SEO — A Definition:
Let’s quickly review, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of trying to get the best visibility (highest ranking) in search engine’s organic (aka natural) search results. Remember, there is no “how-to” guide for SEO; it is very purposefully kept mysterious.
The slow nature of the SEO process keeps “black hat” SEO techniques from polluting the relevance of organic results overnight. There are no black and white answers when it comes to SEO. What works well in one instance may work poorly in another.
Many Retailers Want To Improve Their SEO Performance:
If you are one of them, we applaud you! Just remember… there’s no point in setting out to improve something unless you know what, exactly, needs improvement.
Begin your quest to improve your store’s SEO with a thorough understanding of your current performance that allows you to direct your resources where they count the most and to realistically evaluate the effectiveness of whatever strategy you ultimately decide to employ.
Defining Your Starting Point:
Our advice – focus on what you can measure and observe. The easiest place to start is to make sure your current website is connected to Google Analytics. This will allow you to measure what’s happening on your site day to day. Google Analytics is completely free and any web developer with even the slightest professional experience should be able to integrate it with your website.
Once you’re connected, you can login any time and view an amazing amount of data about your website – the visitors to it, where they came from, what they did there, and how they left. There’s so much data, it can be a bit overwhelming! We suggest looking up and recording the following information in your Google Analytics to understand your current SEO performance:
- Number of visitors to your site
- Geographic origin of your visitors
- Behavior of visitors when on your site
- Most commonly viewed pages on your site
- Percentage of visits to your site via mobile devices
- Traffic sources
- Long tail searches
- And Sample Search Performance
Not Sure Where To Start?
That’s what we’re here for! Contact RWS any time and we’ll be happy to provide you guidance, or even prepare a report of how your RWS WebFront is currently performing in these areas. Just keep in mind that SEO is a long-term, iterative, strategic approach to marketing; so don’t feel discouraged – stay the course and you will begin to notice results!