Your Website is Live: SEO What?

 If you have an amazing website, but no one visits, what is the point?  How do you gain visibility in the extremely populous world wide web?  That is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in. Google is the top rated and most widely used search engine on the planet.  In order for it to navigate the (over) 1 billion websites that exist,  it has an algorithm that it’s crawlers use to rank sites.  

This helps it to find (almost) exactly what you’re looking for when you enter your request into the search bar.  As you may imagine, every business wants to rank first, as most people click at least one of the first two result links.  

Few make it past “the fold” (half way down the page), and almost no users make it beyond the second and third pages of results.  No one knows Google’s exact formula, but here are some tried-and-true methods to help improve your search rank and to help keep you “above the fold”.

Label your photos correctly

When webpages load, they read certain scripts before others. If the included pictures take longer to load, users will sometimes see the label.  If there is an issue with downloading, or if the visitor is in a place with limited data or cellular service,  this description may be all that they will be shown.  

In order to complement your other content, it is best practice to have labeled these with descriptions that make sense, but won’t overwhelm readers. 

Use Internal Linking

Internal links are an important tool for providing search engines with more appropriate content on your site. It works like a diagram of related posts on your site, making it easier for users and bots to navigate your site.  

When you use internal links, search engines can find related pages and direct traffic from one to another. You want users to stay on your site and spend time (which is also beneficial for search engine optimization); using valuable internal links is a great way to do this. 

They’ve cracked down on those using erroneous links, so don’t attempt to fool bots and crawlers with fake urls just for the sake of upping your position on the results page.  This may work temporarily, but they will eventually catch up to you.

Choosing Keywords for Your Content

Choose basic and semantic keywords related to how you think users might search for your website. People who know a lot about this topic may use different search terms than the novice would in their queries. 

If you expect these types of behaviors and take them into account when writing content (with an expansive combination of keywords), it can lead to positive results. It’s all about getting into the mindset of someone who would be searching for your business – why are they looking for you, and what might they call you?  This can be tricky, which brings us to our next point.

Use these Keyword Tools to Get Started

Google Trends allows you to identify new search trends and shows the number of search operations for each keyword.  Keyword Tool is a good starting point for SEO keyword research. Moz Keyword Explorer is another popular keyword research tool in which you can identify related content terms in order to boost your rank while learning more about your competition. 

Google and other search engines exist to make user experience easier.  Steps that you take to help create the most seamless user experience possible will also help your search engine ranking. 

This includes site speed, ease of navigation, properly labeling images, and utilizing keywords, just to name a few. If you’d like to learn more or have any questions about how to optimize your site, call us.  

We won’t try to sell you snake oil.  There is no one miracule cure for beating Google’s search algorithm, but we can greatly help you improve rank and put you infront of the right audience.