In the age of the internet, any business hoping to make it has to capitalize on the power of search engine optimization. You can’t just hope that people will find your website and become actual leads; you need to make that happen, and the only way to do that is through SEO. It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is; SEO is your gateway into success, and you can’t possibly hope for your brand to get known without fully understanding and applying the principles of search engine optimization. That’s a pretty big world to explore though, and the problem is you rarely know where to start. Here are 10 SEO tips to get you started.
1. Keywords
While there’s much more to SEO than keywords, they remain the cornerstone of sound search engine optimization practices, and they’re indispensable. It’s not just about scattering a few relevant words here and there on your website. You need to make sure the right keywords are present in your URLs, article titles, content, and everything else basically. You have to understand that keywords are how people find your website, so what search terms would you use to find a brand like yours? Identify them, and write them everywhere. You should be careful not to overdo it, though. Yes, those particular words are important, but if you overdo it, it’ll feel forced and render your content annoying to read.
2. Focus on the quality and quantity of your content
Content remains a very important factor in your quest to get the best search optimization possible. It makes a huge difference in how search engines rank your website, which eventually is the ultimate goal. You should also focus on writing longer posts because that means you’ll get to include more posts, and more importantly add further information to users, which is a major factor that helps improve your ranking. Don’t go for quantity over quality though, so don’t write longer posts unless there’s actually something to be written.
3. Link back to your website
This is one of the most important and popular SEO strategies, and it’s pretty easy to apply too. You simply link back to yourself in content posted on your website. This helps boost your traffic and redirect users to older content of yours. For example, if you’re writing an article on a particular topic, make sure to insert a sentence or a word with a link that refers to an older post of yours, which users will click to get redirected to that older post.
4. Post regularly
If you want your SEO game to be spot on, you have to make sure your content is always fresh and regularly updated. That means posting on a regular basis because google rankings take this into consideration since it means you’re active and you’re posting relevant content to your users. So, it’s crucial that you maintain your activity, and if you don’t, your ranking will significantly deteriorate.
5. Get professional help
A mistake that many people make is assuming that they can take care of this whole search engine optimization thing by themselves. After all, it’s just adding keywords everywhere, right? Well, it isn’t, and you’d be making a huge mistake if you approached SEO with that mindset, because in time, you’ll realize you need organic SEO services to help you rank higher on the search results. Why is that important? Because going for organic SEO means you’ll be taught how to use methods to improve your search engine ranking even after you’ve acquired professional services, which will save your business a lot of money in the long run. At the end of the day, organic reach makes the biggest difference in your rankings, and for that to work, you need professionals to help you optimize your content from A to Z.
6. Use social media
Social media is a very powerful tool in your arsenal, and it can make a huge difference in your Google ranking if you utilize it the right way. You can’t just create blog posts or content on your website and leave it there. You have to share it across different social media platforms for people to see since that’s where they spend most of their time throughout the day.
7. Backlinking
It goes without saying that backlinking is one of the most powerful SEO tools you could utilize. It’s basically when you form relations with other reputable websites so they’d include links to yours, and you’d reciprocate. Backlinking makes a lot of difference in your ranking, and it’s pretty easy to apply since it’s a win-win situation for everyone. Be careful not to approach shady websites though, because that can destroy everything you worked for.
8. Image optimization
Believe it or not, your images also need to be optimized for search engines. How do you do that? You simply name the image with a short description of what’s in it, and your website or brand name. This helps the search engine identify it more easily, and it improves your ranking.
9. Minimize Flash
The great thing about Flash is the fact that it helps you add multimedia formats to your webpage, which makes it attractive and appealing to users. The bad thing is it slows down the website, and more importantly, it’s not easily accessible from mobiles, which Google will take into consideration –– meaning it’ll negatively affect your ranking. So, try to avoid using Flash as much as possible.
10. Improve navigation on your website
You might not know it, but the navigability of your website makes a lot of difference in your search engine ranking, and it’s a very important SEO practice that a lot of people miss out on. You have to make sure that the navigation is smooth and easy on your website because Google takes user experience into consideration. So, if the navigation is poor and the user experience is bad, your ranking will be seriously affected and people even won’t return to your website because it’s just annoying to use.
At the end of the day, search engine optimization is a lot to take in, and there are many factors at work. These tips will help you get started, but you need to put in a lot of effort and time to understand exactly how it works and what the best practices are.