Our process: search engine optimization (SEO)
The most profitable websites are the ones that can easily be found and, once found, turn visitors into customers by presenting a clear, compelling offer. That’s why we prioritize search engine optimization (SEO), design, AND copywriting on all of our sites. They all have to work together to get results. In this post, we’ll describe why local SEO is so important and outline what we do to ensure your website has solid foundations for effective SEO.
What is local SEO and how can it help your business?
What do you do when you need a commonly-used professional service, such as painters or plumbers? You probably Google something like, “painting company near me” or “best plumber in ___ (name of city/state)”. From here, several local businesses providing this service show up in those search results in three different ways. There are paid ads at the top, followed by a list of Google Business Profiles (GBP) with reviews, directions, and other pertinent information (referred to as the “map pack”), and organic results underneath that. Each of these is part of local SEO and your success could hinge on increasing your visibility in one or more of those areas.
At Mercury Jane Media, we prioritize improving organic rankings and Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) optimizations that increase your visibility in the map pack. For one thing, the organic rankings are actually determined by the structure and content on your website (whereas paid ads are set up and optimized separately - through Google Ads or a similar service). And, although your Google Business Profile (GBP) is also separate from your website, it’s free and can yield much better long-term results.
In short, we think of organic SEO and GBP optimization as essential starting points (foundational) and paid advertising as an additional strategy that can be layered on top.
Optimizing your website to appear in organic search results
When we design and build your website, we make sure your site is well-structured and that the content is relevant to the keywords people are searching for. Before launching your site, we submit it to Google so that it’s indexed properly and write search titles and descriptions for each page that are likely to appear higher in organic results and make your business look more professional.
Performance and security are also huge factors.
We put a great deal of time and effort into optimizing all of your site’s images so that they don’t make your site slow. We also write alt text (essentially, captions) for each one that will make it more likely to appear in Google image search results.
To enhance security, we ensure you have an SSL certificate to let any visitors of your website know it is safe to browse. Not having this can keep visitors from being able to visit your page. It can also negatively impact your ability to rank higher in Google search results.
Google Business Profile (GBP) optimization
If you already have a Google Business Profile (GBP), we take a look and make recommendations for improvements that will help you rank higher in the map pack results. If you haven’t set one up yet, we’ll help you get started!
Whether your GBP is new or established, we make sure your business’ description matches what’s on your website and that the website is properly linked. We even give you a free guide for getting reviews!
You’d be surprised how effective taking this step and creating an ongoing plan for optimizing your GBP can be! Many business owners underestimate the importance of doing this and are missing out on huge opportunities.
Migration
Another concern we address with our holistic web design and development services are site migrations. We build most service-based business websites in Webflow, a modern WordPress alternative, and many of the more established sites we take over need to be migrated from WordPress to Webflow. If this is not done properly, you could lose some of the organic search result rankings you’ve built up over time. When you hire us, rest assured we have the technical expertise and effective implementation process established to ensure this does not happen!
In conclusion
When you hire Mercury Jane Media to build your website, you get a lot more than a responsive website with a cool design. We take the time to truly understand your business and target market, so we can create and execute SEO strategies that lead your ideal customers to your digital doorstep. And, once they get there, we can make sure they’ll want to stay.
If you’re interested in learning more about how our website and SEO services can help you grow your business, book a free discovery call today!
How we make it easy
Getting a website that works shouldn't require dozens of meetings or months of back and forth. We'll ask the right questions from the get-go, so we understand exactly what you need and can deliver quickly.
1. Listen & Learn
Once we're ready to get started, we schedule a kickoff call to discuss your website and/or branding needs and learn as much as possible about your company. Together, we complete an initial outline of your website and brand strategy.
2. Design & Build
Using the outlines and notes from our kickoff call, we mock up initial designs and send them to you for feedback. After making any necessary revisions, we build your new site and start adding custom integrations to automate your workflow.
3. Launch
As we make final changes, we ensure your website & logos look great on all modern browsers and devices. We then provide you with personalized videos showing how to handle simple updates step-by-step. When all systems are go, we launch your site and wait for the rave reviews to start rolling in!
