So, your humble catering service has grown quickly in just a matter of months. Thanks to several businesses and student organizations in the area, your home-based business now has its own kitchen office and delivery van in Ashland, VA. With urging from your loyal customers, you decide to expand your market further and set up an online presence: a user-friendly website, an active social media presence, a well-reviewed page on Yelp and registered your business in Google Maps.
However, you realize that your business’ website barely has any traffic and that most of your new customers only heard about your business through referrals. You type in “Ashland Virginia catering services” on a search engine, and your website doesn’t even come up in the first few pages.
In your mission to make your business’ website appear on top of search engines, you stumble upon Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services being offered in Virginia. So, what is SEO and what services can it offer?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process of optimizing your website in a way that it would be ranked higher on search engines such as Google or Bing. The higher it appears on search, the more likely your page gets visited, which increases your chances of getting new customers. The following are the most common and basic SEO services employed to improve your website’s search engine visibility:
Finding Effective Keywords
The foundation of SEO is the keywords. An SEO agency’s job would be to first know which keywords people search. Your website’s optimization will be anchored to these keywords. If people often search “catering services” and your website only mentions or uses the term “food service”, your website would be less likely to show up on search engines.
Content Creation
After an SEO agency has come up with a comprehensive list of essential keywords, its next task is to create content or new pages containing those keywords. SEO agencies often employ qualified content writers to produce comprehensive, organic, and interesting content which are both relevant to your business and include the identified keywords.
Website and Webpage Enhancement
Now, we’re going into the more technical aspect. Once your website has enough content and pages containing keywords, and SEO agency can proceed with tweaking your website’s codes to remove the clutter and make the content easier to search for through the search engine. In other words, your website may have inefficient or even unnecessary codes that make the website load slowly or interferes with on-page content. Some SEO agencies may even offer to make your website mobile-friendly and optimize it throughout different platforms such as tablets and smartphones, and not just through a desktop.
Backlinks
The easiest way to explain backlinking is that it’s basically the search engine version of “word of mouth” referral. If other websites provide links towards your business’ website, search engines would deem your website as more relevant and thus, increase its ranking. SEO agencies aim towards building quality backlinks to your business’ website from external websites sharing relevant or similar subject matter.
Equipped with even the most basic knowledge of SEO, you can decide to take the next major step in making your business grow. With Search Engine Optimization, you finally have an edge over your competition.