Six simple steps to make your SEO stand out.

Posted by Anya Sleezer << back to blog

Last Updated on July 29, 2022

SEO is imperative for all businesses — whatever their size, scope or strategy.

“But I’m a local retailer…” you may be thinking. “Do I really need SEO?”

Yes, 100%. SEO is not only important for local retailers. It’s essential.

You’re not only competing with the mom and pop down the road, you’re also competing with global superstores like Walmart and online mega-retailers like Amazon. These brands have the brand equity and ad spend to buy a small country. Unless you’ve just won the lottery and want to spend it on advertising, the most cost-effective way to compete is SEO.

While foot-traffic and word-of-mouth are excellent resources, you can’t rely exclusively on them in our digital-first world. When someone searches for a retailer in your category in your town, you need to be on the first page.

Ready to shine on search? Here are six simple steps to boost your rankings, generate sales, and increase web traffic through SEO!

1.) Format your website content for search engines

When it comes to performing well on search, nothing is more important than your website’s content. It’s not enough to say what you do; you have to solve customer’s challenges. A smart way to do this is by targeting featured snippets.

What’s a featured snippet? Featured snippets (a.k.a. SERP features) appear at the top of Google’s search results page and answer a user’s question without them leaving the page. Featured snippets attract a lot of organic traffic since they are highly visible and appear before numbered results.

Digital marketers work around the clock to claim these positions. How can a local retailer compete? You can’t be bigger, so you have to be better. Optimize your content around the questions potential customers are already asking. Customers will support you for it — and Google will reward you for it.

2.) Optimize your meta title and meta description

Your page title is the first thing your readers notice, so it has to be awesome. For instance, you probably clicked on this article because the meta title (“Six simple steps to make your SEO stand out”) spoke to you. With a page title, you have very few words — less than 60 characters — so you have to make them impactful.

Here are a few tips to remember:

Make your meta title between 50 and 60 characters
Make your meta description between 150 to 160 characters
Include your target keyword, preferably in the initial part of the description
Briefly communicate what your content is about
Create unique meta titles and descriptions for every page

3.) Mix up internal and external links

Internal and external links improve the user experience and establish credibility.

Internal links are links to different pages on your site. They help search engines find your relevant content (boosting your ranking) and encourage users to stay on your website for longer. For example, you could link a phrase or keywords to a related blog post (<– like this) to help your audience find more information about a topic they’re researching while they’re still on your website.

External links direct a user to another website. Why would you want users to leave your site? Simple; it establishes credibility. When you link to external websites with high credibility and quality content, you’re also establishing yourself as a source for credible, quality content as well — and creating a better user experience for your audience.

4.) Optimize your graphics

Finding an image that perfectly captures the essence of a topic breaks the textual monotony and establishes your site as a source for quality content. However, not just any image will do. You must make sure your images are optimized. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Size and Formatting: Make sure you’re using an image size and file type that is not too large, as it could slow down your page. However, you also don’t want to use an image that is too small, as that can be blurry and illegible.
Accessibility: Always include alt text for each image. Not only does this help integrate more supporting keywords, it also makes your site more accessible for screen readers. Avoid embedding textual elements in your images to ensure the text is accessible to all. In other words, if you want people to share your photography, don’t slap a lot of copy on it, rendering it unusable.
Links: Creating descriptive names for your images helps optimize them for organic search and makes it easier for others to share your images on other websites (backlinking to your site).
Test: Always test your pages on mobile and desktop. Users search Google Images from mobile more than desktop, so optimizing images for mobile gives you a huge leg up.

5.) Study your competitors

Pablo Picasso once said: “Good artists borrow. Great artists steal.” We wouldn’t go that far, but we 110% recommend you study your competitors’ content.

Whether they are multinational brands or the shop around the corner, your competitors are creating similar content to engage similar audiences. By analyzing your competitors’ websites, you can gain valuable insights about what type of content is most effective and get some inspiration for your own content.

6.) Use schema markups

Sounds fancy, but let us simplify it for you: A schema markup is a code on your website that helps search engines to better understand your content — and gives users more accurate information about your page. Schema markups are the most powerful SEO method by far, as they automatically showcase only the highly relevant and essential data available on the search engine.

Improving your SEO is like anything else; the harder you work, the better your results.

Feeling intimidated? You don’t have to go it alone. Set up a free consultation with us and level up your SEO with Levo!

Anya Sleezer

Anya Sleezer is the owner of Levo, a full–service marketing agency, focused on helping companies from all industries who are concerned with their marketing results, traffic, branding, advertising, or websites.

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