What does it mean to get your website optimized for search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo? What are the benefits? How can I get my website to be noticed by my targeted audience?
The development process and structures utilized in designing a site has to include all the technical aspects that Google requires to fully understand your website's content and effectively rank it.
Of course, it is essential to have some specialized knowledge about website optimization (SEO), however, we have prepared a few simple steps to help you understand the basics and how you can utilize it on your website.
1. Websites that are useful, rich in information, and concise gain higher positions in search engines than those lacking information. It is advisable to update page content from time to time as search engines favor recently updated content.
2. Have a list of keywords your business is about and utilize them throughout your website. These are known as “meta tags” – for instance, if your company sells furniture in Adelaide, you will want to use some of the following keywords: best Adelaide furniture, couch Adelaide, loveseat Adelaide, etc. This will help your website gain credibility and an audience in your targeted region or for targeted products.
3. Image Optimization – Optimize your website with images that have title tags and alt tags, with similar keywords as above.
4. High-quality Backlinks are very important for increasing page views and traffic to your site – These help increase your audience by submitting quality articles to directories, which will “backlink” your website to theirs. This usually comes with marketing packages from website design companies.
5. Internal Links – These are known hyperlinks, as well. These are placed within your website, on every page, to give your visitor a way to easily navigate your website without having to click each page separately.
6. Social Media Links – Social media allows you to spread your online reach faster so if you use you Facebook, Twitter, etc. for your company, search engines will pick up your site quicker and will offer high quality traffic to your website.
Want to learn more about how to advance your website and start generating leads?
Explore our Marketing Automation feature!7. Responsive website designs – Since more users are using tablets and smartphones these days, rather than desktops, it is important to have your website be responsive to mobiles, as well as desktops/laptops. This will make your website easy to navigate, whether on a laptop, a desktop, a tablet, or a smartphone.
8. Add your Website to Google Places and Google Maps – If you want to gain a larger audience through search engines (especially Google), you will want to link your website to Google Places and Maps, if you have an actual building you operate out of.
9. Use Google Webmaster Tools – This Google service, is used to monitor and maintain your website presence on the Google search engine. You can see how well certain pages are being responded to and which pages are not; you can even see what links on your website aren’t working so you can fix them. This is a great monitoring tool for your business to use.
10. Google AdWords – This product offers website listings at the top of Google searches. You choose some keywords related to your company, and then, Google will link your website to those keywords. This will help your website get higher in the search engine and you pay Google for these sponsored listings, on a pay-per-click basis. It is a great tool that will help your business generate more customers, from day one.
Search engine optimization is a very important part of your marketing strategy in order to appear on top of the search results page. This will help people that search for your business to find you more easily based on their search queries and will improve your marketing efforts.
