SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is one of the most important tools for modern businesses as it allows them to increase their exposure and head to the top of search engine rankings.
This is vital because it is well known that if you do not appear on page one of a search engine listing then a potential customer is not going to find you at all, as nobody bothers going to page two. So, how do I go about making SEO work for my business? Well, read on and we will discuss the 4 major ways you can use SEO to drive traffic to your business and therefore increase sales.
Use Keywords
The first step when thinking about using SEO techniques on your website is to analyze keywords as these are what are going to drive traffic to your site. You need to understand the words and phrases that your customers are using when searching for your products. After you have identified these keywords you need to then write articles or blogs and place these words within them so that the search engines can start to rank your pages according to the word usage used.
Once you have your keywords, do not stop there as you want to build on these words by periodically introducing more and more which will give your website added authority. Ensure that you do not use too many keywords as otherwise your articles will seem unnatural and algorithms will pick up on this and demote you in the rankings.
Optimize Your Web Pages
After identifying your keywords it is time to create content for these words in the form of your home page, or articles, or blogs. Experts from AdInfusion.com advise that it does actually matter where you place the articles because they have to seem natural. If you are outlining your products or services, normally, this would go on your homepage, not on a blog hidden away.
Whereas if you are talking about specifics then it doesn’t have to be the first page someone reads, as long as it is easily searchable and well linked to. The actual pages themselves must be optimized for the search engines, so ensure that the content and structure and the code used is well thought through so that they can be ranked higher. Don’t overload your pages with keywords, as long as your articles give authority on your subject then the search engines will pick up your page.
Get Linking
When it comes to getting noticed by the likes of Google, filling your content with links is essential as they are one of the three most important ranking factors. Ultimately this is done by getting other sites to link back to yours, thereby giving you authority. But, how do I go about doing this, especially if I have a nascent business? Well, one great way is to copy the backlinks that your competitors use by seeing who is already linking to them, but not you.
You can then use an online tool to analyze the options before contacting them to have them link back to you. An alternative option is to use community forums such as Facebook groups or on Reddit to promote your business and hope that this will lead to more backlinking to your website. This will take time as you need to earn trust in any community, but given this is exactly what you want from your website to get to the top of search ranking lists it is a very worthwhile enterprise.
Become Technically Proficient
Search engines hate websites that take a long time to load or that are not security conscious. For example, Google will rank websites higher that use the https protocol because by nature the site will be encrypted.
You can also run programs on your website to check which links are slowing it down so that these can be removed or modified, as the last thing you or an algorithm are looking for is a slow-loading webpage. Essentially you are looking to do anything to your site that utilizes the available technology because search engines are programmed to look for sites that are the most user friendly.
As we have learned SEO is so important in today’s world that it is essential that you get a grasp of it early on if you want to benefit from a boost in search engine rankings. Ensure that you use keywords and backlinks to your advantage, and optimize your website so that content is easily found. Use all of the available technology to you and soon you will find that your increased authority leads to more traffic and therefore sales.
