Search engine optimization (SEO) is important for any business that has an online presence. It can be the difference between your potential customers seeing your website and not seeing it. As the SEO Experts say, having an un-optimized website is like "placing a billboard in the desert."
1. Utilize Well-Written Meta Tags for All Your Web Pages
When it comes to SEO, creating good Meta tags, which includes the titles and descriptions of your web pages, is critical. It is what Google uses not only to crawl your website in order to discover what it is about but also what it uses to display information about your site in search results. Many companies do not pay enough attention to these tags (or use them at all), and this damages their search rankings.
2. Send Your Sitemap to Google
Sitemaps serve multiple useful purposes. They help Google and other search engines effectively to crawl your website by helping them understand its structure. It also aids search engines in displaying this structure within search results. You can submit your sitemap to Google through its Webmaster Tools, which are completely free to use.
3. Create Relevant Content
One of the best ways of optimizing your site for search is by creating content relevant to your business that could benefit your customers. So, if you own a roofing company, you could, for example, create content related to repairing and maintaining roofs. When people search for these subjects, they will see both your content and your site.
4. Link to Other Websites
Many people think that, by linking only to your own website, this will increase your rankings in search engines. But this simply is not true. Google and other search engines will actually rank your website higher if you link to other sites. As an added benefit, by linking to other sites, they just may link to yours. This creates something called a backlink, which can really help your search rankings.
5. Start a Blog
This tip is related to creating relevant content, as a blog is the best way to do this. Unlike the static parts of your website, which contain the description of your company and the products and services you offer, a blog lets you create useful content related to your business on a regular basis. This will help improve your search rankings and bring people to your site.
6. Make Your Website Responsive
A responsive website means a site whose design changes based on the screen size of users. So, someone visiting the site using a desktop computer sees a design optimized for a large screen while someone using a phone or tablet sees a design optimized for a small screen. Google and other search engines lower the rankings of sites that are not responsive, so make sure that your site is.
7. Avoid Keyword Stuffing
When creating content for your site, you should strongly avoid the temptation to stuff relevant keywords into it. While this once helped your search engine rankings, today it hurts it. Google and other engines will actually lower your rankings if they catch you doing this. Instead, incorporate keywords naturally into your content.
8. Write Local Content
Often people search for products and services in a particular locale. So, instead of just searching for "roof repair," they might search for "roof repair in Phoenix." Because of this, it is important for you to create useful content that is directly relevant to people living in your area. This will improve your rankings for local searches.
9. Improve the Speed of Your Website
If your web pages load slowly, it can affect your rankings on Google and on other search engines. So, if your website is slow, it is important for you to work with whoever created your site to improve its speed. As an added benefit, this will improve the experience users have when visiting your site.
10. Secure Your Website
Not having a secure website can also lower your search rankings. Secure websites have what is called SSL certificates and browsers communicate with them using HTTPS protocol instead of the standard HTTP protocol. For a small price, you can provide your visitors with a more secure experience that will help your search rankings rise.
Caryl Anne Crowne is a contributing writer and media specialist for Digital Marketing Training Group. She often produces content for a variety of marketing blogs.This post was proofread by Grammarly
