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Climbing the Ranks Search engine optimization requires patience for better visibility, traffic and conversions. By Emily Bertram
Off-page Optimization Technical Setup Content Strategy “The goal of an SEO campaign is to increase your visibility, organic traffic, brand credibility and conversion,” Kinzel said.
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t’s become second nature to use search engines to answer all our questions. What’s the name of that one actor in that one movie? Ask Google. Who is hosting the 2025 Super Bowl? Google it. Coffee shops near me? Google Maps to the rescue. Approximately 5.94 million Google searches are made every minute, according to Hubspot. With a well-planned and consistently maintained SEO (search engine optimization) strategy, your business can be part of those search results. SEO is the effort to make your website more visible in search engines without paying for ads. It’s a long-term strategy that requires attention to detail.
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By improving your SEO rankings, your website shows up higher in search engine results, driving more traffic to your website and possibly converting some of that traffic into customers. Tami Kinzel, director of strategic partnership at WhiteBox Marketing, recently discussed SEO at a Lunchtime Learning session sponsored by the St. Cloud Area Chamber. “Ninety-one percent of Google search traffic stays on the first page of results,” Kinzel said. The key to getting your website on that first page is to attract relevant customers (think quality, not quantity) through four elements: On-page Optimization
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On-Page Optimization “On-page is anything you’ve built into your website or established in the back end of your website,” Kinzel said. The way your website is laid out and labeled matters to your SEO ranking. Site maps need to be relevant, user-friendly and structured in a way that makes sense. Page titles, title tags, descriptions of photos, and even text on buttons need to be detailed and organized. Google Analytics and Google Search Console should be linked correctly. On-page optimization focuses on the minutia of a site — the things that often get overlooked. It’s important to get on-page optimization in order, because it is the foundation of an SEO campaign. Off-Page Optimization “Off-page is going to be backlinking, directories, your Google My Business — anything that’s off your website,” Kinzel said. Essentially, this is how your website builds authority as a reliable source in Google’s eyes. Backlinks are links to your website from another source on the internet. Gaining backlinks from guest blogs and other
websites that are relevant to your product or service is important in building authority. Authentic Google reviews are also a great way to improve off-page optimization. It is also beneficial to have consistent branding, bios, company names and links on social media. The information on your social media should match the information on your website. Location also plays a big role in SEO, because of its relation to a Google My Business account. “If you’re trying to optimize within a market where you don’t have a physical location, it’s going to be more of an uphill battle,” Kinzel said. Check and update your Google My Business listing often to avoid confusion. Technical Setup This includes things like: URL structure: The parts of a URL that specify the location of a web page on the internet (page name, location on website menu, etc.) Internal linking: Links on your website to other pages within your website Structured data: The format in which a page’s content is organized that helps a search engine understand the page’s content and context “It’s all about credibility,” Kinzel said. “Google wants to see things very well aligned and put together.” This is often the behind-the-scenes of a website that is handled by a developer, which is why it’s important to