Written By: RAMON RAY

In the 1990s, only large global corporations and other sizable organizations had a web presence of some sort. SEO wasn’t such a big word on the Web back then, but the Web wasn’t so competitive back then. It’s time to stop living in the 90s, though, and think about how your web presence can become more prominent.

Today, several businesses have invested a significant amount of time and resources in developing a web presence that’s more focused on marketing than anything else. While it’s an instinct that most businesses follow when trying to increase revenue, things work differently on the Internet. Right now, as far as the Internet is concerned, Google is the alpha and omega. If you don’t get into the search engine’s good graces, you’re going to fall behind and have to travel far and wide to get to the “promised land” of milk and honey (ergo, a large amount of visitors who convert).

It’s tempting to just slap on an advertising strategy in AdWords and then shoot your advertisements left and right. However, a focus on increasing your rank for certain keywords in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) is a worthwhile investment that could lead more meaningful prospects to you than anything else. You can start with your content.

Here are a couple of pointers that will help you grease the engine a bit:

  • Start a company blog. If you haven’t done so already, starting a blog will help you have a reason to constantly add content to the site. The more content you have, the more attention Google pays to you. This will transform your content strategy into something more than just simply updating your “About Us” page.
  • Focus on keywords. This is not to be interpreted as “stuff your site with keywords everywhere.” Just take one or two keywords, and distribute them throughout one page/blog post moderately, without coming off as too repetitive. Google knows when you’re keyword stuffing. Ideally, each page or post should have a theme, and content should revolve around that theme. Don’t be afraid to put your keywords in bold at times, or make “H1” headers containing the keyword. The title of each piece of content should have the key phrase as close to the beginning as possible.
  • Don’t forget engagement! Google has its own social engagement metrics system and watches it like a hawk. If you engage your visitors sufficiently to get a “+1” on Google, the search engine will notice this and smile upon your site, delivering good tidings galore. Ever since Google rolled out with a major algorithm change to weed out sites that focus solely on SEO, you’re better off trying to make your visitors have a significant thirst for your content. It also lowers your bounce rate (the rate at which users just click the “Back” button on their browsers when viewing a page) significantly, killing two birds with one stone.

Focusing on content not only makes your website more visible in the SERPs, but it also helps build a community of loyal clients – something that will attract even more clients in the long haul. While you might be tempted to promote your product, don’t forget to put more emphasis on content related to your industry and important news.

Your clients shouldn’t be coming to your site for the sole purpose of purchasing something. They should also be able to count on your site as a valuable and trustworthy resource for the industry and/or field you specialize in!