What Is SEO and How Can It Help You Get More Bookings?

What Is SEO and How Can It Help You Get More Bookings

The goal of every children’s entertainer is to have a full diary. But without a steady stream of enquiries, this isn’t always an easy task.

Your website is one of the best tools you have to generate new enquiries. But there’s just one problem—people need to be able to find you online!

You could always pay for advertising, but if you are just starting out and haven’t got a big budget, then you are limited on options.

That’s where SEO comes in.

To put it simply, SEO or search engine optimization is the process of generating more natural traffic from search engines without relying on advertising.

When someone types a search term into Google (for example, ‘Children’s Entertainer New York’) the websites that appear on the first page of Google have usually been optimized for that particular search term. That is SEO.

With over 90% of Google’s users never clicking past the first page of results, it’s vital that your website is on the first page.

How to optimize your website

First things first. You will never really know what your customers are typing into Google without doing a bit of research first. Only then can you start optimizing your website.

Keyword research

Luckily, Google provides a free tool that can show you the most popular search queries related to your business. It’s called the Google Keyword Planner, and you can find it at https://adwords.google.co.uk/KeywordPlanner. You can use this tool as long as you register for a free account.

Once you’re in, you can type in your keyword or search query into the search field, and it will show you how many people search for that term each month. This will give you a good idea about which keywords you should and shouldn’t be targeting.

With over 90% of Google’s users never clicking past the first page of results, it’s vital that your website is on the first page.
My suggestion is to make a list of the most relevant and popular keywords and keep them safe. You will need these keywords later on when it comes to optimizing your website.

Now that you know what search terms your customers are using, how can you use this information to generate more traffic to your website?

SEO is broken down into two main parts: on-page SEO and off-page SEO. Google and other search engines provide a list of effective SEO factors, and each of them can be put into one of these two parts.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing everything on your website. You can change the different elements on your website to make it more appealing to search engines and give them a clearer understanding of what your website is all about.

Here are some elements you can optimize:

  • Headlines
  • Images
  • Text
  • Meta data
  • Blog posts
  • Menu structure
  • URL structure
  • Internal links
  • Videos
Top Tip
The best way to optimize your website is to use your list of keywords and place them throughout your site using the elements listed above. Try to keep it natural so that it makes sense to your website visitors. You don’t want to sound like a robot, stuffing keywords in everywhere. Also, make sure your writing is clear and helpful. Try to provide as much value to your end-user as possible.
Beware!
It’s crucial that you don’t repeat the same keyword too many times. Google only wants to provide their users with the best results, so if you try to play the system, be warned: you may get penalized.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO is the process of increasing your overall website value using other websites. When other websites link to your website, this is called a backlink. Backlinks are a very important element to SEO as they help increase the authority of your website. Essentially with backlinks, other websites are telling search engines that your content is helpful and trustworthy. Backlinks act like little votes of approval for your website.

Backlinks include…

  • Relevant industry blogs
  • Business directories
  • Forums and blog comments
  • Social media
  • Online review websites
Top Tip
You will naturally gain backlinks over time, but it usually takes a while. You can speed the process along by providing more value on your website or social media pages. The better your online content, the more chance people will take note and link back to your website.
Think about new ways you could get links to your website. Maybe you could write a guest post. A guest post is an article you write for someone else’s website that includes a link back to your website.
If you are smart about it, you can slowly build up a strong reputation online and build links back to your website in the process.
Beware!
Have you ever seen those companies that offer you 1000 backlinks for $5? Avoid them! It’s true that links back to your website are important, but Google values quality over quantity. Also, Google has been known to penalize websites that try to beat the system.

In summary

I believe that SEO is the most effective long-term strategy for your entertainment business. Google is still the most visited website in the world and every day people are using it to search for your services online. The only thing you have to do is make sure they find you before your competitors.

To find out more about SEO and how you can use it for your entertainment business, visit my website jammydigital.com. You can also watch my free SEO training video at SEO Pro School.

Posted in Blog, Contributors, Copywriting, Martin Huntbach, Websites and tagged , , ,