Located in the middle of Media Borough is a small web design, development, and SEO firm called Media Proper. For two decades, the Media Proper team has been using customized, comprehensive approaches to search engine optimization (SEO) as a way to boost the organic traffic of their clients’ websites. SEO may be the most cost-effective way to increase site traffic over the long term, but that doesn’t mean it comes easy.

SEO Basics and What to Expect

SEO’s goal is to increase your organic search traffic. This traffic consists of visitors to your site referred from search engines, like Google, who didn’t arrive by clicking on a paid ad. Many factors go into improving a site’s SEO — including copy, meta, and links, just to name a few of the big ones. And because of that, SEO can be deceptively complex.

Because there are so many factors that contribute to SEO, managing the expectations of clients is something all SEO service providers need to be able to do.

“There are no guarantees when it comes to SEO,” suggests Media Proper’s SEO & Digital Marketing Director, Chris Mesigian. “Improvements often take months to begin showing up. But, of course, not all websites are created equal — and that can play a big role in how quickly you see improvements.”

If your site currently doesn’t use SEO best practices, then you will see a relatively quick boost once they’re implemented. Sites that already have the basics down should expect slow growth over time.

If you’re in the market for an entirely new site, that’s also the perfect time to revitalize your SEO. Some SEO factors are tied to the construction of the site itself. So a new site can be designed and developed with SEO in mind from the outset. This frequently leads to strong initial gains that will then need to be maintained and refined into long-term benefits.

Putting SEO in Perspective

It’s important to keep in mind that comparing SEO results across a broad spectrum of businesses is not always like comparing apples to apples. The same SEO strategies may not work for all business types. And even if two businesses are within the same niche, they can still respond very differently to the same SEO treatments. For example, if one site is already established as an authority in its niche, it will generally be more stable as far as SEO is concerned. A less established site’s SEO will generally be more volatile, for better or worse.

On top of that, what your business wants to get out of SEO may alter how it’s implemented. In most cases, simply increasing site traffic isn’t actually what you want to achieve. Increasing your traffic is great. But if that traffic isn’t converting, it loses a lot of its value. So when you implement an SEO plan, you need to think about more than just increasing traffic. You want to target potential customers with your SEO. This may mean your traffic increases less overall, but the trade-off is that the traffic you do receive should be more qualified.

Primary SEO Strategies

There are four main SEO strategies that are implemented to boost a site’s performance. These are on-site optimization, content optimization, social media optimization, and backlinking and citation building.

• On-site optimization involves tasks such as adding SEO titles and meta descriptions to all pages, adding alt descriptions to all images, and creating a web of internal linking between pages.
• Content optimization includes weaving relevant keywords into site copy, adhering to best practices for page content formatting, and making sure your copy drives visitors to convert.
• Social media channel optimization, while not directly connected to your site, can increase your site’s SEO. This is done by formatting your social media accounts correctly, adding your branding, and including links back to your site.
• Backlinking and citation building is when your site gains inbound links from external sites, which helps tell Google that your site is an authority on particular topics.

SEO Tactics to Use

Some of the additional tactics that can be used to boost SEO performance are evergreen articles, service and/or location pages, testimonials/project overviews, and video production.

• Evergreen articles are those that don’t become outdated. They cover content that’s going to be relevant for years to come so they continue to drive traffic to your site over time, thus improving search rankings.
• Service and location pages can also be used to target specific searches related to those services and locations.
• Testimonials and project overviews add authority to both your business and site by showcasing your work rather than simply talking in the abstract about your line of business.
• Producing original video content for your site and social channels is extremely powerful. Video looks good on websites, it drastically increases social media engagement, and it allows you to make use of the second-largest search engine in the world after Google — YouTube!

Don’t Forget About Local SEO!

“For many businesses, boosting local search results is just as, if not more, important than ranking for keywords,” Mesigian added. “And, it requires an approach that goes beyond your run-of-the-mill content marketing.”

Getting to the top of the “local pack,” the handful of local businesses that appear in the search results above the traditionally placed organic results, requires a focus on citation building, review generating, and social media optimizing. The local pack is also featured in the Google Maps app, so appearing in it is key.

SEO Is the Solution You Need

There’s a lot that goes into SEO; it’s no longer as simple as stuffing a bunch of keywords into your site (don’t do that, Google will penalize you). SEO also isn’t something that will produce results overnight. It takes a lot of work and a lot of time to achieve. But, eventually, you’ll begin to see the fruits of your labor. And as long as you stay on top of your SEO, it will continue to bring new visitors to your site who convert into customers.

For many business owners, learning the ins and outs of SEO and then implementing and tweaking it is simply too time-consuming to do on their own. That’s where firms like Media Proper come in. They can create an SEO plan that’s customized to meet your business’s needs and implement and develop it over time.

Learn more about Media Proper.