What Is SEO?
What exactly is SEO? That is kind of a loaded question. The short answer is that SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which means that it increases the likelihood that your website pops up on search engines like Google. SEO is a complex topic, and if you do some reading on the topic you may find yourself a little overwhelmed. Since websites are our area of expertise, we’ve put together some of the basics in a short guide we call SEO 101.
In general, the more content and text associated with your website, the better. So … Here are 4 things you should know about SEO.
1. Website Title
Giving your website a title will help you become more “searchable” on the web. For our actor clients, we often recommend a simple title such as “The Official Website of *yourname*”. This very small detail will improve your website’s visibility significantly. The good news is, if you are a client of Stage Door Designs, we take care of this for you! If you are a business, we’ll adjust the titles accordingly too.
2. Your Content
This might be the most important aspect of SEO for our clients. The ‘bots’ that view sites are able to search and read the content on your site. Things like bios, captions, image names and other copy are critical to search results. Be as specific as you can here. Broadway is going to bring up a lot of results for instance, what is most important is something specific to YOU. For example, a particular show will get more results than the term Broadway. In addition, keeping your website fresh and up to date is critical to search. So make sure to review your copy frequently and check in with us to make sure your content is spot on.
PRO TIP: Check your ‘terms and phrases’ by searching hashtag in Instagram or Twitter. If it’s used over 200,000 times, then you know there is A LOT out there with that same term. Narrow your focus to something more unique to you!
3. Backlinks are critical!
Another simple way to improve your SEO visibility is through backlinking. This essentially means posting your website link everywhere you can! You should have links to your website on your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and whatever other social media profiles you may have. When you do interviews or are featured in articles, request that your website be included when the piece is published online. If you are on Broadway World or IMDb, make sure your site is linked too! Your website’s SEO improves when search engines detect that your website link is present throughout the web.
4. Drive traffic!
This last tip is closely related to our previous one. SEO’s purpose is to increase searchability and traffic on your site. When it comes to SEO, traffic begets traffic. Essentially, the more people clicking on and visiting your website will actually increase how often it appears in searches. This is because SEO favors websites that people are looking at, and pushes them up in the ranks of searches. This is where back-linking comes in handy, as more people will visit your site if the link is readily available. Frequent follower contact is important too. Many of our clients use monthly or quarterly newsletters to reach out to their followers with all the latest news. If you would like to learn more about using newsletters, contact us and we’ll give you all the details.
We have just scratched the surface of the broad topic of SEO. If you have any questions or want to know how you can further improve SEO on your site, you can schedule a call with us here!
