Building strong Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is very important for your wedding business’ online exposure. There’s so much information available about SEO it may be difficult to know what you should, and should not, be doing for your business. Regardless of all the confusion, the goal remains the same: you want your business to be found by engage couples searching for their perfect Pros.
Most wedding professionals are concerned about SEO for their website, but your website is not the only place where you have a presence online. Your business should optimize your presence across your website, blog, social networks and online listings. We break down what you need to know to build strong SEO by optimizing each, below!
Optimizing your website for search
Your business’ website is a great place for potential clients to learn even more about your wedding business, but it’s not much use if it can’t be found! For those couples who use a combination of WeddingWire and search engines to find their Perfect Pros, you should make it as easy as possible to be found!
Search engines are looking for the following from your website:
- Include relevant keywords in all aspects of your website, including your domain name, title tags, meta tags and long-tail URLs. You can also use keywords within your page content, and use HTML cues like the <H1> tag and the <Alt Tag> on images. Begin by focusing on 10 keywords, and a good strategy is to include the word “wedding,” your service category and your business’ location.
- One of the most obvious detractors is lack of quality content. Websites that aren’t trustworthy rarely take the time to write intelligent, descriptive content, so make sure your website doesn’t fall into this trap. Create quality content that is specific to your business and keeps your customer in mind.
- Think about your customers’ experience on your website. Is it easy for them to navigate from page to page? Are there any outdated web pages or dead-end links that should be removed? Asking these questions will help improve your website’s functionality to make it more user-friendly, which is another factor in most search algorithms.
- Create relevant inbound links back to your website by guest blogging for partners who will link back to your website when they mention you on their website or blog. You should never buy inbound links in bulk from mass directories.
Optimizing your blog for search
Blogging is important for your business because it builds trust with your readers, educates and informs them, assists with conversions and builds loyalty. Besides the benefits in your sales process, blogging can also help your business to be found online. Search engines index and “read” thousands of web pages every day, so blogging regularly can help your business be seen and categorized by a search engine.
Optimize your blog posts by:
- Incorporating keywords throughout your posts. You can use the same keywords in your blog posts as you’re targeting on your website to help your ranking grow organically.
- Writing and adding meta data to your blog posts. The meta title is what shows up as a link on Google, while the meta description is what appears underneath the link. Most blogging platforms offer this option or allow for an SEO plug-in to help.
- Remembering to double-check your spelling and grammar to make sure anything indexed by a search engine appears properly and looks professional.
- Creating a blogging schedule to help you create content regularly. Search engines love fresh content!
Using social media activity to boost your ranking
Google knows that your brand’s website is not the only place where you have a presence online. Your business likely has a presence on social networks, and now search engines are placing an increased importance on how your social conversations influence your brand. Keywords are important, but what many businesses might not realize is that social engagement is a key factor in how search engines determine your search placement!
Depending on which social networks your business has a presence on, you should strive to be more active. Post more frequently, and engage with your following. If you’re focusing on Facebook, post statuses that ask questions or inspire your fans to comment and share. If you’re focusing on Twitter, don’t just tweet – make sure to retweet, reply or favorite where appropriate! Increasing your activity across your social presence will help you rise to the top.
Optimizing your Storefront for search
You’ve already made the right first steps by creating your WeddingWire Storefront, which not only helps your business get found by couples searching on WeddingWire but also helps your business achieve better search rankings on search engines including Google, Yahoo and Bing. How? Your WeddingWire business listing is indexed across these top search engines, and Premium members receive direct links for across the WeddingWire Network.
In addition, our Search Engine Optimizer for Premium members allows you to create a customized URL for your Storefront which will get indexed into all major Search Engines and allow potential clients to quickly find your business and learn more about your services! You’ll also have the ability to create custom unique local content for your Storefront, as well as an additional keyword to pass value to your business website. The work is practically done for you!
How you implement these suggestions is up to you – whether you want to really dig in and make changes across all four areas, or if you want to focus on one at a time to get the ball rolling. Just remember that change won’t happen overnight, so be patient and you’ll see progress!
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