If you have a business, then you will need an online presence for it. Marketing your business means so much more these days than it did even ten short years ago. When you have an online presence then you need to understand SEO or Search Engine Optimization. There are many methods that are utilized to try to move a web page to the first page of the search engines with the use of specific keywords. SEO improves your website which in turn increases its’ visibility and when someone conducts a search for the services or products that you offer, then your page is seen. SEO is crucial and should be done correctly so that your site will not be penalized and de-indexed by the top search engines.
How Does SEO Work?
Each search engine “crawls” or explores your web site by sending special bots to move around the site to collect information about the pages contained in your website which is then indexed into the search engines. The index that is on each search engine is similar to a library that provides information to people who are conducting searches so that the information that they seek is provided to them. The search engines have a certain algorithm which analyzes each page on a website, and this allows the page to appear in the search engine results pages which are simple queries created by keywords that you type into a search engine.
You cannot pay the search engines for SEO, but you can pay for ads. You need to have all of the correct SEO on your web page which will assist it to rank for the right search terms. Most business owners do not understand the factors that go into having a website rank but enlisting the services of an SEO professional can help with this.
What are the Basics of SEO?
- Good Quality Anchor Text
Anchor text is contained in a link and should appear naturally in your content. You do not want to use text that looks like spam (phrases such as “click here”) or your site could be penalized. Links should be natural and when they are clicked on the person should be rewarded with something worth their click. Filling your website with links could be problematic. The only links that should be on your site are high quality and natural.
- Valuable Content
Good and valuable content should be found on your website. This offers visitors something that they can look at that provides them with solid information and answers their queries. If the content on your site is low quality, then visitors to your site are not going to stay on the site. Good quality content helps your site to stand out from your competitors and when your content is relevant it tells the search engines that your site is worth being indexed closer to page 1. Good quality content can be content you produce or content that you follow or even content that you adapt to be unique (your own). Never copy someone else’s content exactly because if you copy content it will lead to problems with duplicate content and your site could be punished and de-indexed. You need to update your content on a regular basis so that it is constantly “fresh” and so that you are rewarded with more visitors by providing said “fresh” content.
When you understand who your customer is, it is simple to create the right content that they would likely want to read. You need to understand your customer and know what they like and dislike as well as the reasons why they have come to your site in the first place. Text in content should be easy to read in shorter sections using images that relate to the content and headings that identify what is contained in the content.
- Keyword Choices
Take the time to thoroughly research your sets of keywords. You need to have a good understanding of what is intended with the keywords the what the competition is for those keywords. Keywords that have high competition will have you facing a lot of challenges trying to compete against more established websites. Choosing keywords that have lower competition and are more targeted is a better option. The long-tailed keyword phrase is the most sensible choice when it comes to researching keywords.
- HTML
Your website’s HTML is an important part of the process of SEO. If your site does not have the right headers, tags and descriptions then the search engines cannot identify the content so that they can rank it properly. Meta descriptions provide short content summaries that give a snippet when your website comes up in a search. You only have 160 characters to make a succinct description, and this will display on both mobile screens and desktop screens. The title of your content article appears in subheadings at the top of your page and show as a main header.
- Backlink Quality
The quality of the sites that you link to is crucial and the quality is more important than the number of links that are on your site. Quality backlinks are a way to offer value and when you build your backlinks correctly you will be rewarded with a higher ranking. If links are low quality, they will be ignored by the search engines. How can you make a determination if a link is good quality or not? Links pointing to your website need to be relevant. If you think that having thousands of low-quality backlinks pointing to your website is a good idea, then you will not get the results that you are hoping for. Low quality links can end up harming your site’s rank instead of improving it.
- You Need to Build Trust
Working to build trust is an important factor when it comes to getting your site indexed and keeping it in the serps. It takes patience at the beginning because trust is not something that your visitors give quickly or easily. Google does not crawl your site right away, but you can have it indexed when you make changes or when you publish your site. Having an understanding of the intent of users of your site is important. If your site offers solutions to people but when they arrive at your site, they do not receive those solutions, they will leave. This will increase the bounce rate of your site, and this can affect your website’s rank. If you want to have a low bounce rate, then you need to provide people with what it is that they are looking for. When people are looking for an answer, they do not want to read a full article to find an answer.
- Age of Domain
An established website automatically gains more trust. When you work to produce consistently great, top-quality content then the search engines will reward your site with a higher rank. Newer sites in your niche may not fare as well.
- Needs to be Mobile-Friendly
Most people that visit your site will be on mobile devices instead of on a desktop. Your site should be easy to read on a small screen as well as on a desktop. Your site’s content should load very quickly because if it is slow then your visitors will leave as quickly as they arrived. If your page is not set up to be mobile-friendly, then it could be penalized, and you will have a difficult time ranking above the competition.
- Proper Site Map
Every site should have a proper site map. If you are using WordPress, there are plugins that you can utilize that set up your site map easily. You want your site map set up correctly so that your site is easy to read, well mapped and easy to crawl. Redirect plugins should assist if there are ever any broken links or pages that fail to display content correctly. Broken link checking is easy with a plugin that is specifically for this purpose. It will identify any URLs that are redirecting to different pages.
SEO is an ever-evolving process and requires constant attention and work. If you are not able to take care of this yourself then you should hire a professional to handle it on your behalf. It is important to choose someone who is experienced and has plenty of experience dealing with websites. Your site only has a single chance to make the right impression the first time with search engines. Your site is a representation of your business, and you could be out of business if this is not done the right way. SEO is your website’s lifeblood, and it is the way in which your site is identified by search engines and displays to visitors who may become customers. If you want visitors to become customers, then you must give them plenty of reasons to come back to your site through the offering of top content and proper SEO.
