Search Engine Optimization Examples and Best Practices

The internet is brimming with information on search engine optimization (SEO). However, much of it is rather theoretical (and we know that our advice sometimes falls into this category too). That’s why, in this blog article, we’re offering practical examples and best practices to help you effectively increase your online visibility.

Spotlight onto our customers Pret A Manger, KFC, and Barceló Hotel Group. And by the way: this overview isn't about choosing between different strategies; you'll ultimately need to perform all of it for the biggest impact.

Components of search engine optimization

Search engine optimization seems like a simple idea, yet in practice, SEO involves many moving parts. These tend to ask you for constant monitoring, not least because each search engine—from Google, to Bing, to Yahoo, and beyond—brings slight nuances to their algorithms.

There are four main components to consider in your SEO strategies: on page SEO, off page SEO, local SEO, and organic SEO. Each of these, in turn, relies on distinct optimizations in content and technical SEO.

On Page SEO

On page search engine optimization combines content and technical SEO to optimize elements on each individual webpage. As one of the things you can actually control directly with SEO tools, a solid understanding of on page fundamentals is worth your while.

#1 Publishing Relevant, High-Quality Content

Consistently publishing content that is both relevant and of high quality is crucial for establishing your authority within your industry. This not only engages your audience but also encourages sharing and enhances your brand's reputation as a valuable resource in the eyes of both users and search engines.

#2 Adding Target Keywords to headlines

Incorporating target keywords strategically throughout your content helps align your website with what your audience is searching for online. By naturally integrating these keywords into your content, you increase the likelihood of attracting qualified traffic to your site, ultimately improving your SEO performance.

#3 Creating HTML Tags Including Meta Data

Crafting HTML tags with meticulous care, including meta titles and meta descriptions, plays a pivotal role in optimizing your web pages for search engines. These tags not only provide concise summaries of your content but also entice users to click through to your site from search engine results pages (SERPs), thereby boosting your click-through rates and overall visibility online.

#4 Adding a Store Locator to the Website

Integrating a user-friendly store locator feature on your website streamlines the customer journey by allowing visitors to easily locate and access your physical locations. This enhances user experience and, thereby, impacts user behavior—an important local search ranking factor.

#5 Building Local Landing Pages for Each Location

Creating dedicated local landing pages for each location is instrumental in catering to the unique needs and preferences of regional audiences. By customizing content to resonate with local customers, businesses can improve their relevance in search engine results for geographic-specific queries, ultimately driving higher engagement and conversions from local audiences.

All of these together send signals to the search engines that your website features expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness—better known as EAT, a concept baked into Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines.

For maximum impact, you need to create content that search engines will find and then promptly serve to the right users at the right time. Generally, search engines nowadays deploy crawlers to gather information, starting at a known web page and then following links to other pages—so they populate their search index with the cross-referenced results, which makes citation building all the more important.

Off Page SEO

While you can control on page SEO, off page SEO can feel like a trickier cousin, relying largely on external factors. Done well, off page SEO can generate more organic traffic, though that requires careful listings management and reputation management.

#1 Manage Business Listings for Each Locations

By claiming and optimizing listings on platforms like Google as well as industry-specific directories, you will not only boost local SEO rankings but also build trust with potential customers.

Start by optimizing your Google Business Profile, which remains one of the most important things for local SEO. Then add profiles on the most important online directories and regularly update these with current hours, contact details, and business descriptions to maintain relevance and accessibility.

#2 Generate Qualitative Backlinks

Link building represents the most important activity in off page SEO: getting other websites to link back to yours. This includes netting SEO citations—meaning: online mentions of your business’s name, address, and phone number plus other key details on websites, directories, and platforms.

But also, you can actively reach out to media outlets or influencers to work on content on their pages, linking back to yours. Guest blogging allows you to share valuable content with a new audience while gaining backlinks that enhance your site's authority. Similarly, collaborating with influencers in your niche can amplify your brand's visibility and credibility among their followers, driving more traffic and potential customers to your website.

#3 Guard Your Online Reputation

Staying on top of your online reputation is crucial as it directly impacts credibility and trustworthiness. Monitoring and responding to reviews across platforms demonstrates proactive engagement with customers while mitigating negative feedback. That way, you can foster a positive brand image and attract more potential customers who value transparency and responsiveness.

Organic SEO and Local SEO

Organic SEO and local SEO both leverage the foundational measures of on-page and off-page SEO, albeit with distinct emphases.

#1 Organic SEO focuses on the company’s visibility

Organic SEO aims to optimize a website's visibility on a national or global scale through strategies like keyword optimization and content creation, appealing to broader audiences searching for relevant topics or products/services.

#2 Local SEO focuses on the location’s visibility

Local SEO hones in on geographic-specific optimizations to enhance visibility in local search results, so called "near me" search queries. This involves tactics like optimizing local listings, acquiring local citations, and fostering positive reviews from local customers.

Consequently, local SEO for multiple locations places much more emphasis on attracting local customers ready to make an immediate purchase. When a user’s search intent indicates this need, search engines prioritize ranking for entries with the most relevant information by looking at:

• relevance: how well an entry’s profile fits with the user’s search.

• distance: the distance between the user and each potential search result.

• prominence: popularity of a profile, including positive review ratings.

Dialing in local SEO strategies provides enhanced local visibility and a better chance of getting into Google’s Local 3-Pack, directing footfall to your stores.

Distinguishing Content from Technical SEO

Now that you're clear on SEO strategies, let's quickly distinguish between the types of tasks you'll need to tackle: content enhancements and technical improvements. This will prepare you to begin effectively optimizing your online presence.

#1 Content Optimizations

Content SEO means optimizing the quality and relevance of content to improve online visibility and search engine rankings–and with content, we mean all types of content living on the web, such as:

• your blog, your store locator or landing pages for on-page SEO

• social media platforms, review sites, and local directories for off-page SEO

Optimizing content for SEO builds on keyword research to understand better which terms your target audience will search for. Then, you optimize for those keywords by placing them at the right places—especially headlines—while organizing the content on your website in a logical way. All this makes up the public-facing side of search engine optimization.

#2 Technical Optimizations

Technical SEO refers to optimizing the “back end” of your website for better rankings. These technical enhancements cover things like increasing page speed, streamlining crawlability and indexing, submitting your sitemap to Google, internal linking as well as ensuring your site is mobile-friendly and secure. And because search engine algorithms occasionally fuss over minutiae, technical SEO not only improves the user experience of your website, but also ticks the right EAT signals.

And as a matter of fact: technical SEO goes hand in hand with your content marketing to optimize your digital marketing for long-term success.

How to Measure Your SEO Works

In order to stay on top of search, bake some solid tracking into your SEO strategies to measure successes accurately. Consider SEO KPIs such as:

• keyword rankings, organic impressions, and clicks

• online visibility, domain authority, and spam scores

• changes in organic impressions and click-through rates

• engagement time and upticks in reviews left by customers

• referral traffic, signaling the strength of your link building strategy

While you may feel tempted to track everything, hone in on a few metrics so you can really work with them, tweaking your approach for increased performance before moving onto your next goal. Consider starting with the SEO tools that come with the Uberall platform, as part of an AI-powered system designed to boost brand visibility for multi-location businesses.

Get in touch to discover how Uberall can empower you to optimize your location-based marketing tactics and grow your local business visibility; exactly like our best practice customers above.