DIY Website & SEO Tools & Resources

by Brian Lawrence

 

Whether it’s a slow time or your wedding season has kicked into high gear, now’s the time to look at ways to improve your website and SEO (search engine optimization). It’s a process that has the potential of significantly increasing your business – but it does take time and commitment.

As we’ve expanded our strategies to help our clients, we’ve found some you can implement on your own. These tips help boost organic SEO rankings as well as your local Google Business Profile presence. And you’ll find even more strategies for improving your website and SEO on our wedding industry focused marketing blog, ranked #2 in the world by Feedspot.com. Here are some of our top blog posts to help you with different areas of online visibility.

 

Easy Ways to Improve Your Website and SEO

From blog posts and search engine optimization to Google Business Profiles and free wedding websites, these articles provide valuable understanding for improving your website’s ranking and SEO.

 

Website and SEO Strategies

#1 Extend domain name registration to at least 5 years. Trustworthiness is key for ranking with Google. Registering your domain name for several years is an important way to create that trust factor. It shows that your business is established and here to stay.

#2 Ask clients for reviews that naturally incorporate a keyword phrase. Great reviews help establish trust with potential clients. They’re also an important SEO tool when they include a keyword phrase relevant to your business. The trick is for the keyword phrase to be naturally included in the review, like the following:

“Out of all the wedding DJs in Santa Clara we researched, Silver Tunes looked the most reputable. And once we spoke to Graham, we trusted him.”

#3 Join relevant Facebook and LinkedIn groups in your area. Being an active participant in industry focused social media groups provides visibility to your website’s content and drives traffic. If you post informative content, it creates the potential for others to share it, generating backlinks. Most importantly, these groups are a forum for you to learn more about the industry, trends, and get free advice on challenges in your own business. Groups also provide a great opportunity to network with other vendors in your area and develop synergistic relationships. To find local and national wedding Facebook and LinkedIn groups to join, check out this article with 350+ groups.

#4 Take Advantage of Free Vendor Listings. There’s a treasure trove of wedding planning websites that offer free profiles for vendors. Take a look at this list of free ways to get listings and exposure and choose the ones right for your business. You’ll also find free guest opportunities for blog posts, photo features, and podcast interviews. Anywhere you can get a link back to your site from a website that is industry focused or gets an abundance of traffic can help your Google ranking.

#5 Get engagement on your Google Business Profile. Have clients and other vendors upload photos to your profile. You can even provide the images. By having others upload content to your profile, it shows engagement on your platform and helps your Google ranking. And don’t forget to ask your clients and fellow wedding pros to provide reviews for your profile. Take a look at these tips for a successful Google Business Profile.

#6 Increase user engagement by using videos. Videos tend to hold people’s attention for longer than text or images alone, which can help increase engagement on your website. This can lead to lower bounce rates, more pageviews, and a better overall user experience. By using FlexClip to create visually appealing video content, you can keep visitors engaged and interested for longer periods of time.

 

Research for SEO and Website Improvement

It’s important to really get a sense of why people are booking you and how they are finding your business. The first step is to make sure Google is listing your site. Plug in “site:yourdomainname.com” (example: site:brianlawrence.com). The results show all of your website pages indexed by Google along with current meta tags. If no pages appear, your site has not been indexed. And only one version of your site should be shown. Otherwise, Google can get confused and think they are two different websites with duplicate content and penalize your ranking.

#1 Keep up with your competition through Google Alerts. Set up email alerts based on specific search terms and preferences (like XYZ DJs – a specific company – or Miami Wedding DJs). When you receive an alert on a competitor, take a look at where they’re being mentioned and see if you can get included. For example, if a wedding blog is about the top DJs in your market, make an inquiry to the blogger about being included (with solid reasons why) so that you can get that important backlink.

#2 Reach out to your recently booked clients. A follow up “thank you for choosing us” is a good practice and can have a positive impact on your business. Use it to include a couple of questions to give you greater insight into why people are booking you. The answers can also help you create some good “benefit driven” website content to woo more potential clients. And if you are relatively new in the business, ask for a review at this stage so you can compete better with other area businesses. Send a simple email like this:

Dear  _______,

Thank you for choosing XYZ DJs for your wedding. We value your business. We’re trying to be efficient with our marketing budget and since you booked with us, clearly something worked! I was wondering how you first heard of us and the main reasons you booked us.

We look forward to providing an outstanding entertainment experience on your special day. And thank you for taking time to answer our questions.

 

Improve Your Website and SEO with Blogging

Google loves fresh content. Fresh, regularly updated content improves your SEO and drives website traffic. And a blog that provides helpful information and establishes your industry credibility can turn prospects into clients. It also is the easiest way to add fresh content to your site on a regular basis, which is something that google values as a ranking factor.

Your blog is where you share new products and services, post real weddings, and offer advice for local wedding planning. If you’re working in WordPress and don’t have a blog, use our tutorial to get started. And if it’s been awhile since you’ve posted anything, take a few minutes and review 5 Best Ways Wedding Vendors Can Optimize Their Blogs for More Sales.

#8 Try an Optimized Blog Post. By researching keywords and phrases on your blog topic, and integrating them in an effortless way into your writing, you can showcase your expertise, enhance trustworthiness, and increase your SEO and website visibility.

To help our client Collins Entertainment in Connecticut, we created a blogpost on unique wedding venues in CT to attract wedding couples looking for reception sites. If they are still looking for a venue, the odds are very good that they still need a DJ. A regular page on a DJ site would never rank for this term. But take a look at the ranking this optimized blog post has on Google for Collins Entertainment. And this blog allows for updating in a natural way, providing Google with more new content.

#9 Choose inspiring images – and name them correctly. Photos not only break up content, they can also help with SEO. When you’re downloading those jpg files, rename them with your company name and your blog post’s relevant keywords. And don’t forget to put a hyphen between each word. Need some inspiration when it comes to taking photos for your portfolio? Take a look at World’s Best Wedding Photos.

#10 Come up with blogging and content ideas – even when you have writer’s block. Many wedding vendors have great ideas in their head. And they find recording those thoughts the best way to remember them.  For Google Doc users, you can dictate rather than type by clicking on Tools and selecting Voice Type.  Upload your ideas to a transcription service like Ubiqus on Demand or Speechpad  to serve as a writing springboard. Stuck on finding content ideas? Download these from Evolve Your Wedding Business.

#11 Making your own updates in WordPress. Take some control of your website by learning how to make simple updates. Here are two easy to use video tutorials for website pages and blog posts.

 

Make a Commitment to Improving Your Website

#12 Let’s not forget about continuing to improve your website. This video presentation I did in 2019 has helped many wedding vendors think about all of the possibilities of improving an existing website. This is also the thinking I use when designing a new website. And you can get some good inspiration from this blog showcasing a variety of websites we’ve designed. 

Website visibility and SEO are ever-evolving. Our team is constantly learning the best practices, whether it’s organic searches, behind the scenes updates, or optimizing content. Need help improving your website and SEO? Let’s discuss your business and how we can improve your rankings and your visibility by setting up a time to talk.