“How do I get my site to show up in the search results?”
If I had a dollar for every time I answered this question…
A large part of my job is educating my clients about SEO – what it is, why it is important, and how to implement it into a website. If you are depending on your website to attract new clients and customers, it is essential for you to understand the basics of SEO and how to optimize your website to utilize it for your company’s greatest benefit. So, below I will share with you BluErth’s SEO Basic Essentials: 5 Tips to Get Noticed in the Search Engines. This will give you a good understanding of what you need to do, but if you want more information or help implementing these practices, BluErth can help you create a plan for boosting your traffic and visibility in search results.
1. Site Content: I frequently chant to my clients “Content, Content, Content!” Search engines take in a lot of information and factors to rank your site, but content is king, and regardless of everything else, your site is only as good as it’s content (read: text and photos). Well written, relevant content not only makes you appear like an expert in your field to the search engines, it also provides good information, which is what people want in a website. Lots of well-written and well-organized content is the BEST way to grow your page rank organically and increase natural interest in your website. If people like your content, they are more likely to revisit your page and link to your site. Google reads your tags within the content too, so be sure to put all headings inside <h> tags to differentiate them as a content summaries/titles.
2. Keywords: You have probably heard this word in relation to websites before. Keywords are words or phrases that summarize your content and help search engines to correctly categorize and index your site. If your company is a maternity concierge service located in Miami, your site’s keywords will be related to that topic and include location-specific details, such as: maternity concierge miami, maternity concierge florida, etc… Properly researched and placed keywords in your site’s meta information can make the difference between placement on the 20th page of results or the 1st page. BluErth offers Primary SEO service that completes this careful research and integrates optimized keywords into your site.
3. Incoming Links: Google considers hundreds of variables when placing your site in the search results, but how many incoming links you have, relative to the number of outgoing links, is one of the most influential in determining how important your site is. Basically, the more people who link to your site, the more important you seem to be, and the better your standing with the search engines. Links from other sites within your same industry are more valuable than random links from a site that has content unrelated to your own. Let’s take a massage therapist’s website for example. Google would find more value in a link from a wellness spa as opposed to a link from an auto parts company, because one site has similar, relevant content and the other is completely unrelated. For small businesses, I frequently recommend to business owners to reach out to other local companies and propose a link exchange, where two companies link to each other in their websites. This creates a mutual benefit, and once the phrase “will boost SEO for both our sites” is mentioned, typically everyone is amenable to the idea.
4. Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram reach the widest audience in the world and can be responsible for the vast majority of a website’s incoming traffic. Integrating these outlets with your website and actively participating in them goes a very long way towards strengthening brand awareness, creating buzz and connecting with new clients. Enticing users to travel between your social media profile page and your website creates a significant amount of traffic, which boosts your visibility and can convert to more sales and customers.
5. Website infrastructure: The way in which your website is structured has ever-increasing importance in determining your site’s search relevance, because your site’s structure will determine it’s loading time, accessibility on mobile and smart devices, cross-browser compatibility, structuring of meta information, etc…
There are thousands of variables used by Google and other search engines to determine where your site is placed in the search results. Besides the most important listed above, here are a few more factors to consider…
MORE TIPS FOR SEO
– Geographic Location: meta information and site content should include words that place your geographical location precisely on a map (city, county, neighborhood names, etc).
– Domain Registration Age: when registering or renewing your domain name, renew for the longest amount of time possible. Not only does this lock in your current price, but shows Google that you are committed to your site’s longevity
– Image Alt. Keywords: Google reads those little bits of meta attached to your site photos, even if reader’s can’t see it. Take the opportunity to use keywords here.
– Map submission: Having your business location show up on a map search is sometimes more powerful than a web search.
– Directory submissions: Make sure that your business details across multiple directories on the web all match up to show correct and synchronized information.
– Google webmaster tools: Registering your site with Google’s Webmaster Tools application lets you request re-indexing of your site, and will alert you if there are any issues in your site that are damaging your SEO