In the past, there used to be a number of top SEO companies that dominated when it came to search rankings. Those companies had a number of mysterious search engine optimization (SEO) secrets and techniques that were kept under lock and key and available only to the privileged few.

Gone are those days. Now, you can learn the techniques of the top SEO companies and use them on your own small business or local website. Build your brand using the same proven approaches. It’s within your reach.

Why is SEO Important?

We’re going to assume you already know how important online search results can be to your business. 80% of website traffic begins with a search on a major search engine, like Google.

Once the person has entered the term for what they want to find, 75% of people find what they were looking for on the first page of search results.

There may be millions of results – some of the best ones may be far, far down the list, but the ones that are most friendly for the search engine to analyze make their way to the top of the results, and are the ones that make the most money, in the end.

It’s vital to get your website as close to the first page as possible, and top SEO companies put their websites on the first page of search results, every time.

Basic SEO in Website Building

If SEO is essential to your business’ online growth plan, you have to think about SEO from the first moment you create your site. The first step is knowing the search terms that you want people to enter which will cause them to arrive at your site.

Create a list of the top 25-50 terms – known as “keywords” – that you think would cause customers to search for your site.

This keyword list should be based on the products you sell, the services you offer, and your location if you are targeting customers in your local area. Think about alternate spellings, different phrasings, and unofficial or nicknames that people use to shop for your products and services.

Then, choose the most important keyword that would be critical for people to search for your business. You want this keyword to be in your URL, if possible. If not, you will want it to be one of the centerpieces of your Home page.

Building an SEO Website

When you’re designing a website like the top SEO companies, you want to bring focus to each of your main products or services and treat each of them like a separate topic. Your website will be made up of several pages, and each page will focus on one product or service.

That page will include a few (the number depends on the length of the page) keywords throughout the copy. Make sure to use the keywords in image captions, product descriptions, and even on the About Us page.

With the proper SEO structure, you’ll create a funnel of keywords that support one another and keep the reader easily engaged throughout the entire site.

Including CTAs and Social Media

SEO rankings are partially determined by the size and authority of your site, compared with other sites in the same industry – other websites that use similar keywords. You want your site to appear large and established, with a lot of interest and traffic, in order for the search engines to rank it as a “good” result when someone searches for that term.

Include “Calls to Action” (or CTAs) throughout the site that prompt the reader (your customer) to do something not related to making a purchase.

Ask them to sign up for your newsletter, or follow you on social media, and include easy-to-access links to your social media sites.

When people are clicking back and forth between your site and your social media, and when your social media has a high number of followers, your SEO rankings will get a nice boost.

Following Top SEO Companies Online

One of the best ways that you can keep up with the information in the busy SEO industry is to follow the top SEO companies on their social media, or subscribe to their blog. Don’t miss out when new things become available – their secrets are yours now.