SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or web page in search engine’s usually through organic (unpaid) search results. By increasing your website visibility on search engines, such as Google and Bing, you will be found more easily by your target market resulting in more traffic.
Every business with a website should make SEO a priority. Unfortunately, intense SEO involves complex site reconstruction and a big budget. Luckily, if you have a seamless website which boasts an excellent user experience, you are half way there!
Check out our SEO video to learn more.
Here are the four steps you need to conquer on your quest to increase the visibility of your website:
Monitor
In order to progress, you need to know where your website currently stands in the search engines. You should have Google Analytic set-up and you should be actively checking the statics generated. By using this data you can find where your visitors are coming from and the search terms they use to find you.
Also, it is worth downloading the free MozBar which gives you access to important SEO metrics instantly. Featured on the toolbar is an important metric which allows you to watch is your DA (Domain Authority), you should work to make this higher by generating clever content and valued links. For a full SEO analysis marketing software such as MOZ and MajesticSEO are available at a monthly fee.
Keywords
You know the theme of your website and what services you offer, but do the search engines? You need to determine your keywords and the terms people type in search engines to get to your website by conducting a keyword analysis. You can do this by using the no-charge Google Webmaster Tools to look for search suggestions. By utilizing this tool, you can see how competitive search terms are, and how often each term is being searched.
When you have defined your keywords, you will want to optimize content accordingly by adding terms into titles, content, images and URLs. Remember to keyword optimize and not keyword stuff. If you stuff your website full of key terms, search engines will think your website is spam and will not rank you in search results.
Content
‘Content is king’ is a term that you may be familiar with. Well, in 2011 Google released the Panda algorithm which meant higher-quality websites would be ranked higher than websites with little or no content. Even though content is a ranking factor, quality content that people actually read is preferred over quantity.
Updating your website regularly with fresh content is a must and therefore an integrated blog is recommended. Make sure there is no copy and pasting content, as duplicated content will lower your ranking!
Links
Link back integration is the easiest way to conduct SEO on your website. When writing new content on your website, link back to the archives. For example, you may want to link a new post to your websites contact page. Where possible include keyword terms on the hyperlink text. This way Google can rank that page for those terms.
Your Domain Authority is measured predominately on the amount of links pointing to your website. Search engines view links pointing to your website as votes. Therefore the more votes to your website, the higher you will rank on search pages. On the other hand, some links can harm your ranking and can even penalize your website. Avoid link farms at all costs. The best way to get links is to earn them. This can be done by making contacts with relevant people in your industry.
Here are 500+ ways to generate links to your site.
About Author:
Dawn Ellis is a freelance illustrator and copywriter; you can see her work at www.design191.com.