Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a tool to grow your online business while helping customers and potential customers find your business. Whether your business is located in the heart of Washington DC or in Falls Church, VA, without question SEO can help increase your presence throughout all of the greater NOVA area. As you understand more about SEO and how it works in conjunction with your website, you will also learn how important it is to get it right.
Give us a call and we can design a custom SEO campaign for your business, but in the meantime, here are a few tips to help get you started or guide you toward SEO.
- Be patient. Search Engine Optimization is not a single event, it is a long-term tactic used to maximize the Internet and all it offers. For example, you may find your dry cleaning business ranks first for “dry cleaners in Falls Church VA” one week and suddenly a few weeks later you are suddenly fifth. Search engine algorithms change all the time, which requires you to change as well. Remember, what works today may not work next month or next year.
- Be smart. Before you hire a company to complete the SEO work for you, ask questions and know what you are getting yourself into. Ask the company for specifics before you agree to anything; find out what they plan to do and how they plan to do it, then take some time and investigate for yourself.
- Build a fantastic website. Even though you could once throw any website together using a free service and it was “good enough” that time has passed. Work with a developer to create a dynamic website for your business and be sure it incorporates room to grow as well. Since your goal is to grow your Falls Church VA dry cleaning business into a huge conglomerate, make sure your website can follow suit.
- Buy a smart, SEO-friendly URL. If you are not sure what the URL is, you should definitely hire someone to do your SEO work for you. The URL is the location of your website (the name of it if you will). Rather than using confusing or unrelated URLs for your business, find one that states what you do and if possible where you are. For example, “fallschurchdrycleaning” (while hard to read) fits the bill for a dry cleaning business in Falls Church, VA; but “wecancleanyourshirt” does not. It doesn’t articulate what you do or where your business is.
- Embrace pay-per-click advertising. No matter what source you choose to use, investing in a pay-per-click advertising campaign, also known as PPC. This is a great way to add actual search volume to your keywords for a rather small investment. Set a budget you can live with and work from there. (By the way, this is also something Digital Assembly Line does, and does very well.)
If you’re ready to move your business into the leader’s position, give us a call. No matter where you are or what you do, we can help create a SEO campaign that will help make you a leader in your market.