Every business needs a steady stream of new customers to thrive. What’s the most powerful tool to help potential customers find you?
The internet, of course. And SEO is the core of that power.
The good news for photo blanket businesses is that there are two strong SEO-friendly factors baked into what you do: visual appeal and stories.
Here, we outline 4 affordable SEO activities to help you leverage those attributes and grow your business.
1. Images
Every image file has metadata fields that search engines love, including file name, alt text, description, and caption.
Make the image file name relate to the name of its web page, not the subject of the image. This tells Google the image supports other content on the page.
Accessibility devices use the alt text to tell visually-impaired users about the image. You can display an image’s alt text by hovering over the image.
Alt text is also necessary for SEO. Search engines use it to assess contextual relevance to the page and across the site.
The description is like the alt text except you can give more detail. Often it includes when, where, and by whom a photo was taken. The closer the description aligns to the page and site content, the better.
The caption appears below an image. Include the page keyword for the greatest value.
For ongoing benefit, embed these affordable SEO tactics into your image preparation routines.
2. Customer reviews
The goal of Google’s search engine algorithms is to direct users to experts. To this end, they prioritize user comments and reviews. Sites like The Memories Place gain organic value from feedback and ratings.
More comments equal active users, and active users increase the odds of experts behind the site. Higher ratings also help a site achieve “expert” status.
It’s an affordable SEO tactic that’s simple and available everywhere.
3. Authentic Content
People like authentic content because it feels better than sales and promotional language. Search engines feel the same way.
There’s nothing more authentic than your customers’ stories about how your product, with the best stories getting greater exposure on social media.
You need keywords in content, but they must be relevant. Don’t just throw them in willy-nilly. Google algorithms look at the context of each word on a page and how it relates to the entire site.
Update your content regularly to boost your SEO results. Invite a guest to post on your blog and share the SEO juice.
4. Quality Links
Quality links are better than quantity links. Search engines prefer authentic links the same way they prefer authentic content.
Like keywords, authentic links must fit the context. They should build on the user’s experience of the page, not detract from it or send them somewhere else. Make sure to have more internal links than external links, keeping users on your site longer.
Backlink management matters in SEO. Don’t know what a backlink is? It’s a link from another site back to yours. For Google, backlinks are like a “like” on Facebook, and it will rank your page higher the more backlinks you have.
Of course, there is a caveat to that: Google only increases rankings based on quality backlinks. Links from spammy or low-ranking websites can damage your SEO.
Affordable SEO: Next Steps
Great SEO ROI starts with a sound strategy. No matter the size or maturity of your business, SEO can help you achieve your business goals.
Remember, strategies don’t have to be complex to be effective. Start with real SEO data then maximize your images and stories.
But the real key is to start today.
If you need help getting there, don’t worry. We want to help.
Check out our blog for more great marketing tips.