Search engines look at your website on a page-by-page basis. Each individual page on your site has the potential to show up in search engine results, driving valuable visitors to your website. For this reason it is critical to optimize not only your home page but at least some of your subpages as well. For professional services firms, the following types of pages are typically good candidates for SEO optimization.
Home Page
Your home page provides your best chance at ranking well for broad, competitive search keywords. Because of this, you’ll want your home page to include keyword phrases that describe your brand at a bird’s-eye level. For instance, a good home page keyword phrase for a marketing firm might be “marketing firm Indiana.”
It’s natural for the majority of inbound links to point to your home page rather than your subpages. The higher number of inbound links communicates to Google that your home page is the most credible page on the site. This is why, if you aim to rank for a very competitive keyword, the home page is the place to do it.
Services Pages
People looking online for professional services firms will often search Google for a specific service. For example, instead of searching for “marketing firm Indiana,” they might search for the broader term “SEO services.” Fewer people, in general, will search for a niche service keyword than for a broader keyword. But the upside is that it’s typically easier to rank for a more specific niche service keyword. When you include keyword-rich services pages on your site and optimize them for your specific offerings, you run a better chance of being found.
Industry Pages
Industry pages are often overlooked during the SEO process; however, if optimized properly, they can bring in highly relevant traffic. If you are an architecture firm that sometimes designs bank branches, for example, you might consider including a keyword-rich industry page describing your work for that type of client. The keyword for that page could be something like “architecture for banks.” People searching for this specific offering may find your industry page and discover that you offer just what they are looking for.
Location Pages
Google is becoming more and more conscious of geographic location. Your firm can turn this to its advantage by dedicating a page to each of your locations. This is particularly important for firms that deal extensively in their local region.
As an example, imagine you have a web page titled “Accounting Services, Austin, TX.” Such a page would clearly detail the services you offer in Austin, helping Google to understand your relevance to people searching on related terms in that part of Texas. This type of descriptive, specific page helps search engines connect searchers with useful results.
Blog Posts
Perhaps the most important pages to optimize, blog posts have the potential to drive the majority of your search engine traffic. Each time your firm publishes a keyword-focused post, you create another opportunity to be indexed by search engines and found by searchers. Blog pages are indexed like any other web page. If you include a keyword phrase in the title of the post and incorporate the term a few times in the text, search engines will usually recognize what you are trying to rank for.
In terms of SEO, the main difference between blog posts and other pages on your website is the type of keyword you’ll use. Whereas your other pages are focused on services, industries, and locations, blog posts should be more educational or discuss issues that are important to your audience. A good blog post keyword phrase for an IT firm might be “Sharepoint implementation challenges.” This is the type of issue that someone may search for, hoping to find an educational article. Attracting searchers via blog posts has become a proven way to connect with prospects early in the buying process.
To learn more about attracting clients with your blog, download our free Content Marketing Guide.
