Many of you are about to begin a second year with the Vend Raleigh Business Directory and I want to tell you that I’ve got some fun promo ideas coming this year that will be big traffic drivers to the Directory! Those details are coming soon. For now, let’s talk about how you are using the Directory and how you can better use it to promote your business.
Look at these Google search results! These Vend Raleigh listings are up on the first page of Google when I searched Raleigh and the names of well known direct sales businesses, even showing up before their websites and social media URLs.
How can you get your listing appearing on top search pages? I have two ways that will give you results.
1. Keywords for Images
Look at the content of your listing. Are you using keywords like Raleigh in your text? Go into your listing and click on the image and edit those photo by adding your keywords in the Alt Text field.
Here’s the text behind my headshot. You’ll see my name and I want my photo to show up on Google anytime someone searches “Raleigh Small Business Women”. What word searches do you want your images and listing to show up in?
I include keywords such as Raleigh Small Business Women in many of my website photos and if you search Google with those words, you’ll find Vend Raleigh! We had 21 photos in the first rows of a Google image search!
2. WordPress SEO by Yoast Tool
At the bottom of your listing you’ll find an SEO Yoast tool. Hanner Studios’s Yoast fields are a great example of how to check to be sure you have your keywords in the right places! (Note, do not change the URL of a live listing. If you didn’t use your keywords in your original URL link, there are other areas we can add keywords to and be just as effective.)
Using the event calendar on the Directory gives you additional pages on the site to point back to your website. Be sure keep your public events listed there!
Also, clients testimonies of your work are interesting for future clients and if you can trade testimonies with other Vend Mompreneurs, you can add quality backlinks for one another.
A few definitions for you…
SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine‘s “natural” or un-paid (“organic“) search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search,[1] news search and industry-specific vertical search engines.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content, HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic. (Wikipedia)
Backlinks
Quality backlinks increase your SEO. Do you have websites pointing back at you? Now more importantly, are those websites relevant and share the same content? Are you linked back to them? That’s why online directories are so valuable! Join the Vend Raleigh Directory, we are busy creating a quality site that promotes your business! Don’t know if you have an sites pointing back at you or what kind of sites they are? Check your backlinks here on Open Link Profiler.
An Invitation
Still need a little help to fancy up your Vend Raleigh Directory Listing? Meet with me! I’ve scheduled some dates to meet one on one with you for 30 mins to tweak listings and max out your SEO potential.
Not a member? Join the Vend Raleigh Business Directory here.
I’m very happy to promote you! Contact me and let’s market your business together.
Cary Heise
Founder of Vend Raleigh
Publisher of Social Butterflies NC
Owner of Stay at Home Rock Star
Join the email list! We have so many great events being announced for 2015! Don’t miss a thing.
- Say Hello to Amber! - January 30, 2020
- Welcome the NEW Leader and Owner of Vend Raleigh… - January 28, 2020
- It’s a New Season - January 27, 2020
Comments
Wonderful article Cary! I will work on my updates today!
This is good stuff. And now I need to update my listing! Great tips.