If you are working on an SEO campaign for your small business, or perhaps already publishing content, then it’s time to think about how to distinguish yourself from the competition. This is not only a smart strategy for dealing with Google (which values unique content) but also for dealing with your human visitors. They are more likely to remember you if you stand out.
So what you might try is taking a look at your competition, including their sites, their chosen keywords and their linking strategy. This is why the best SEO companies always insist on analyzing your competition. One common SEO technique is to use keywords repeatedly, when research shows that the best approach may be a subtle repetition, rather than constant copying and pasting. Actually, it’s quite the SEO dilemma at times. The more you aim for popular keywords, the higher keyword density competition you’re facing. Your competitors may not use 100 keywords per page…but they could publish 100 pages with matching keywords. Suddenly, the competition is intense and you’re feeling pressured to maximize keyword usage.
A smarter strategy would be to focus on moderately popular keyword phrases, perhaps even niche keywords. Because of less competition for these keywords, just a little bit of repetition will go a long way. You will also score points from the likes of Google and Bing for “naturalness” in writing.
Be sure to modify your existing pages according to the performance you are seeing from analytics. You might try studying what the visitors are doing at your site, how they visit, what pages and keywords are popular and other related data. Focus on what works, rather than constantly experimenting. Not only is this good for traffic, it’s good for targeted traffic and that means higher conversions. The pages that are not working very well should be updated or perhaps even deleted if necessary.
In essence, to invest in SEO today is to invest in conversation with web viewers, with the search engines and within your own company. Don’t just write…react to what is happening around you.
