The race to be ranked number one on Google is a constant struggle for most websites. The fact is that if you want people to find you, you have to show up in the top searches on Google when someone types in a search related to your business or product. The main reason that competitor websites rank higher than yours is because they have put tons of effort into making sure their websites is completely optimized for search. For your ranking on Google to increase, you need to make Search Engine Optimization (SEO) a top priority. Here are five ways to improve SEO on your website.
Search Stats:
- According to the website, Junto, 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine, and Google currently has 90.1% of that search market share.
- Search Engine People states that the first website that populates after a Google search has a 33% chance of being clicked.
- The second position has a 15% chance,
- The third only a nine percent chance of someone clicking on it. The potential of being clicked after that drastically decreases.
The best way to bring your website to the top is to focus heavily on your SEO.
- Improve Your Website Overall
One of the factors that can hurt your SEO ranking is abandonment, or the rate at which people leave your website after first clicking on it. Therefore, you want to make sure your website is top-notch and that people want to stay and browse around for other content while they are there. Here are some ways that you can improve your website.
- Ensure that your loading time is not too slow. People will leave your page within seconds if it takes too long to load, so check the page loading speeds and then work toward fixing a slow page. People who leave because of slow page loading speeds may not return, which will negatively impact your traffic as well.
- Update your content regularly and create quality content. Again, this goes back to people finding value in your site and wanting to look around for a while. If you have a reputation for creating quality content, your website will be referenced by others. Think about the last time you actually updated your website. If you can’t remember, then it’s time for a refresh. Consider your content and make sure it’s worth reading and referencing.
- Make sure you are properly formatting your content. Write in an informal tone throughout your pages. You don’t want to come across as being too pretentious, and Google will reward you if your website content is easy to read. (Zolpidem) Additionally, make sure that you are using headings and segmenting out your content so that it is not all one big paragraph. Use your keyword phrases in one heading on your page to keep the content relevant to what people are searching for when they are looking for your business.
- Add properly formatted photos to your website and make sure that they have captions that are relevant to your company. Photos are a great way to utilize SEO keywords related to your business in the captions and descriptions. For example, a pool company may post a photo of a beautiful pool and write the description of the photo as “How to make your pool sparkle,” and the caption as “Sparkling Pool in Miami.” Optimize the photos so that they aren’t too large and cause your page loading to slow down.
- If you don’t already have one, start a blog! This is a great way to produce engaging content on your page regularly. Make sure your blog adds value to your website visitor experience, and don’t simply cut and paste. If you have the same content across multiple pages, it will hurt your overall search engine rankings on Google. If you are stuck on blog ideas, search for trending topics related to your industry or product. This can help you create content that is relevant to readers currently, and will help with searches and sharing on social media. You can even use Twitter as a place to search for current trending topics!
- Optimize for Mobile
Is your website mobile friendly? If not, you need to update it ASAP. According to Search Engine Land, over 60% of Google searches come from mobile devices. That means that if your website doesn’t work well on mobile, you are potentially losing out on 60% of the people who could be looking for you. If your site looks weird on mobile or takes too long to load, make mobile optimization a priority to increase your SEO.
- Utilize Social Sharing
Every business should have a presence on social media. Even if you think social isn’t your thing, you should be using it to share your business. Make sure that your website has social sharing buttons and clearly states how customers can find and share your content on their social media sites. The more that others are sharing your website, the more potential traffic you can have. Don’t forget that YOU can share your website on your social networks as well. Anytime you post a new blog article or update a webpage, share that on your social networks so that others will click on your website, thus driving more traffic to your site.
Backlinks are important, so make sure that people are referencing your site and linking back to it as much as possible. Social sharing is a great way to increase your backlinks. Think in terms of viral content and create something that is easily sharable and relates to your business. Infographics are a good example, but so are memes or other engaging photos or videos. Make sure that there is a way to link back to your page on each piece of content that you share, and then share away! Anytime someone clicks on that content, it will go straight back to the page you choose on your site. Encourage others to share the information, so that you are not only getting engagement on your social pages, but you are also creating easy ways for others to share backlinks to your website all over the Internet.
- Use the Right Keywords
Keywords are so important when it comes to SEO. This will require some research on your part, but find out the top keywords that people are searching when it comes to your type of business or product offering. Think in terms of what you would search on Google to find you. If you are a pool cleaning service, maybe people would be searching “best pool cleaning service in my city.” That means that you want to make sure that you use all the best keywords throughout your web pages. This can be tricky, though because the keywords must be used naturally and content cannot be duplicated. Think of words and phrases that best describe your business and what people would be searching for, and make sure to include them in blog posts and web pages where it makes the most sense.
- Create Clean URLs
Your URLs can help you improve your SEO too, as long as they make sense. URLs should contain phrases as well, and should not be a long line of letters and numbers that doesn’t make sense. For the pool company, you would not want an URL that looks like this, poolcompany.com/whiyvkv79hfkjasml99. Instead think in terms of what keywords you can use in your URL like, poolcompany.com/best-chlorine-for-my-pool. Make sure you use hyphens in between the words so that Google knows they are separate words and part of a phrase. Having a URL with words that make sense in a phrase will help for sharing the link as well because it will look cleaner and clearer for social sharing.
Improving your SEO can take a lot of work, but it can start with having the right content on your site. If you are struggling with quality content or the frequency at which you are adding new content, contact us at Miss Ink! We are content superstars, and can help you get the right content up on your site to improve your SEO! Reach out by emailing us: info@miss-ink.com.
References:
34 Ways To Improve SEO Rankings in 2019. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.quicksprout.com/ways-to-improve-seo-ranking/
