Every business wants its website to stand out among the competitors found on search engines like Google. The good news is that ranking higher doesn’t have to be complicated. You just have to know a few things about search engine optimization (SEO).
Understanding the basic strategies of SEO can drastically improve your ranking, bringing in more customers and improving the bottom line for your business.
What do you need to know about search engine optimization? These four expert tips will get you started as soon as possible so that you can start to see real results for your business.
Content Is King
Almost every website owner has heard the adage that content is king. Google wants to see that you have relevant content for their users. This is hands-down the best way to improve your site’s spot in the search engine results pages.
Make sure that the content on your blog and landing pages is current and makes good use of other search engine optimization (SEO) practices.
There are two main aspects to your content that must be met to improve your site – keyword research and updated content.
Keywords
Before you start writing a new blog or modifying your landing page, you should take a minute to figure out what keyword you want to rank for. What problem do you think searchers will turn to the internet to solve? This should give you a great starting point for figuring out what to include in your content.
You can also make good use of tools like Google Keyword Planner to find out what people are searching for related to your niche. Other tools that can help you identify top keywords include:
- Ubersuggest
- Surfer SEO
- AnswerThePublic
As an alternative, you can sign up for digital marketing with Get Visible, and we can help you identify the keywords you need for search engine optimization (SEO).
Once you know what keywords to use, they should be naturally integrated into your text. Don’t overdo it by trying to stuff as many in your text as possible. Adding the keyword to the first paragraph and several times throughout the piece is more than enough to signal to Google what your page is really about.
Updated Content
Your content should be authoritative and updated regularly as things change. This signals to the search engines that your site is far more likely to be relevant to searchers. You should take the time to create a schedule for when you will review old content and freshen it up. For example, you may do this once each quarter or biannually.
Focus on Backlinks
How do users know that your site is the ultimate authority in your niche? One way is to make sure that you are cultivating strong backlinks. With this strategy, you should focus on creating content that other sites will want to link back to in their own blogs.
When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), backlinks demonstrate that you are the authority for your keywords and lend you some credibility.
Consider reaching out to some site owners and offering them suggestions on resources that your blog or website has to offer. They might decide to take you up on your offer and place a link to your page on their site.
If possible, try to ask them to use descriptive links when referencing your website. This means that they will link to your company’s name or a specific set of keywords instead of a generic “click here.”
Implement Alt Tags
You’ve spent some time managing your search engine optimization (SEO) for your content and backlinks, but what about your images and videos?
There is one important step that you won’t want to skip when uploading and organizing your media. This is the use of alt tags, also known as alternative text descriptions.
An alt tag lists your keyword or a description of your media. This is great for users who only use text-based browsers. However, it also helps your media to show up in the search engines if one of your customers is looking for an image or video relevant to your page.
Don’t Forget Metadata
Many site owners focus only on what they can see on their pages, but metadata also plays a key role in your search engine optimization (SEO). There are three key aspects of metadata that you need to employ to get noticed by search engines and users:
- Title metadata
- Description metadata
- Keyword metadata
First, your title metadata plays a significant role in the performance of your website. This is what will display in the search engine results for your website, so make sure it is relevant, click-worthy, and keyword-rich.
Next, you need to ensure that you are using your description metadata. This is a short blurb that will also populate on Google to tell readers what your webpage is about. It should be the hook that you use to draw people into your website, ensuring that it is keyword rich and gives users a solution to their search.
Last but not least, you should consider updating your keyword metadata. This is not as important as title and description metadata, but it is worth looking into for your SEO strategy. Include three to seven phrases that you find are relevant to your page and are highly ranked in the keyword research that you performed in step one.
Hire the Digital Marketing Professionals
Does all of this sound more complex than what your internal team can handle? A solid search engine optimization (SEO) strategy does require an investment of time and resources if you want to rank on search engines like Google. With the right approach, you can see local rankings in approximately 60 days.
If you need some help with your marketing, it’s time to contact Get Visible. We are rooted in strategy, data, and design to help your website stand out from the competition. Give us a call today to learn more about how we can help you!
