SEO is kind of like baking cookies. Let me explain.

When I was a kid, my grandmother would announce she’d be making her famous chocolate chip cookies and I was over the moon with happiness. Her cookies were unbelievably delicious!

I’d watch eagerly as she measured the ingredients. And mixed them. And rolled them out onto a cookie tray. And baked them.

It seemed to take FOREVER!

I just wanted to eat those cookies. Now.

Getting top ranking with SEO is just like that. (Except it doesn’t make my mouth water.)

You want to be on Page 1 NOW.

But SEO doesn’t work that way. You need the right ingredients. You need the perfect mix. And it takes time to bake up into delicious SEO goodness.

However, there are actions you can take TODAY to improve your wedding business website’s ranking. This recipe of actions, done consistently, will yield the results you crave.

#1 – Add local keywords to your website.

Most wedding business websites are lacking one of the most essential ingredients for Page 1 ranking: local keyword phrases.

These are the words your target brides and grooms would type into the search engines to find you. For example: Chicago wedding planner, Sydney wedding flowers, Los Angeles wedding officiant.

It’s extremely difficult to complete for Page 1 with the general wedding business keywords, but when you add the name of your local region or city, you have a fighting chance.

Where do you put those keywords?

• In your page titles.
• In your page URLs.
• In your page content.
• In your image descriptions and alt-text.
• Anywhere else that it makes sense.

ACTION: Add local keywords to the title of your website home page. Don’t use your business name in your page titles! It doesn’t help you rank in searches that matter most.

#2 – Get relevant links to your website.

The almighty Google is only going to put your website at the top of the search engines if it thinks you are delivering relevant content for those search terms. How does Google figure this out?

Well, the intricacies of its algorithm are mysterious, but one indication of quality content is that other websites related to your area of expertise are linking to your website.

That means you need to get other wedding business and wedding-related websites linking to you. Blogs, directories, businesses.

ACTION: Write a testimonial for another local business (restaurant, website designer, accountant) that you know and send it to them as a quote, including a link to your website. They’ll often link to you as proof of their awesomeness, and you won’t even have to ask!

#3 – Get your website shared on social media.

Social media shareability is an increasingly important ranking factor because it indicates quality content. The more people who like, share and comment on your blog posts or articles, the better!

The first step to getting it shared, is making sure people can find it.

ACTION: Choose the best piece of educational content on your site and share it with your social media networks. Ask a related question to encourage comments and feedback.

#4 – Create new content.

If you want top ranking on Google, you need to produce quality content (containing your keywords, remember #1) on a consistent basis. Once per week is a recommended minimum.

What type of content should you create?

Something that includes information your ideal couples are interested in, that contains your local keyword phrases, and is likely to get shared.

Don’t worry; I won’t make you figure this out on your own. Try this action on for size.

ACTION: Write a 400 word blog post about your favorite wedding venue or vendor to work with. A story about a recent wedding you worked together is perfect. Publish it and share the link with that wedding pro encouraging them to share. Don’t forget to share and tag them on social media!

#5 – Add video to your website.

There are a whole host of reasons why adding video to your website is good for your business. Visitors spend 88% more time on websites that have video, and video earns more backlinks.

But what if you don’t have a video for your wedding business and you don’t want to make one?

Borrow the benefits of video today with someone else’s content.

ACTION: Search YouTube for an entertaining or helpful video of interest to your target couples. Embed it on your website or blog post and add 200 words describing or exploring the topic. Done!

How Does Your Website Rank in the Search Engines?

If you want to learn more about how to use the #1 trusted tool of SEO experts to track your Google rankings, you need to join us for our next workshop!

Chris Jaeger of Marketing to Brides Online is presenting, by overwhelming request after his SEO presentation for our recent Acceleration Summit:

Wicked Easy SEO Tracking With Serpbook

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this workshop:

• How to find the perfect keywords to attract your target leads.
• The one thing you MUST do first before setting up your SerpBook account — or it won’t work!
• Doing your own SEO? This tool lets you measure which efforts are working and which are a waste of time.
• How to get a quick overview of how your website is ranking in Google, Yahoo, Bing and Google Places.
• Step by step tutorial showing you how to set up your SerpBook account and use it to track rankings and generate reports.

Save your spot for this exclusive workshop here.