Is it time for an SEO checkup?

If you haven’t checked your SEO status lately, valuable leads could be slipping through the cracks. Here are three telltale signs you’re due for an SEO tune up:

• You type your name or your firm’s name into Google, and you don’t show up on the first page of search results. (People typically don’t search past the first page.)
• You type a term into Google that someone might use to find a business in your industry, such as “financial advisor” or “investment advisor” plus the name of your city, and you don’t come up on the first page of search results.
• You type in a search term trending on Google Trends (for example, “investment protection,” “retirement income solution” or “alternative investments”), and you don’t come up. This means the search terms people are most often using for your industry are not showing you in the results.

If, after conducting the above tests, you find that you do need some SEO help, try the following five solutions (most of which are free!).

• Have your website provider update your keywords, meta tags, site descriptions and headers, which tell the search engines what your website is about and how to rank it. Google is always tweaking its search algorithm, so make sure you stay on top of these frequent changes.
• Set up Google Analytics to monitor where your traffic comes from and how people navigate through your site. This will tell you whether visitors are finding you by typing in your address directly, using a search engine, visiting social media, etc.
• If you haven’t done so already, make sure you have completely set up your Google Places listing and Google+ account, including your contact information, website address, services offered, picture, logo and video. While you’re at it, do the same for local listings on Bing and Yahoo.
• When you search for your company or individual employees, you may find profiles you did not create, including those on Spokeo, Whitepages, Yellowpages, etc. If this is the case, claim these profiles and control the content by using your own words.

If you have tried the above suggestions but still are not getting enough traffic, consider hiring an SEO expert. Make sure he can show you proven results and will not use “black hat” methods, which could damage your searchability in the long run.

Don’t underestimate the power of SEO. The ability to be found online is vital to your business success.