SEO is one of the most important aspects of running a blog.
The goal is to get your site to the top of search engines so that people can find you when they look for content related to what you’re writing about.
There are many different factors that go into achieving this goal, but if you follow these steps (and trust me, they’re not too difficult), you’ll be on the path to success in SEO:
If you want to be successful in the search engine optimization (SEO) world, then link building is one of the most essential steps.
It’s not enough just to have good content and publish it on your website – you also need other websites that link back to yours so that Google can see how popular your site is.
In this post we’ll look at what link building is, why it’s important for SEO, and how you can do it right!
Link Building For SEO
Link building is a long-term process.
It’s not something you can do in a day, or even a week.
You need to be patient and consistent, but also flexible enough to adapt your strategy when needed.
One of the most common mistakes that people make when trying to build links is thinking that all links are created equal–that any backlink will help your site’s SEO rankings as long as it has “rel=nofollow” attached (which means: don’t follow).
This isn’t true!
In fact, many types of links have been shown by Google itself that they don’t affect search engine rankings at all–and sometimes even cause harm!
What is Link Building?
Link building is the act of acquiring links to your website.
It’s important because it helps search engines determine how relevant your site is, and thus how high its ranking should be in search results pages.
Link building can be done in many different ways:
- Guest posting – writing articles for other websites and getting them published on those sites with a link back to yours (and perhaps even an author bio).
- Commenting on blogs – leaving comments on blogs that get picked up by Google as “high quality” content, which then links back to yours.
- Using social media – sharing content from other websites or creating original posts with links back out into the world via social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter
Don’t forget internal link building
A very powerful link building method sits right on your site.
Make sure to link pages together that have benefit to both.
Pass around that page JUICE to boost another page or to compliment.
Remember though, you aren’t just doing it to cram in links make sure they help your readers aka members or soon to be members.
Why is link building important for SEO?
Links are a signal to search engines that your site is valuable.
Search engines use links as a way of determining how much trust should be placed in a particular website, so if you want to rank well, it’s important that the sites linking to yours have high authority themselves.
Link building isn’t just about getting more links — it’s also about getting high-quality ones!
How to do it the right way?
The right way to do SEO is to create high quality content, build relationships with other sites and get involved in industry events.
You can also use guest posting as a part of your link building strategy.
This will help you get more traffic from other websites and increase the number of backlinks on your site.
It’s important that you don’t just rely on guest posting alone though; there are other ways of getting links too!
My Takeaway On Linkbuilding
Link building is an important part of SEO, but it can be difficult to do yourself.
You should consider hiring someone to do it for you if you’re not familiar with the process and don’t have time to learn.
There are some things that Google doesn’t like when it comes to link building, such as buying links or getting your site penalized by the search engine because of bad links (called “black hat” techniques).
If you use these types of tactics on purpose, your website may get punished by Google’s algorithms and no longer appear in search results at all!
Monitor Your Competition (Credit Unions, Banks, or Other Financial Institutions)
Monitor your competition for SEO is a very important task, that will allow you to understand what your competitors are doing and how they’re doing it.
Monitoring competition is more than just knowing what they are doing.
It can also help you understand what they are not doing so well, which areas they are lacking in and which areas you should focus on if you want to beat them in the SERPs.
I’m sure personally your credit union has done some homework on competition in your areas of service on banks and credit union or other financial institutions.
But it’s good to dive deeper and see how they rank online and then take over.
Benefits of monitoring competition for SEO:
1. You can find out their link building strategy and gain new ideas
2. You can find out what keywords they’re ranking for and improve on them
3. You can see their backlinks and get new ones
Create A Content Marketing Plan
Easily one of the biggest way to optimze for search engines.
Yet:
I just don’t see it done enough.
But:
On top of that I just see thing not optimzed content with no value sitting within it.
On top of that:
It’s not measured, updates, analyzed often to update it and keep it fresh and ranking.
Some key benefits of content marketing and why it matters
Brand awareness
One of the main benefits of content marketing is that it’s a great way to build brand awareness.
By creating and distributing valuable content, you can reach a large audience with your message and help them understand what makes your company unique.
This helps customers trust you more and increases their desire to do business with you.
Increased traffic
Another major benefit of content marketing is that it increases traffic to your website.
When people see your articles, blog posts or videos online, they’re more likely to click through than if they saw an advertisement or banner ad.
Content marketing also helps attract new customers by driving organic search traffic from search engines like Google or Bing.
This means that people are looking for information about a topic related to yours and found your website when searching for it on Google or Bing.
Increased sales
Content marketing also helps increase sales by encouraging visitors to purchase products or services after reading an article or watching a video about them on your site.
Optimize Your Page Title And Meta Description
The meta description and title are two of the most important elements of your website.
This is because they appear in search results and can influence click-through rates.
A good description will not only help you rank higher, but it will also encourage more people to visit your site.
What Is the Meta Description?
Meta descriptions are snippets of text that appear below the title of a web page in search results.
They can be up to 150 characters long, and they’re important because they have an impact on whether or not people click on your page.
A good meta description is relevant to what you’re trying to promote, provides information about what kind of content you’re offering
(for example: “This blog post explains how to optimize your title tags”) and includes keywords that would help someone searching for those terms find your page.
The Importance of A Meta Description
The meta description is the snippet of text that appears under your page title in search results.
It’s a short summary of the page’s content, and it should be no longer than 150 characters.
Some sites use meta descriptions as an opportunity to add links back to their own site or another one they control (for example, if you own an ecommerce site selling women’s shoes and you want people who are searching for “women’s shoes” on Google to land on your site).
However, this practice can lead to spammy behavior and may result in penalties from Google if done too aggressively or frequently.
The best way to optimize your meta descriptions is by writing compelling copy that accurately describes what users will find when they click through from those search results pages (SERPs).
How To Write a Meta Description
A meta description is important because it’s the text that appears in search results, so you want to make sure it’s compelling and descriptive.
A good way to do this is by using your target keywords in the first 100 characters of your meta description, then writing a sentence or two afterwards that explains what visitors will find on your site when they click through from Google.
You should also make sure that each page has its own unique meta description; otherwise, Google may think all of those pages are duplicates of one another (which could negatively impact their rankings).
You can do this by making sure each page has its own URL and title tags–for example, if you have two different landing pages with similar names but different content (like “Landing Page 1” and “Landing Page 2”), then each one should have its own unique meta description so they don’t get confused as duplicates by search engines like Google or Bing!
Write your meta description with keywords in mind.
Meta descriptions are a great place to use keywords.
The right ones can help Google understand what your page is about and rank it higher in search results, which will increase traffic.
However, it’s important not to overdo it or use too many keywords; otherwise, you’ll look like you’re trying too hard and risk getting penalized by Google.
When writing meta descriptions for your pages’ content (e.g., blog posts), keep these best practices in mind:
- Use relevant keywords but don’t overdo it! Keyword stuffing doesn’t work anymore–and if done incorrectly, it could get your site penalized by Google’s algorithms. Instead of stuffing multiple words into one sentence or paragraph of text with no context between them, try using phrases like “Our top 10 tips for _____” instead of simply listing off all 10 points without any transition between each point or explanation as to why they matter so much on their own merits as opposed to being grouped together under one umbrella topic title above all else.”
Add Videos To Your Website Pages
Videos are often easier to consume than text, which makes them more likely to be shared across social media platforms.
However, adding video to your blog posts can be difficult if you aren’t sure where to start.
Here are three key ways video can improve your blog:
1. Videos can increase engagement with your readers (Huge for keeping others on your page)
2. Video helps people remember what you write about (I love this)
3. Video helps people find you on Google and other search engines (Videos increase your search engine realestate)
In addition,
Video marketing can help improve the performance of your social media accounts.
This is because videos are more engaging than text. People tend to spend more time on videos compared to other types of content.
A study by HubSpot found that 67% of people prefer watching a video over reading an article on your website.
Moreover, almost 50% of people said that they would be more likely to buy something after watching a video than after reading an article on your website.
Adding videos to your blog posts can also help with conversion rates because they can make content more interesting and engaging, which makes them easier to consume.
1 key tip for adding a video:
If you go to Youtube and find a video you like you can take that URL and embed that right on your page.
Add a Sitemap in Google Search Console
You can add a sitemap to Google Search Console, which is a good way to keep your content fresh and ensure that it’s being indexed by Google.
Adding a sitemap also lets you see how many pages are indexed for your site.
Adding a Sitemap to Google Search Console:
Sitemapping is the process of uploading a list of all the pages on your site so that Google knows what content exists on your site and can crawl it more efficiently.
The more pages you have on your site, the more important it is to submit them to Google so they can crawl them all properly.
Google uses this information to improve its search results by showing users the most relevant results first.
It also helps Google find new content that may be relevant but not yet listed in their index.
This improves the quality of their search results by showing more relevant results and reducing the chance of showing duplicate or low-quality pages in their search results.
Keep your URL short
Sometimes I see URL’s that are the entire title.
First of all titles change with testing and optimizing.
utilize just your keywords if you can.
For instance:
This page I use:
/credit-union-seo-tips/
plain and simple and it’s what I’m focusing on.
Now:
It could have been
/credit-union-seo-tips-actionable-steps-to-take
Because that’s my full title.
Bottom line, just keep those URL’s simple 🙂
Make sure you are adding ALT text to every image
Alt text is a core part of making sure your website and app are accessible.
It’s also an opportunity to add some more information about what the image is, or what it does.
A lot of people don’t know about alt tags.
Align yourself with the best practices of the web by adding alt tags to every image.
This is a good practice because it helps screen readers and search engines understand what your images contain, which is important for people with disabilities and for making sure that your site can be found in search results.
It’s also an easy thing for you to do–you can add an alt tag in a few seconds using some simple text editing software like Microsoft Word or Google Docs, which makes it very easy for almost anyone on any budget!
Alt tags are used by search engines and screen readers.
Alt tags are used by search engines and screen readers to tell people what an image is.
They are also important for accessibility, as they allow people who use assistive technologies to understand the content of a page.
You can use alt tags to explain what an image is, or what it does.
Alt tags are used by search engines and screen readers to tell people what’s in your images.
They’re also a great way to add visual interest to your website, making it easier for visitors with disabilities (like those who use a screen reader) to navigate around the site.
You can use alt tags to explain what an image is, or what it does–for example:
Adding important information to images improves the accessibility of your content.
It’s a good practice to add alt text to every image, as it improves the accessibility of your content.
When it comes to accessibility, one of the most important things you can do is make sure that people with disabilities can use and enjoy your website or app.
If you’re unfamiliar with how this works, here’s an overview:
Screen readers are software programs that read text aloud for people who are blind or have vision problems like macular degeneration or color blindness.
They use alt text as part of their process so they know what each image is about when they encounter one on a page (for example: “Image description: A photo of my dog”).
In addition to helping screen reader users understand what an image contains, adding an appropriate alt tag also helps search engines understand what each picture represents–this helps improve their ability to index images properly when crawling websites!
Alt tags help people who have disabilities access your website or app.
The alt text is what screen readers read out loud.
Screen readers are used by people who are blind or have low vision, as well as those with dyslexia, cognitive disabilities and learning disabilities.
For example:
- A person with a visual impairment uses a screen reader to navigate the web. When they land on your site and want to know what’s in an image, they can press “alt” (or access it through their settings) and hear the text you’ve provided for that image rather than just seeing it as an image file name or description like most sighted people would see it.
- Someone with dyslexia may find reading long blocks of text difficult because their brains struggle with processing all those letters at once–but if you include short chunks of information in each paragraph instead (like headings), then this will make it easier for them to follow along when reading through your content!
Stay up-to-date
To stay up-to-date on SEO, there are a number of tools you can use. Some of these include:
- Google Search Console – Easily one of my favs to monitor my performance.
- Google Analytics – this is a free tool that allows you to track and analyze your website’s traffic data.
- Moz Open Site Explorer – another great resource for tracking competitor backlinks, as well as seeing how much traffic they receive from those links.
- Ahrefs – another competitor backlink tracker with additional features like social media monitoring and keyword research functionality built in.
Staying up to date is one key aspect many forget.
They write an amazing post or a page on a product for a savings account or loan the credit union offers and thats it.
They key is to always work reports looking for new keywords and new avenues to expand on.
Bottom line:
Keep your pages fresh and up to date.
Write For Your Audience (AKA Members)
You need to write for your audience, not for search engines.
Think about what they want and need, and make sure that you give it to them.
Use keywords that are relevant and appropriate for the topic of your article or blog post.
Make it easy for people to find what they’re looking for by using clear headings and subheadings throughout your content, as well as links between different sections of text (for example: “click here” or “[link]” in the middle of sentences).
Remember: keep it simple!
Monitor your performance and results.
Monitoring and measuring your results is an essential part of the process.
It’s important to track how well you are doing, so that you know what’s working and what isn’t.
You can use Google Analytics or another analytics tool to measure traffic numbers, social media engagement and other key metrics.
You should also look at the search engine result pages (SERPs) for keywords that are relevant to your business–are they ranking? If not, why not?
What tools should I Use to monitor performance and results?
Hey, I’m glad you asked!
Ok, my 2 fav tools are Google Search Console and Google Analytics
Everyone should be using these 2 no matter what.
I will say though maybe you want a user friendly tool that can do a ton for you.
It might be worth checking out
Both are considered a platform for all in one help.
And based off the budget you might have for your marketing team it should allign perfectly starting around $100 monthly.
Just To Wrap Up SEO For Credit Unions
That’s it!
We hope you found these tips helpful, and that they will help you to achieve better results in your blog’s search engine optimization.
Remember, the best way to learn is by doing.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different strategies and see what works best for you–that’s how we all get better at what we do!
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