SEO Guide for Your Northampton Business

There’s no point in building an attractive website if your target audience can’t find it. Therefore, if you want your Northampton business to succeed, you must ensure that your site is optimised for search engines. With excellent online visibility, it will be easier for prospective customers to find you and avail themselves of the goods or services you’re offering. 

SEO Tips You Should Remember

With Google having over 90% of the search engine market and receiving more than 63,000 queries per second, appearing on the first page of Google’s search result pages will give your business a definite advantage. Here are some essential things you should know about optimising your website for search engines such as Google. 

1. Follow the rules

Google has a set of rules every webmasters or site owners must follow to avoid receiving a penalty. If you break these rules, you might find yourself getting less web traffic, which could significantly affect your capability to attract customers. 

If you’re going to hire an SEO agency in Northampton, make sure that you select one that follows the rules and is very familiar with Google’s best practices, like us here at Springhill Marketing. Not only does it help prevent a penalty from Google, but choosing an SEO firm that only utilises white-hat SEO strategies can also help ensure the long-term growth and success of your website and business. 

2. Know who your audience is

No matter what industry you are in, you must know your audience well. By getting to know who your audience is, it will be easier for you to create tailored content for them. Also, it makes setting up marketing campaigns much easier. Here are two essential things you should do to get to know your target market better: 

• Create a buyer persona

In a nutshell, a buyer persona is a representation of your ideal customer according to the information you obtain through market research and data about your current customers. Creating a buyer persona can be useful not only when optimising your site for search engines, but also when you want to develop new products or services. 

• Determine your current standing with your target audience

It helps to determine who’s currently visiting your website so you can recalibrate your SEO strategies. You can use Google Analytics to obtain valuable info about your web visitors, such as: 

1.       Demographics
2.       Interests
3.       Location
4.       Devices they are using to view your site
5.       Behaviour

3. Conduct keyword research

All digital marketing campaigns should start with keyword research. By conducting keyword research, you’ll be able to identify the search terms that your target customers are using to find you online. Also, it helps you determine the keywords or phrases you should incorporate in your web copy, content, and marketing materials to make them more relevant. 

There are many keyword research tools that you can use to determine the keywords that you can target. While there are paid research tools, there are others that you can use for free, such as Google Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest. 

4. Create a blog

Consider maintaining a blog if you haven’t done it already. Not only is it good for SEO as it helps keep your site updated, but it also encourages repeat visitors. What’s more, having valuable content that encourages your audience to keep coming back sends a signal to Google that your site is a legitimate source of useful information. This helps convince the search giant to show your webpages more frequently in search results. 

When writing blogs, make sure that you remember the following:

• Ensure that your content is accurate and not misleading.
• Avoid putting too many keywords in your post or Google will flag it as “spammy.”
• Break your text into smaller paragraphs to make it more readable. You can also use lists and bullet points.
• Always proofread your posts to avoid spelling and grammar mistakes. Otherwise, these mistakes can make you look unprofessional and less trustworthy. 

Creating and maintaining a blog, however, can be challenging, especially if you already have a packed schedule. This is why you should enlist the help of an SEO agency in Northampton. Beyond helping you optimise your site for Google, SEO specialists can also create blog posts and other types of content that will help you attract and engage your target audience. 

5. Keep yourself updated

Because Google frequently updates its search algorithm, it helps to stay updated with the latest SEO news so you can avoid penalties. Also, keeping yourself up-to-date can help you prepare for whatever comes your way, be it an algorithm update or a new online marketing trend. 

Seek SEO Help

To trump the competition, you must ensure that your website is highly visible online. This is something you can achieve with SEO. However, optimising your site for search engines on your own can be a challenging task. Not only is it time-consuming, but it can also pull you away from other important business matters that require your attention. 

Fortunately, we at Springhill Marketing are happy to help. Because we recognise how vital it is for Northampton businesses to have a substantial online presence, we can put out a bespoke plan to help you rank well on search engines. Contact us today to get started.