If you’re running a fishing charter business in 2020 and you aren’t at least somewhat familiar with SEO it’s time to get with the program. SEO or “Search Engine Optimization” is the process of marketing and developing your website so you can improve your rankings in search engines. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing are usually the starting point for most clients who are looking for a fishing guide service like yours. When someone searches for a fishing charter in your area, it’s important that you have a presence in search results so you can funnel them to your website and translate that traffic into a booking.

SEO can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be. Search engines use complex algorithms that analyze hundreds of factors that dictate when, where, and how websites index in their results. More simply stated, search engines look at a lot of factors that contribute to rankings but it’s better to focus on the major factors rather than stress about all the factors.
 

On-Page SEO for Fishing Charters

Search engines were literally invented so they could sort through the content of millions of websites and determine the best results for a search. The content on your website is the single most important factor that determines which searches you show up for. This content falls under the category of “On-page SEO” and it consists of a variety of factors that start with your domain name and end with the content on each page of your site. If we were to order the priority of content on your website and the way search engines read it, this would be a rough guide of what search engines look at.
 

The Most Important On-Page SEO Factors

Domain Name
The first and most important factor when it comes to on page SEO is your domain name which is your website address. Your domain name says a lot about your business because search engines can pick up on when it was created, how long it has been around, and how relevant it is to your website and search results. It’s usually best to keep your current domain name when working on website redevelopment and SEO because domain names build trust over time. If you are looking for a new domain name, it helps to consider a domain name that describes your service but is also as concise as possible.

Shorter domain names have more authority than longer domain names so if you’re searching for a domain name, fishing.com would be better than fishmiamicharters.com but the latter at least has geographic markers and describes the business pretty well. Unfortunately, most 1 word domain names are already taken and 2 word domain names are harder to come by. We recommend buying a 2 or 3 word domain name that is easy to remember and says where you are and what you do.

URL Structure Of Each Page

Your domain name is home base but each page of your website has a unique structure that should be formatted properly. Your URL/permalink structure should be clean and formatted properly to correspond with each page. This is standard practice for Optuno sites but some developers don’t have a clue about how they should format URL structure.

Metadata For Each Page

What is metadata you might ask? You’ve probably seen it before. Check out this search snippet below:

The 2 most important elements of your metadata is your Meta title and Meta description for each page of your website.

Metadata is information placed on your website that communicates titles, descriptions, etc. to search engines so they can quickly read your site and have it rank for related searches. It’s important to choose keyword rich titles and descriptions that say as much as possible about your business. These titles and descriptions should be an appropriate length. This is a helpful tool https://www.countingcharacters.com/google-serp-tool for checking the length of your metadata.

Content

It’s important to have great content on your site to keep both users and search engines happy. Don’t stress about writing keywords over and over, as this is considered “keyword stuffing” and might be regarded as spam by search engines. Let the content on your website flow and make sure your text is formatted for a reader and designed to sell.

Geographical Markers
    
If you are looking to compete in search results with FishingBooker, Yelp, or some of your most competitive local businesses, your address is your best friend. Take a look at the SERP page below for “Fishing Charter Near Me.” Notice how the top 3 “Local Listing” spaces are occupied by individual businesses rather than FishingBooker or TripAdvisor. That’s because local businesses have an advantage over the big guys with Google My Business Listings.

It’s important to create and verify your google my business listing and make sure your address matches up with the one on your website. In addition, it helps to upload plenty of photos and try to build up a large profile of reviews on Google. If you want to take it a step further, reply to all these reviews. Your Google My Business listing is a crucial component of your overall search engine optimization so make sure you get on it!
 

Utilizing a Blog for Your Fishing Charter Business

For a fishing charter business, blogs are typically sections labeled as “fishing reports” or “captains log.” Either way, this section of your website is still a blog in the sense that it is a part of the site that should be frequently updated with new posts.

Fishing reports are a crucial part of maintaining an active website and turning visitors into booked trips. It’s important to frequently update your blog or fishing report section but don’t forget to consider the SEO implications of each and every blog post. Take a look at the blog post below for example:

If your fishing report section is set up correctly, each post can be used to target new keywords. As you can see above, this blog post was titled “Best Time Of Year To Fish Miami.” This post was chosen because it is something that visitors are likely to search before booking their trip.

Your fishing report section can be used to target any keywords you want from specific species you target to techniques, etc. Instead of just putting a date and what you caught, get creative with your blog posts and you’ll find that you’ll end up driving much more traffic to your website which can be immensely helpful for your rankings.
 

Share Your Knowledge!

Blogs are a great way to share your knowledge and establish your website as an authority in your industry. In addition to fishing reports, it helps to create a second blog category on your site for tips and techniques. This is a great way to earn additional traffic for your site because every article provides an opportunity for your site to rank in search results for a new keyword. Creating and managing multiple blogs can be a nightmare with many web developers but Optuno websites are equipped with a back end that makes updating your website a breeze.

You can start by writing about the different species you catch in your area and provide helpful tips for targeting them. If you find yourself experiencing writer's block, don’t stress! It helps to keep your posts conversational and write about something you’re passionate about. If you have any good tips or techniques, your blog is a great place to share this with the world. No need to be too forthcoming about your secrets, just write enough to provide guidance and keep your readers engaged.

Overall it takes more than a great website to develop a long term SEO strategy. It takes consistent content, a great web developer, proper formatting, consistency, and link building.
 

What’s link building?

Link building is essentially a way to build your website’s legitimacy by networking with other websites. Your website’s backlink profile contributes to its domain authority (aka page authority) which is your website’s “credit score”. Link building is an important factor of search engine optimization. If 50 websites are competing for positioning on a keyword such as “miami fishing charters,” your domain authority (credit score) is really what dictates who ranks in what order.

In many ways, your website and the content you generate is responsible for the overall keywords you rank for. Your domain authority which is influenced by link building dictates where on the page you rank. If you work in a competitive area or you’re targeting competitive keywords, link building is a part of the online marketing process you simply can’t overlook. Link building takes time, money, and consistency but it’s better to start sooner rather than later. If you want to do it yourself, check out this helpful guide for link building: https://www.optuno.com/blog/the-step-by-step-guide-for-acquiring-more-links-in-2020

If you’re an Optuno client, check out these link building services we offer https://www.optuno.com/guest-post-blogger-outreach-service and https://www.optuno.com/contextual-link-building or feel free to reach out.

To speak to a member of our dedicated sales team, give us a call today at 1-888-678-8662 or click here to schedule a free consultation.