Are you what they're searching for? 👀
A few historic properties and heritage organisations I've been working with recently have voiced a concerning trend: they're working hard to create content consistently, but they're not sure if it's 'working'.
So let's look at it.
Getting to the top of Google [other search engines are available] for key search terms is a great way to bring new people into your organisation. Creating engaging social content can help keep people in your world.
Today, we're looking at SEO [search engine optimisation or even better - search engine marketing], and I'm going to share a few of my favourite ways to help organisations of all varieties get started.
Get started with search engine optimisation - right here, right now
1️⃣ I love, love, love Google Search Console
It's super easy to get started with. If you don't have it set up, head over here: https://lnkd.in/gEUNiNRn
This simple dashboard shows you what search terms your site appears for, how many impressions and clicks you get for that search term, and where in the list you appear. And you'll want to get to grips with this first, so as you work through improving and optimising your content, you can see how it impacts these metrics.
The great thing is, terms you already rank for are the easiest to optimise to get on to that all important top spot.
Then, you just need to work hard at giving Google lots of hints that your web page is the absolute best one to show people who are searching for that term. Whether that't through meta data, adding relevant images and video, adding it to the URL or headings on the page.
2️⃣ People don't need to know about you to find you
Yes, people will find you by searching for Thirlestane Castle. But they'll find you any way. When we start to think about how people who don't know you are searching, that's where the magic happens. We want to get in front of the people searching for "sleep in a castle in Scotland" or "boarders inspirational team building" or "can you get a private tour of a scottish castle".
You can use search engine marketing tools such as SEMrush to find out that you've got a much better chance of ranking for the term "castles to stay in near edinburgh" than "castle hotels scotland". Which might sound obvious when written like that, but many people want to optimise for search terms with the most people searching for them, which would be Scotland terms rather than Edinburgh terms, right?
But most people are getting zero impressions, and therefore zero clicks on these highly competitive terms. Better to get a slice of a small pie than no slice of a large pie, right?
So, what are people who don't know you searching for?
What hints can you give Google that you're the right person for the job? That you'll give the searcher exactly what they're looking for? That everyone looking for a castle to stay in near Edinburgh wants to find you?
3️⃣ Find your ✨ Golden Keywords ✨
Depending on how diversified your business is, you want to develop a list of 5-10 search terms that you want to think are absolutely, 100% people searching for something you offer.
If you're the Blackwatch Museum, you might think that the terms "perthshire military history experience", "visit castles 1 hour from edinburgh" might strike gold for you. Or perhaps it's an educational term that you want to focus on, so you might discover that there's lots of people searching for "fairbairn sykes knife", which you have a wonderful example of in your collection, so you build a plan around promoting that item.
Once you have your list, you can build a content plan around drawing in people who are looking at these terms.
One note of warning: we watch to balance specificity with volume. There are tools you can use to make sure your chosen search terms actually have people typing them into Google, such as SEMrush or AHREFs.
4️⃣ Q&As to make your company the answer to search engine marketing
People go to Google to find answers to their questions. So find out what potential visitors are looking for, and be the answer to their questions.
Google even has a not-so-new feature called 'People also asked' where it scrapes the internet for questions related to that search term, and the answers to them. This is a great way to boost your content to the top, by providing these questions and high quality answers to them.
Again, you can use tools such as AHREFs to find out what questions people are asking Google on a certain topic. You can use platforms such as Reddit and Quora to find what questions people are asking to these forums.
Or, you can reach out directly to your own audience. From those that have visited, and those that are yet to visit. There are lots of simple and cost effective ways of finding out what burning questions your audience has.
Then, simply, write content that asks and answers those questions.
One Monumental Moment
When your company is ready to start its search engine marketing journey, think deeply about what terms you would LOVE people to type in to Google to find you, and work on giving Google all the right hints to show you're the right page for the job.
Bonus tip: if you think one of your Golden Keywords is "castle campbell", for example, head to Google, put in site:your URL and the search term, e.g.
site:www.inveraray-castle.com "castle campbell"
This will find all the instances of your Golden Keyword on your site. Now you want to edit the page its on, and add a link from that keyword to the page you are optimising for that keyword.
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