154 characters where you must also include your keywords without repeating them.

Keyword density:

Density refers to the number of times your text includes your keywords based on the number of words in your piece of content. Ideally, keep the percentage between 1% and 3%. Thus, for every hundred words, your keywords should appear 1 to three times.

URL:

It is the specific address of your page where you include your domain and an additional path for a particular page. This is also a place where you want to add your keywords. Try to separate the words with a hyphen “-.”

Text length:

This part is something that SEO experts disagree on. However, the data indicates that the vast majority of pages ranked in the first place have around 2000 words. There is no exact number, but it is to be understood that the more extensive the content, the more specific it can be.

Headers:

Separate your content into sections and subsections so that it is easy for visitors to find the part that is closest to what they are looking for. Try to use your keywords in at least one of the headings.

Images:

A text-only page may seem unappealing to visitors. Instead, try adding images that illustrate the topic you are dealing with. Remember that an essential part of SEO is engagement, and pictures help to engage with visitors. Do not forget to put the keywords in the “alt text.”

Internal Linking:

The website structure and internal linking are key for engagement. The better your visitors link to different pages within your site, the more time they will spend on it and the better experience they will have.

External Linking:

Although it may seem strange to you, external links to other sites also help improve the user experience. So try to include them in your text but avoid that your links go to your direct competitors.

Loading speed

This aspect is becoming more and more relevant because Internet users have less and less patience. Therefore, the faster your website is, the better experience your users will have, and consequently, the time on page and engagement will be much higher. Most of the time, it is only tiny changes that you have to make so that your content loads very quickly.

You can check you website’s loading speed here.

Search engine optimization Maps

Maps are the best way to tell search engines where you are physically located and your coverage area. The search engines take into account the information of the maps to show different information to the users depending on the location of each one of them.

When Google identifies a local search, it will try first to show the results of companies or businesses in the vicinity of that location.

In addition, business profiles alone tend to appear at the top of search results and facilitate contact between your business and your potential client.

Social media

Social networks play an increasingly important role in SEO.

If your brand is spread on social networks, it will consequently cause searches by your brand name to also increase in search engines.

By having more searches by your brand name, Google and the other engines will identify your site as an essential site about the product or service you offer, and this will make all your content gain more exposure in the search results.

When you generate a piece of content, try to share and promote it through your social networks and any other communication channel you have with your audience.

It would be best if you always took care of having a good reputation in social networks and business directories and responding to messages or reviews left by your clients.

Great opportunity to do local SEO in Kentucky

Search results are dominated chiefly by national companies, which means that businesses in Kentucky have not paid much attention to creating content to improve their search engine optimization.

Keywords that include “Kentucky” are less competitive compared to those that don’t.

When people use the name of your city or region in their search terms, this means that they want to limit their results only to pages that are physically located there.

On the other hand, there is little point in trying to rank across the country if your business can only serve people near your location.

Do an analysis of the search results when you do a local search in Kentucky. You will realize that many sites are not even from this region but appear as one of the first options because Google considers no other better option for your search.

The faster you start to rank locally, the more difficult it will be for your competition to take those rankings from you.

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eLink Design is a national web design, application development, SEO, and business consulting firm, founded in 2001 that specializes in custom solutions for over 800 clients around the country. With this blog, we hope to provide insights into what we are working on, areas where we think we can help shed light on problems we hear, and sometimes just cool things we have come across.