1. Renew your domain name for 3-5 years.

Renew your domain name to show search engines that you are here to stay. Google filed a patent about businesses that register domains for years in advance.

“Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway illegitimate domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the data when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain.”– Google Patent

2. Open a Google Business Listing

Create a Google My Business to control your online presence. This puts your hours, reviews and information on the search engine results page. You also get a backlink, which is great for link building. As a business owner, this is a must.

3. Open an account with these websites:

Google and Bing use citations for local search ranking. This is a big ranking factor for local SEO. Create an account with these webpages and submit to their directories to increase your search visibility.

1. Bing Places
2. YouTube
3. Google Sites
4. LocalFishingGuides.com
5. Yelp
6. Facebook
7. Twitter
8. BBB
9. Yellowpages
10. MerchantCircle
11. Linkedin
12. Need more citations? Consider our fishing charter SEO Services.

4. Make sure your website, phone number and email are the same everywhere

Fishing charter business owners should make their info is the same all over the internet. Old or incorrect phone numbers create a bad user experience. This affects your search visibility in the Google search results.

5. Ask your customer to review you

This is an easy off-site marketing strategy to get new customers. Google reviews are basically a lead generation magnet. They’re filled with “long-tail keywords” that Google to match “searchers intent”.

In other words, when potential customers search “best fishing charter service” in Google Maps, you should up!

6. Reply to your reviews

One great SEO strategy is to reply to your Google, Yelp or Facebook reviews. It shows search engines that you care about your online presence. It also increases engagement. Which Google has been testing as a ranking factor. This is a huge form of internet marketing and any SEO company will confirm it.

7. Keep your page headings under 60 characters

When creating new website content, keep your page headings short. Titles should be under 60 characters including spaces. You want short SEO-optimized title tags with the right keywords. Title tags that are longer, will get cut off in the search engine results on mobile devices.

Good: Fishing Guide Services in Lake Michigan
Bad: Fishing Charter Services with Captain Bob Smith in Miami, Florida

8. Use keywords in your page URL’s and keep them short

SEO-optimized page URL’s should be short. They should also include the target keyword.

Good: example.com/miami-fishing-charter
Bad: example.com/captian-bob-fishing-charter-company-in-miami-florida

9. Rename images and optimize your ALT tags

When you upload images to your website, you can change ALT tags without a web designer. Most fishing charter companies use WordPress for their web design. If you go to “Media” inside your Admin, you can click on any image and rename the ALT tag.

Facebook images work the same way. Click on any Facebook image you uploaded, click Edit and use your target keywords that match the image. SEO-optimized image file names and ALT tags help Google understand your website content.

Do: “bass_fishing_trip_in_Wisconsin.jpg”
Don’t: “IMG19567.jpg”

10. Switch to better hosting

For most local businesses, cheap hosting ($3-$5 a month) is more than enough. However, when it comes to search engine optimization, you want fast VPS hosting. Upgrading is sometimes as simple as calling your hosting company. Ask for VPS hosting and a dedicated IP address.

Why? Because, shared hosting shares the same IP address with 100’s of other non fishing charter industry businesses. This means when they abuse or spam, your website gets flagged by search engines. VPS hosting is about $10-$25 a month and a dedicated IP is usually $3-$10 a month.

11. Generate a XML sitemap

Since most fishing charter companies use WordPress, we recommend Yoast SEO. This WordPress plugin automatically generates a sitemap for you. It’s easy to use and every fishing charter SEO company will agree.

12. Confirm you don’t have broken links on your website

Broken links affect how your website ranks. Imagine a potential customer clicks a link on your website. Then, gets redirected to a 404 error page. This creates a bad user experience. This is one of Google’s ranking factor metrics.

13. Find related keywords

Related keywords are the secret to quality content. Fishing charter SEO companies refer to them as semantic or LSI keywords. Use these related keywords inside your blog posts. Here’s one way to find them:

1. Google your target keyword
2. Scroll to the bottom
3. Related words are bolded

Example: If the target keyword is “Miami fishing charter”, then you want to include best, deep sea, cheap, half day, party boats, pricing in your blog post for that keyword.

14. Write blog posts about what your customers are looking for

This takes a lot of work, but it’s simple. Search topics that your potential customers search for, but can’t find an answer to.

Example: “How to catch mangrove snapper in Sarasota Bay”

Create a high-quality article that uses local keywords. This helps your target audience and is great for lead generation. Some people will read it, while others will call you.

15. Make useful YouTube videos

Turn your existing content into YouTube videos. This gives your clients a choice to read or watch your content. This is great for link building and showing Google your authority in the fishing guide industry. Make it very specific to your local business. Don’t forget to share it on social media to generate organic traffic.

Example: “How to catch mangrove snapper in Sarasota Bay”

16. Choose 1-2 social media platforms to focus on

Don’t create content on 5 different social media platforms. This is a waste of time, unless you’re a large corporation. It’s great to have accounts on every platform for backlinks. However, when it comes to a good SEO strategy, you want engagement (likes and comments).

If you have 1,000 followers, but 1 comment, Google thinks you’re not interesting or your followers are fake. Google filed a patent for detecting fake accounts.

17. Use your own photos

Use your own photos. Google boosts unique quality content in the organic search results. If you’re using stock images or stolen images from a different website, they will penalize you and hide you from search results.

18. Don’t use popups

Many websites use popups to get email subscribers. This is annoying and a bad user experience. While it’s not directly a ranking factor, it contributes to a new customer leaving your webpage. Which is a metric that Google tracks.

19. Don’t buy cheap SEO services for fishing charters

Stay away from cheap SEO companies that buy links from Fiverr. Your website will rank fast for 1-3 months, then disappear from Google search results. Or end up on page 49. It’s like hiring a handyman to upgrade your circuit breaker instead of a licensed electrician.

20. Create a SEO-optimized blog post (simple steps)

1. Choose a target keyword
2. Keep heading (title tag) under 60 characters
3. Use the keyword inside your heading
4. Use a short page URL with your keyword inside
5. Write 1000-2000 words on your topic
6. Use target keyword 3-7 times inside your content
7. Two of those keywords in the first and last section
8. Include relevant words to your main keyword
9. Use sub-headings (smaller headings) to break up content
10. Use your photos to break up lengthy content
11. Link to other pages on your website inside your blog post

21. Confirm you are not blacklisted or blocking search engines

Here’s how to check if your website or IP is blacklisted.

22. Confirm your are not blocking search engines

Here’s how to check if you’re blocking search engines from scanning your web pages.

23. Create a Google Search Console account

If you’re going to do your own internet marketing, you have to start a Google search console. It shows you what Google see when it scans your content.