When many people consider search engine optimization (SEO), they start by thinking about their own goals. Maybe they want to widen their reach to a greater potential audience. Maybe they want to create more conversions. Maybe they’re just focused on providing helpful information to people who may be interested in their products and services.
There’s an old saying in business that the three most important factors are location, location, location. Much of this viewpoint stemmed from the fact that businesses got a lot of their customers through foot traffic. People would be walking in a shopping area, a bar district or an area known for restaurants, and they would stumble upon these local businesses that they wanted to visit.
Ideally, every person who tries to contact your company should come away thinking that they had a good customer service experience. They received the answers or information that they were looking for. It wasn’t frustrating, but went smoothly. They were able to contact the division of the company that they wanted. If this is the type of experience that they have, it can improve your online reviews and it can even create more conversions.
When considering keywords and search engine optimization (SEO), you may want to consider using geo-targeted keywords. These are specific keywords that have a geographical location worked into them. For instance, rather than just using the keyword “Italian restaurants”, one may use the keyword “Italian restaurants in Houston” or “Italian restaurants in Texas.” This can be applied to a wide variety of businesses and advertising campaigns.
Social media has forever changed the way that people communicate with one another. It helps people connect across all corners of the globe. It gives them instant access to information they never would have had even just a generation ago. Additionally, it allows them to make beneficial online connections, even with people or businesses that they have never interacted with in real life.
Microsoft was recently sued, along with OpenAI, for its use of patented written material to train their artificial intelligence algorithm. That lawsuit came from the New York Times, but that is certainly not the only publication that has been used in creating this technology. It will be interesting to see what this means moving forward, and it also may just be the beginning.
Ideally, you want your business website to make conversions for you. As long as you can direct traffic to the site, then the site can help you to make sales. When someone clicks on an ad, that’s a great first step because it funnels them to your site, but it’s not a conversion until they make a purchase. This is why there can often be quite a discrepancy between the click-through rate and the conversion rate.
AI (artificial intelligence) has already had a major impact on numerous industries. This is not without controversy. For example, the New York Times has recently sued OpenAI on allegations of plagiarism and using copyrighted material because it takes content from other sources. Many artists have also expressed frustration with AI art tools that can “create” new pictures and images simply by taking elements from existing works.
The new year is fast approaching. It’s a chance for you to consider what your company has accomplished over the last year and what you hope to accomplish in the future. Along with defining what success looks like, this gives you a chance to identify key steps that you can take to reach those goals in 2024 and beyond.