Search engine optimization is important to master, yet difficult to do. That’s why major corporations spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on it and small businesses painstakingly seek self-help books and how-to guides. Google, Yahoo, and Bing have the potential to become your biggest referral partners, but you must know how to satisfy their very particular demands.
Why SEO Matters
According to PlatoWebDesign.com, “The world’s best online businesses do two things really well: First, they put huge amounts of time and effort into dominating search engine results. Second, they offer unique, convincing sales pitches to their new visitors.” The second point is an entirely different conversation, but the goal of this article is to show you how your IT consulting firm can strategically attempt to dominate search engine results.
But first, why is it so important to dominate search engine results by investing in SEO? The answer is three-fold:
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Search-ability. First, good SEO allows the search engines to crawl your pages and display your website as a valuable resource for search queries. Without an investment in SEO, it’s very difficult to grab a visible position in the search rankings.
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More traffic. Second, high quality SEO helps your website attract more traffic. More traffic means more customers, which leads to increased business and positive cash flow.
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Increased conversions. Third, strategic SEO leads to relevant traffic – as opposed to wandering or lost visitors – which is proven to increase your conversion rates and maximize resources.
SEO Tips for Your IT Consulting Firm
Now that you understand the value of SEO for your IT consulting firm, it’s important to learn as much about the topic as possible. Here are a few specific tips to help you start climbing the search rankings:
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Listen to Hummingbird. Each time Google releases a new algorithm update, the SEO world changes direction. Recently, Google Hummingbird has been the talk of the industry, and while many search marketers are complaining about attempts to reduce the value of keyword stuffing, it could actually be a benefit to you. Instead of matching specific search queries to particular pages, Hummingbird actually looks for search intent. That means you should be looking for ways to target conversational phrases that your customers are likely to use.
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Invest in mobile. It’s no secret that mobile devices represent the largest growing segment of internet users in the world. In fact, an incredible 25 percent of Americans only use mobile devices to access the internet. That means a healthy percentage of potential customers will be viewing your website from a smartphone or tablet. Are your pages conducive to mobile viewing? If you don’t have responsive design, probably not. Mobile optimization is important for every demographic – especially those looking for IT consulting firms.
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Stay current. Google wants to give users information that is timely and relevant. As a result, you should attempt to keep content new and fresh. While it’s okay to have old information if still applicable, you should put newly released content towards the top of the page, like CBTnuggets.com does when displaying their online training videos for customers. Recent videos are at the top while older videos are on the bottom.
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Get a Google Places page. Google isn’t shy about their stance on local searches. They are working to be the leader in local information and are rewarding websites that sign up for – and maintain – accurate Google Places pages. Here’s an example of how it works. Somebody searches for the “best IT consulting firm in Dallas.” Google quickly finds all of the Google Places pages that match the criteria and displays the top results, and your firm immediately moves to the top of the rankings.
Is your IT consulting firm ready to unlock the power and potential of SEO? Use these four helpful tips to get started!
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