3 SEO Strategies for Professional Services
3 SEO Strategies for Professional Services: Boost Your Online Presence
Each year I aim to learn one new skill that will not only help me in business but also become a new service for my clients.
2024 is the year of SEO.
SEO is becoming increasingly important as the competitive landscape becomes well, more competitive. Companies are becoming increasingly savvy online, becoming more active on social media and spending greater amounts on ways to be “seen”. This is not only true for the clients I partner with. As a business owner and service provider, I am also living this reality.
So where can we invest time and money into our business for the greatest return? I’m dedicating 2024 to learning as much as I can around SEO. Here’s a quick run-down on what I have learned so far.
First let’s start at the basics. What the heck is SEO?
In simple terms, SEO means the process of improving your website to increase its visibility in common search engines whenever people search for: products you sell, services you provide, or information on topics in which you have deep expertise and/or experience.
There are a number of ways prospective clients can find you online. They can be referred to you, you can pay to show up in their search, or you they can find you “organically”. Organic search results are the unpaid listings that appear on a search engine results page (SERP). These results are based on things like relevance to the user's keywords, incoming links, valid search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and domain authority.
Organic searches can deliver as much as 53% of all website traffic.
So when we talk about SEO, we are talking about the success your website will have with that 53%. In order to have more success with organic search traffic, you need to understand how SEO works, and then research and implement a strategy that will work best for connecting with your target audience. To learn more about what is SEO, I found this blog post very informative.
Now that we have set the basics around what is SEO, let’s talk about what strategies you can leverage specifically as a professional service provider.
1) Keyword Strategies
Effectively researching and understanding how to apply keywords is crucial to SEO for your professional services firm. Once you have established what are your target keywords, you will want to incorporate them into your your website titles, web URLs, body copy and content, as well as meta tags. Additionally, you will want to weave in secondary keywords to improve your content consistency and increase your site’s relevancy to a broader range of search queries.
There are two types of keyword strategies. Using a combination of both “naturally” in your website content is the best way to create a healthy SEO ecosystem.
1) Short-tail Keyword
Short-tail keywords are broad, generic, and popular terms that have a high search volume. For example, "real estate", "lawyer", or "interior designer".
2) Long-tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are more specific, niche, and targeted with lower search volume. For example, "criminal lawyers in the Toronto area", "high-end, luxury interior design services ", or "best real estate agents in the east-end".
Short-tail keywords are easier to remember and type, but long-tail keywords are more relevant and intent-driven.
TIP:
Don’t try optimizing one page for too many key words! It’s more effective to keep things focused and simple.
Balancing short-tail and long-tail keywords requires understanding your goals, audience, and market. Depending on your niche, industry, and service, you may need to use more or less of each type of keyword. To help you with this balance, consider using short-tail keywords for main topics, categories, and pages to rank for broad terms and attract a wide range of visitors. Long-tail keywords should be used for subtopics, subcategories, and posts to rank for specific terms and draw in a more engaged and loyal audience. I also recommend you use keyword research tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ubersuggest to find and analyze both types of keywords.
2) Optimization Strategies
Content optimization is something that I am not only applying to my website, but also being more concious of as a service when developing sites for my clients.
In SEO, your content needs to be optimized for two channels: real people and search engines/web crawlers. Optimizing for people means being mindful of accessibility standards that relates to what they will see (what’s actually on the page). Optimizing for a search engines means being mindful of how clean and accurate the site the code is (what’s behind the curtain).
If you would like to read more on SEO best practices according to Google, I found this article and the additional SEO content links very informative.
In a nutshell:
When optimizing your website content for people, you should make sure it:
Covers relevant topics with which you have experience or expertise.
Includes keywords people would use to find the content.
Is unique or original.
Is well-written and free of grammatical and spelling errors.
Is up to date, containing accurate information.
Includes multimedia (e.g., images, videos).
Is readable – structured to make it easy for people to understand the information you’re sharing (think: subheadings, paragraph length, use bolding/italics, ordered/unordered lists, reading level, etc.).
When optimizing for search engines you need to address things like:
Title tags
Meta description
Header tags (H1-H6)
Image alt text
Open graph and Twitter Cards metadata
3) Content Strategies
One of the most effective ways to enhance your website’s rankings is to keep your website content fresh and updated regularly. Websites that sit stagnant for long periods of time start to fall off the radar for web crawlers, and risk losing their rank in organic searches.
Blogging can not only solve this issue, it can also help showcase you as a subject matter expert. Take this opportunity to address your client’s most common FAQs, and position yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
It’s an excellent SEO tool for businesses and firms that offer professional service. Remember, we don’t have products that contribute to that organic search traffic. Sharing your knowledge around the services you provide and the industries you serve can help account for that.
TIP:
Choose topics that align with your client’s most common pains
Use a conversational tone that is easy to read and understand.
Incorporate relevant keywords throughout your post in a natural way.
Add visuals to break up the text and make your post more engaging.
I get it. SEO can feel a bit like a black hole, and it’s difficult to not be intimidated. I hope these three strategies simplify SEO and alleviate some of your fears. Use these tips to develop a keyword strategy, optimize your web pages, and create valuable content to attract your dream clients.
One of the reasons I love the Squarespace website platform for my clients is because it already has really solid SEO right out of the box. You can read more about that on their website here. But that’s a whole new topic and a great idea for my next blog :)
The biggest thing to remember is:
SEO takes time. The seeds you sow today will be the harvest you reap tomorrow.
Ready to improve your website SEO and would rather engage a professional? Reach out anytime! I’m happy to chat and even take a look at how well your website is currently serving you.
Marlo Biasutti, RGD
CEO/Creative Director
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