Cort Tafoya is a freelance SEO specialist servicing multiple locations in the Bay Area. If you’re looking for an Oakland SEO marketer, review his bio and about section, check out his LinkedIn Profile and read directly from him the strategies and tactics he uses to improve keyword rankings.
SEO is arguably the highest grossing marketing tactic on the planet. The ability to get visitors who are searching for exactly what you offer is hard to beat.
Another bonus to consider is the fundamentals of this relationship. For example, when a searcher finds your web page and that web page answers exactly what they’re looking for, or solves a problem they’re having, a few things happen:
- First, you’re now considered an incredibly trustworthy source by the reader, something that will make them much more likely to contact you
- You’re viewed as an expert based on the information your web page has provided them, meaning they’ll want to refer to you again or speak with you in the future
- You’re not viewed as pushy or intrusive because you never reached out to them. They found you, and likely they want more of your time, product or service. Customers prefer this relationship dynamic far more than that of the telemarketer or cold emailer
Work with an Oakland SEO Marketer
There are 5 pillars for SEO success that I try to execute with every client.
- Targeted, smart keyword research
- Long-form content
- Optimized website architecture so PageRank goes where it’s needed
- On-Page SEO
- Off-Page SEO
Finding Your Keywords
Let’s start with keyword research. I like to begin with a brainstorming session between myself and the client to better understand their customers’ needs. Knowing what the customers need will easily point me in the right direction as to what they’re searching for.
From there we can go on to Google and see what suggested or related results come up at the bottom of the page, or see what auto-complete comes up with.
Then we can use the keyword planner to identify volume and other phrases.
Using Moz SEO software we can gather the exact keyword difficulty score for each phrase. Knowing this score allows us to prioritize our efforts. If your website is fairly new and contains a low domain authority, we won’t be targeting phrases that score in the 50 or 60 range.
Similarly, we may find high converting keywords that are in the 20’s, 30’s or 40’s. We can and should target those phrases with your web pages right away. This might mean we make new content or that we apply on-page SEO tactics to your current web pages.
Creating Longform Content
The average web page on Google’s page 1 for any given search is 2000+ words. For difficult phrases, that’s the length of content we’ll need to make. I can create this content through my own research (former journalism major) or you can make it in house.
For less difficult keywords we can get away with writing 800-1500 word posts or web pages, but there’s more value to longform content than just rankings.
Longform content gets shared exponentially more and converts visitors at a higher rate. I’d recommend employing a longform content marketing strategy regardless of your SEO goals.
Optimized Website Architecture
Phrases that are absolutely crucial to your business should be targeted by the pages that rest in your top level navigation. These pages inherit the most PageRank from your home page and the other websites that link to you.
I can work with companies on restructuring content on this part of their website, and doing away with unnecessary links on the home page that dilute PageRank from where it’s needed most.
For additional phrases, that’s where we’ll use the blog, as a cluttered top level navigation can interfere with design and UX.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO can improve rankings right away. You can start to add keyword phrases to the following places and potentially improve where that content shows up for various queries. Take a look at the pages you’ve made and ask yourself if you’ve placed keywords in the following areas:
- Page title
- URLs
- Headers
- First paragraph of text
- Linked text
- Image alt text
Google looks at these locations to better understand what the content is about and rank it for the appropriate search phrases.
Off Page SEO
Off page SEO mostly refers to link building. Link building shouldn’t be done in a spammy way where you pay websites to link to you, get links from crappy websites or create fake websites just to get more linking root domains.
Link building is something you want to work on in an organic way. For example:
- Finding unlinked mentions of your brand
- Guest blogging
- Adding your site to relevant directories
- Having business partners link to you
- Getting press or written about in news stories
- Creating amazing content that other people want to link to (the best way)
You’ll definitely increase your PageRank with these methods and Google views links backs as votes of confidence and trust in your website, making you an ideal location to steer searchers.
Hire an Oakland SEO Marketer Today
You can schedule a free SEO consultation with me to review your website, find the right keywords and talk strategy. If you’re a DIY kind of person, that’s just fine. Feel free to use me as a resource. If you think your SEO needs are more intensive, I do campaign work, audits & recommendations, and longform content creation.
Use the form below to submit a request. Thanks for reading!
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