Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is the discipline of marketing that focuses on helping your website rank higher in search engine results.
The goal of search engine optimization is to make web pages more likely to appear near the top of a given SERP (search engine result page), and Google’s Webmaster Guidelines suggest three ways you can improve your site’s ranking: optimize content to be crawlable by search engines; create fresh, high-quality content; and have unique content that provides users with information they couldn’t find elsewhere.
One reason why it’s so important to invest time in SEO is because research has shown that an optimized website gets more traffic than one without SEO. In fact, according to MarketingSherpa, getting a top ten listing for a relevant search term may get you as many as 14% of people who enter that search, whereas if your site doesn’t even rank it may only get 2%.
To help you improve your website’s ranking in Google and other popular search engines, here are 7 SEO tips to follow:
1. Focus on Writing ‘Keyword-Rich’ Content
When you’re creating web pages, focus on writing keyword-rich content that’s more likely to appear near the top of search results. That means your site should include keywords that people might search for when looking for information about your business or products and services. As a rule of thumb, you should have about 5% keyword density when writing your site’s content.
You don’t necessarily want to stuff your pages with keywords either, as doing so might cause Google’s algorithm to treat your site as spam and not rank it at all. An easy way to check for keyword density is to use a tool like the one available on WordCounter.com.
For example, if you run a wine business and want to rank for the keyword ‘red wine,’ create content that includes these words often enough that Google sees it as relevant, but not so much that it looks like you’re trying to manipulate rankings.
2. Create Useful Content Readers Find of Value
To improve your ranking, you don’t always have to write keyword-rich content. In fact, the best sites often create valuable resources that people want to link to and share with their social followers.
To make your site’s content valuable, focus on creating useful how-to articles; videos; infographics; graphics or photos; quizzes and other interactive tools; and product reviews or comparisons. Doing so can give your site the added benefit of being linked to by other sites, which also helps with rankings.
With Google’s Panda algorithm update, creating valuable content is one way to show Google that your website contains relevant information worthy of delivering in its search results.
3. Post Fresh Content Regularly
Search engines, including Google, track the frequency of your site’s content to determine how often its fresh. When you post new content regularly using a variety of media (e.g., blog posts, pictures, videos or infographics), chances are it will appear in search results more frequently than sites with less frequent updates.
4. Choose the Best (and Most Targeted) Keywords
When it comes to choosing keywords for your site, focus on using terms that are long-tail; meaning they include several words. Long-tail keywords are more likely to appear close to the top of a search results page than short ones because they’re generally more targeted and specific. That means you’re more likely to show up in Google’s top ten rankings for these terms than you would be if you used shorter, more general keywords.
5. Optimize Your Site with High Quality Backlinks
When it comes to SEO, backlinks are considered one of the most important ranking factors and can have a huge influence on where your site appears in Google’s search results.
One way to get more backlinks is to use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, which you can link back to your website when sharing information with your connections. Another option is to have other sites link back to yours if they’ve mentioned something of interest related to your business that you posted online.
6. Try to Get Your Site Indexed Quickly
To boost your site’s rankings, it’s important to get it indexed as quickly as possible after launching a new website, especially if you’re planning to include lots of fresh content or expect that lots of people will be linking back to it in future. Google usually takes around 60 days to fully index a new website, so you’ll likely see an initial drop in rankings until this process is complete.
7. Use Internal Links
Adding internal links within the content of your site’s pages can improve your ranking by giving search engines insight into the related topics that are on your site. Linking to relevant content in other parts of your website shows Google you’re working on developing a site with lots of different types of useful information, which can help boost rankings as well.
If you want to rank higher in Google’s search results, it can be helpful to use a variety of media types like infographics and videos. This article has taught you how by providing tips for using SEO techniques that are based on the latest behavioral neuroscience research. To learn more about improving your ranking with these strategies or help implementing them into your marketing plan, contact our team today at alignmentonline.com!
