Search engine optimization strategies are vital when you want to improve website ranking. But where do you start? What strategic moves should you make to enhance your website’s online visibility? We’ve put together a list of our top basic SEO strategies to improve website ranking.
1. Choose Keywords Purposefully
Everyone says they want to be found on the first page of Google. Yet, most websites don’t have the proper keywords. . When selecting keywords, think like your audience. What would you type into a search engine if you were hunting for the information that’s found on your page? I challenge you to make a list of the keywords you think people are typing into Google and looking for those phrases on your website.
2. Grab Attention With a Strong Title
Titles aren’t necessarily behind the scenes, they are still an important feature for Google. Using a strong title that catches the eye and promotes the value of your content is one of the easiest ways to improve SEO. Keep it concise and compelling, but don’t be coy. Never leave your visitors wondering what’s in it for them. Tell them what they’ll get if they spend their time consuming your content. To get even more bang for your buck, use one of your keywords in your title.
3. Go Natural With Your Content
Unique, high-quality content is important for any website. It’s crucial when you want to improve search engine ranking. Quality content starts by being useful. It provides handy insights, answers questions or delivers information that your audience needs to know. It’s also unique, entertaining and written with a natural flow that’s easy to read and understand. Don’t forget about those keywords we talked about in #1. Make sure those keywords are incorporated into the text smoothly and appropriately.
4. Use Keywords in URLs
Most of your website pages revolve around a service or product. Make sure each page is named that describes what the page is about. If your page is about “purple elephants” make sure to name your page www.domain.com/purple-elegants. That way when someone is looking up purple elephants, they will see the page name and know that’s the page they are looking for.
5. Master Meta Tags
Meta Tags are used to summarize the information on the page. You might think they are hidden, yet, they are visible in Google. If you do a search in Google, the link is usually the Meta Title and the description below is the Meta Description. If you don’t add a meta description to your web page, then Google will automatically create something for you. Make sure your meta tags are concise, compelling and unique. Many website owners use the same meta tags for every page. Meta tags are also a great place to include at least one of your chosen keywords.
6. Encourage Lingering
When a visitor lingers at your website instead of bouncing off to another one, it’s called a long click. Search engines use metrics like time on page and bounce rate to determine value, so encouraging long clicks can improve search engine ranking. How do you do it? Provide quality content and link to other quality content on your website. If you make reference to another topic on another page, create a link to that other page. It will ensure that your website functions intuitively so that visitors naturally travel from one page of your website to the next.
There are several ways to improve SEO and your website’s ranking by search engines. These are the basic principles. While the basics are simple, implementing them can be a bit tricky. If you’d like a little help, turn to Design 4 Dot Com. We’ll conduct a free Website Audit to evaluate your website and figure out what is working, what isn’t and what can be done to fix it. Contact us today to request your free report.