The Importance Of SEO and How You Can Improve Yours
When a consumer problem comes to mind, it’s usually followed by a quick Google search to find a solution to the problem. In a highly competitive global market where businesses are up against fierce competitors, SEO is an extremely beneficial tool in driving potential and existing customers to your website and provides the prospect of increased sales. SEO levels the playing field between small businesses and larger corporations as it removes the ability of companies to pay for a higher Google ranking and manipulate search results.
A few simple SEO strategies can enable businesses to outrank larger corporations in Google rankings, ensuring that search results are fair and relevant. Another salient feature of SEO is that it engenders trust and credibility between the brand and consumers as the organic rankings display the most relevant results to users, and people naturally trust websites that are ranked higher, as they are perceived as the most useful.
As 53% of web traffic comes from organic Google searches, a high Google ranking will directly grow web traffic. While many see the obvious solution to Google rankings as paid promotions, only 17% of the website’s traffic comes from paid ads, contrasted with the 83% from search engines from organic searches. This staggering difference between paid and organic searches communicates the benefits of an SEO strategy.
Now, the word ‘SEO’ may seem daunting or even foreign to some people. However, there are an array of benefits that correlate with a strong SEO strategy. There are many simple, easy-to-follow steps that are guaranteed to boost your SEO ranking. Some strategies are detailed below.
Google Search Console
Engaging with a Google Search Console is a free tool offered by Google that provides valuable advice to users on any troubles with your website that will negatively impact its Google ranking. Other benefits of this tool include determining keywords/phrases to bring the most web traffic, providing details on your site’s Google search traffic, and many other beneficial services.
As a free tool that guarantees an improved SEO, this is the first step any person or business should take to improve their SEO.
Update Meta Tags
When searches appear on google, meta tags provide a brief description of the website and the information on that page. Refining your website’s meta tags directly impacts the site’s Google ranking, which, as mentioned earlier, directly impacts the website’s traffic.
It is also imperative that meta tags are succinct and are written in a way that will captivate searchers to meet their needs and coax them to click on your site.
Three key strategies for an effective meta tag include:
- Make the words descriptive, so it directly relates to the article/website.
- Ensure your meta tag is unique from other search results on the page.
- Make the meta tag short and succinct, or else this will lose searchers’ attention.
Fix Any Broken Links
Having any broken links can dwindle your SEO ranking, which of course, has detrimental consequences. Using a site like DrLinkCheck.com or Dead Link Checker can inform you of any broken links and how to fix them accordingly.
Use Keywords
Using keywords can have a significant impact on your Google ranking. It’s important to incorporate the keywords that customers are looking for in your websites to improve SEO rankings. However, businesses must do this carefully as Google can pick up when you go overboard with the keywords, creating adverse results.
The keywords should have a natural flow within a sentence and be incorporated in headers and image captions. Long-tail keywords should also be incorporated, being precise phrases that focus on a particular topic, e.g., “what is…” or “the best…”.
Add Alt Tags To Images
An alt tag is a description that appears against an image in the case it fails to load. However, there are immense benefits in ensuring every image on the website has an alt tag, as this drastically impacts your SEO.
Three rules that users should follow to write a good alt tag are:
- Be specific with the description, the image should be described in as much detail as possible
- Be relevant with the image description, ensuring that you are describing what is in the image
- Be unique, using different alt tags for different images on the page, and avoid using the same keyword
Optimize Your Website For Mobile Users
Mobile phones provide convenience to people in ways that laptops often do not. More than 60% of Google searches come from mobile phones. To cater to a large number of mobile users, businesses should ensure that their site is compatible with phone displays. Google can recognize those sites that are or are/aren’t compatible. Therefore ensuring that your website is compatible with mobile phones will foster a higher Google ranking.
Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test will tell you just how compatible your website is for mobile phone users. Any inconsistencies should be attended to as this will directly hinder a positive SEO ranking.
Create A Captivating Title
Writing a click-worthy title can be the difference between users clicking onto your website or the competition below. Titles are only given 65 characters, which means that you must carefully plan out your title to make the most of space.
The following are some tips to optimize your title:
- People typically look at the first two words of the title, therefore front-load your title with keywords.
- Make it predictable, so users will expect to see the information they are seeking when they click on your title.
- Be clear, so the user knows exactly what will be on the website from the title.
Overall, improving your SEO ranking provides businesses with the opportunity to compete against larger corporations and attract new customers through search engines. As SEO creates a level playing field between businesses, it is imperative to follow the above recommendations to improve your SEO ranking and subsequent website traffic. Given that SEO can facilitate business success, it is a worthwhile investment of your time and money
If you need any specific tips or guidance on ways to improve your SEO, contact our experienced team!
