5 Top SEO Tips to Help Your Business
SEO is a term commonly thrown around in the area of online business, digital marketing, and other internet circles. However, the unfortunate reality is that, so many people are familiar with those three letters, but for the vast majority of people, they never truly understand what it is.
If you fit into that category, then you’ve come to the right place. If you’re only just seeing the term (SEO), then you’re also covered. In this article, we will be going through all the essential aspects of an effective SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) strategy. We’re going to look at:
- The basics of SEO strategy
- Things that are crucial to your SEO efforts.
1. Add Keywords to Your Posts
Once you have a list of keywords you want to use for your posts, the next step is to integrate them into each post. When the Google bots crawl your website, they’ll look for common terms, to get a general idea of what the content is about. When you frequently sprinkle the same term over your content, the search engine will know exactly what to rank your page on.
Integration of keywords is also helpful for the reader. As it will give them a much clearer view of the page’s content. This will allow them to quickly determine whether or not it’s right for them.
There are many places in your article, where you can put the keywords. This includes places such as the title, Meta description, headings, and body text. When you successfully integrate a keyword into your content, it will help it rank for that term in the search engine.
One thing to note, however, is not to overdo it, you don’t want to put the keyword in the article too many times. This is called keyword stuffing and will result in the article being negatively impacted. Don’t force it, you want seamless integration. Only feature the keyword where it makes the most sense.
After you have integrated keywords into all your pages, you should begin to notice them rank better for their chosen keyword(s).
2. Metadata
Building on the integration of keywords into your pages, Metadata is easily one of the more important aspects of your search engine efforts, as it will have a direct effect on who clicks through to your site, from the search engine. Google has ‘crawlers’ or Google bots, as they are typically called, these bots are tasked with scanning websites and collecting relevant data that matches specific search queries, the objective being, to rank the best content for each search term.
When the bot is crawling your site, it will first locate, then index the URL it finds, from there it will look at its metadata. The metadata is made up of the Meta description and Meta title, which is the title of the page/article and a short preview that shows up in the search engine listings. The alt-tags, which are usually tied to your images, like an additional or secondary name, are also a part of the page’s metadata. The best way to describe metadata is like a sneak peek into your content.
3. Build Expertise, Authority & Trust
If you’re starting a website for the very first time, it can be rather difficult to compete against websites that have been out there, for years.
So you’ll want to start, in the only place where you can establish your advantage, and that’s with the content. You’ll want to produce the best possible content, showcasing your expertise, whether as a company or individual.
You want that content to support whatever it is, you’ve set out to do.
4. Earn backlinks
If you want your website to rank higher in the search engines, then you’ll need to find a way of earning backlinks. Backlinks are an integral part of SEO. Backlinks refer to links that your website receives from other highly credible websites.
When you spend the time writing high-quality content, other websites will see it, and decide to link to it. This brings visitors from those websites to your content.
Backlinks are a crucial component of your SEO efforts because they boost both the authority and trust of your website. If Google sees a substantial number of credible websites linking to your site, then they know your site is valuable and is to be trusted. This in turn will lead to a boost in your rankings, allowing you to reach more customers, leads, and readers.
One of the most effective ways for you to earn backlinks is through the creation of content. Content creation is not just important for backlinks, but also for your overall SEO rankings – as previously noted. When you write quality content it makes for one of the most effective ways to get authority sites to link back to that page. You can send them an email, asking them to check out a piece of content, and if they like it, they make decisions to use snippets of it or just link to the page.
It’s also an excellent way for you to build a relationship with a high authority website/company. As you can share content over time with them, and they can choose whether or not they’ll like to link to it. This should help boost your website up in the search engine listings, which in turn, will drive more traffic to your website.
So, the basic rule, if you want to rank high, you need to earn backlinks.
5. Focus on User Experience (UX)
One of the most annoying things has to be visiting a website that has no real navigation integrated into it. In reality, if a visitor is not able to find whatever it is they are looking for, on your site, they will leave. Most people have very short attention spans when it comes to surfing the internet. Things like error pages, dead links, and poor site structure will all have a negative impact on the site overall. Users value a navigation system that is easy to find and use, and so does the Google bot. Websites that are well put together, are much easier for the Google bots to crawl. This should lead to much faster indexing. Make sure you use headings and break your content up into small paragraphs. You also want to optimize your site for mobile devices. All of these things are capable of improving site rankings, bounce rate, and overall
