• Keyword research – do it right, once

A lot people use Google Adwords when conducting keyword research.  This is a great tool that we utilize (in addition to others) but be sure to know what the differences between ‘broad’, ‘phrase’ and ‘exact’ are or your future money printing endeavors could be thwarted.

• Broad match: The sum of the search volumes for the keyword idea, related grammatical forms, synonyms and related words
• Phrase match: The sum of the search volumes for all terms that include that whole phrase
• Exact match: The search volume for that keyword idea

• Onsite changes

Now that you know the keywords you’re going to target – implement them.  Where you may ask – here ya go:

• Title tags
• Headings
• Paragraph titles
• Keywords in body copy
• Anchor text in links
• Image alt text

Don’t go crazy though as keyword stuffing will get you penalized.  Use the words but use them naturally.

• 301 domain redirect

www.yoursite.com and yoursite.com are considered 2 different sites and if you do not have one of them permanently 301 redirected your site is essentially being split in two – from an SEO perspective.

How to fix: go to your domain host and switch one of these to a permanent 301 redirect

• Create a blog

Write something – ANYTHING!  Content is incredibly helpful as you’re creating new, original content on the industry you’re working in which search engines love.  No one knows this better than you – right?  I won’t lie – this is boring for me to write this right now but it will help my SEO companies’ SEO so here I am typing away at 11pm.  Every industry is a bit different and you can blog your heart out if you like but once a month should be good.  Also, keep it topical and give real value not just a link to your new products – people like lists (hence this list here) and hopefully others will link to you (hint hint).

• Get on social media

Don’t wanna LOL all day and waste time on this?  Good.  If you’re spending more than 5 minutes on social media every day you’re not doing it right.  Create and interact with your clients (and potential clients) in a less formal forum.  This is TOMA but you should also engage them.  Take a poll on Facebook on which new products you should add, take a pic of that new snazzy prototype and put it to get some feedback.  This is not the place for award winning material here – just engage and see what works.  Search engines are putting more and more of a focus on social and you should own this space.