Increasing Traffic to Your Website with Search Engine Optimization

Wondering how to get to the top of Google? There are almost 5 billion searches per day on Google. If you are not online, or easy to find, your business is missing out on huge potential.  Many businesses rely on their website and social media profiles for their advertising and marketing- for some their online presence is their only form of advertising. So how do you improve the effectiveness of your website and make sure that customers can easily find you?

Search engine optimization (SEO) involves creating a website in a way that will help draw traffic to your site from search engines. Search engines are the primary means of finding information on the internet- by using SEO techniques you can increase the ranking of your site and thus increase the number of people visiting your site. There are a number of SEO techniques and best practices that can improve your rankings on search engines, and help to make your website as effective as possible.

The government of Ontario has published an E-Business Toolkit, including an on-line booklet Increasing traffic to your website through search engine optimization techniques. This booklet is targeted towards small businesses that are looking to learn how to attract more customers to their website. It includes best practices for search engine optimization, pitfalls, and different considerations for implementing an SEO strategy.

Best Practices:

Key word search:          Determine what words and phrases your customers are looking for. Google’s Keyword Planner can help find the right keywords. Add your keywords in the title, content, images, meta description, title tags, URL, and internal links. Include a meta description tag on each page, and an alternative tag (alt tag) for each page.

Quality Content:      Content is very important- algorithms look at length, frequency and value. The longer your content is and the more often you post, the higher ranking you will achieve.

SEO Local:                Design your website to attract local visitors. Add location addresses and include local links to your pages. Use Google Places and choose the appropriate categories.

Social SEO:              Use Twitter shares, Facebook likes, and social bookmarking to increase search rankings.

Link Building:       Let link building happen naturally through customers sharing and retweeting your content and articles. Getting listed on other quality sites can draw traffic to your site and increase search engine ranking.

Pitfalls:

Marketing:             Make sure you adjust page content when adjusting page titles. Avoid aggressive SEO techniques (loading too many keywords in the website’s content), which could exclude your site from a search engine.

Technical:            Remove any broken links. Do not use videos or images without alternative tags. Do not load your page with too many links, as Google may view this unfavourably.

Considerations:

Before deciding to do this yourself instead of hiring an SEO expert, determine if you have the web development skills necessary for SEO. SEO requires specific technical and marketing expertise; without this expertise, or if your time could be better spent elsewhere, seeking professional help is an alternative.

For more information and detail on search engine optimization, and how to increase traffic to your website, visit the e-Business Toolkit.

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Agri-tourism, marketing plans, & direct farm marketing.

 

Looking for information on agri-tourism, marketing plans, or direct farm marketing? Three updated factsheets are now available on OMAFRA’s Business Management page:

Developing an Agri-Tourism Operation in Ontario

Are you interested in opening your farm to the public? Does your farm have the potential to integrate agri-tourism into the business? This factsheet discusses what it takes to run an agri-tourism operation, how to define your target market, and the first steps in marketing your business.

Find this factsheet on our website for more information on:

• The different factors to consider and what it takes to develop a successful agri-tourism operation in Ontario (i.e. physical resources, operations and management, activities);
• The benefits of identifying your target market and focusing your business on attracting them to your farm;
• The different types of activities you can offer on your farm (i.e. roadside stands, mazes, classes, bed and breakfast).

This factsheet also poses important questions to ask yourself before opening your farm to the public, including:

• Do you like dealing directly with the consumer?
• Are you prepared to spend every weekend during peak season tied to the farm?
• Are you prepared to accept the liability of having the public on your farm?

After determining if you have what it takes to run an agri-tourism operation and you have defined your target audience, the next step is marketing. This factsheet helps you with the basics of marketing and the importance of public relations and relationship management.

If you and your family are looking at expanding your business into an agri-tourism operation, this factsheet will help you take the first steps.

 Developing a Marketing Plan

If you are looking for information on how to develop a marketing plan or have ever wondered if a marketing plan is necessary, the newly updated Developing a Marketing Plan factsheet is a must-read.

This factsheet provides the basics to developing a marketing plan, starting with defining the 4Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place, & Promotion. This factsheets then expands into the different steps to take to create a successful marketing plan:

• Know yourself, your customer, the marketplace
  • Focus on a specific segment or niche market
  • Conduct market research on your customers and competitors
• Marketing Strategy
  • Where your business is headed, and objectives to meet this goal
• Implementation Strategy
  • Set out exactly what you will do to meet the needs of your target customers and attract them to your business

After developing a strategy, how are you going to promote and market your product? This factsheet provides a run-down on the different advertising options available to you, including websites & social media, print, electronic, signage, direct promotion, special events, public relations, etc.

Our factsheet provides detailed information on the steps to take when developing a marketing plan, promoting or marketing your product, creating a marketing budget and more.

Direct Farm Marketing in Ontario- A Primer

Have you ever wanted to shift gears and become a price maker, not a price taker? Does direct farm marketing appeal to you? Similar to agri-tourism, there are many different considerations to take into account when entering the direct farm marketing business.

There are different forms of direct farm marketing, including on-farm shops, pick-your-own operations, farmers’ markets, and roadside stands. But they all have something in common: direct consumer relationships.

This factsheet helps you with a number of considerations:

• What type of consumer will I be targeting?
• Is your farm located near a population base/market large enough to support the direct farm marketing business?
• Do you/could you produce a product/service that consumers would be interested in buying through a direct farm marketing channel?
• Are your family members/employees interested in having direct contact with consumers?

Developing a marketing plan can help answer a few of these questions, and get your business started in the right direction.

Don’t forget about the potential implications of moving beyond primary production and into direct farm marketing and/or value-added agriculture. Regulations covering taxation, land use planning, signage, labelling and public health all need to be taken into account when starting a direct farm marketing venture.

While there are many different factors to consider when starting a direct farm marketing operation, it can be very rewarding for you and your customers. Local food is not a passing trend and there is a lot of opportunity for those willing to invest the time and energy necessary to make it work. For more information on direct farm marketing and how to take the first steps, read more from our Direct Farm Marketing in Ontario- A Primer factsheet.

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