92% of us use Google to search for businesses online, and 60% of people click on the top link within the results we are given. With so many businesses creating an online presence, and so much competition, how can you ensure that your business is ranking above the competition? Search engines exist to give users the most relevant and helpful information about the key phrase searched. Your site must therefore be optimised, content-rich and have lots of useful information. Optimise your site for SEO using the following strategies:
The starting point begins with your key phrases
Search engines aim to provide users with answers that are the most relevant to their queries. The starting place for any search engine campaign is to identify the keywords or phrases that you’re targeting. Threading key phrases throughout your page enables search engines to identify what your website is about. By targeting the most frequently searched keywords for your product or service, you can increase how relevant your website is and improve your ranking performance. In this way, Google measures whether your content is designed for users, and ranks websites which are optimised in this way more highly.
Understanding semantic search
Google’s algorithm has evolved considerably over the last 10 years. The latest algorithm, called “Hummingbird” utilises semantic search to deliver better quality results. This means that Google is trying to identify websites by relevancy over and above the use of a key phrase. This means that webmasters much look to include relevant associated keywords within the content, in preference to using the same phrases over and over. Focus on quality content but ensure that the relevant meta-descriptions and title tags are still included with the keyword data.
Quality content always performs
Google ranks content higher that is information-rich. You can improve your content by using H1 and H2 header tags which are relevant. Keyword stuffing won’t help, but consider including associated key phrases within your titles. Create new content on a regular basis so that you are active and up-to-date. Your URL path of your page should be clear, key-word rich and contain only simple characters. Search engines also don’t like duplicate content, and count websites containing it as ‘spam’. Write your content in clear paragraphs ad include images with appropriate keyword ALT tags.
Links and social media
Search engines “crawl” the web to index pages. If you have a number of text links going to your page from high-quality sources, your page will rank more highly in search engine results. Social media is also a key part of your linking strategy. You can post links to content such as your blogs and articles to direct traffic back to your site. Make sure to become familiar with the style of each different social network such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Facebook, so that you can make the way that you present your content even more targeted for your audience. Social links have been proven to be more powerful than traditional anchor text links so fill your boots with as much social as you can.
Other SEO elements
There are other elements which are less obvious to ensure that your website is visible in search results. These include meta tags and meta descriptions, which use keywords to further promote and optimise your page. Link-building has received bad press in recent months, as some people have tried to manipulate search results. Link building is however fundamentally important. Quality inbound links will help improve your rankings however poor quality links will not improve your efforts.
To find out more about how to make your website visible, get in touch on 020 7100 0726 today.
Author: Steve Pailthorpe - Follow us on Google+