SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, a set of methods designed to improve the appearance and positioning of web pages in organic search results. Since organic search is the most prominent way for people to discover and access online content, a good SEO strategy is essential to improving the quality and quantity of traffic to your website.
The Importance of SEO for Your Website
SEO has the potential to improve search rankings and drive more traffic to your website. While the term tends to make people think of complicated and unprofessional marketing schemes, an SEO strategy is something any business or website owner should be putting some effort into. SEO doesn’t have to involve buying expensive keyword research tools or fiddling around with complicated copy. Most of the basic principles of SEO involve only five core components. These five components are web analysis, proper keyword research, website optimization, social media promotion, and content optimization.
Web Analysis
You need to conduct a thorough study of your website to find out which of your pages and content are performing well and which are not.
1. Choose Keywords Wisely
To boost your organic search traffic, your website should be filled with a wide range of keywords that appear in the context of your site’s content. A lot of people think that keyword stuffing, using a lot of keywords that don’t necessarily relate to the content, is a good way to boost your search rankings. But that’s not the case. Most search engines don’t penalize websites for keyword stuffing. Instead, search engines punish sites that create keyword-heavy content that they never plan to reference.
What does it mean to be a good keyword manager?
Effective keyword research allows you to find out which words in your content are relevant to potential visitors and which are not.
Keyword research also allows you to create appropriate content that includes your target keywords.
2. Create Original Content for Your Website
Google regularly updates its algorithm to optimize results, and the current trends usually influence the algorithm in favor of old content and away from original content. Original content is content that hasn’t been widely shared before (as opposed to, say, a re-shared content on a blog or similar site). You can think of it as equivalent to a professional authoring website—to make an original piece of content your audience can’t find elsewhere, you’ll need to create it for the purpose of that audience (and be confident they won’t find it elsewhere).
Here are 4 things to consider when creating your original content:
- It needs to be incredibly special.
- It needs to be super-organizational.
- It needs to be exactly the right length.
- It needs to be customized to your specific niche.
3. Use Structured Data Markup
Structured data is a structured, machine-readable, data format for structured and semi-structured data. By using structured data markup you can improve the quality and appeal of your content for search engines. A structured data markup can be added to the body of your web pages to give search engines additional information about your website and other important details. Structured data can be used to embed video, images, maps, and related data.
We’ve created a comprehensive guide that outlines the best ways to implement structured data markup on your web pages. You can find the guide here.
ALSO READ: A Comprehensive Guide to SEO Meta Tags
4. Practice Mobile-Friendliness
When people engage with mobile apps and websites they engage for longer periods of time than with desktop versions. Mobile technology has changed the way we interact with the Internet. The amount of time people spend online on mobile devices has doubled since 2015, making mobile functionality increasingly important for content marketers. To ensure your customers’ devices are being utilized as efficiently as possible, it is essential to optimize your site for mobile devices.
To ensure your site appears on Google’s mobile-friendly list, you should ensure your site has a full-width layout that maximizes vertical space on any device. You should also provide high-quality photos, as these are more likely to be viewed and shared on mobile devices.
Aside from that, ensure your website has a mobile-optimized tag (or site), which will help your website appear in relevant search results.
5. Submit to Search Engines
The end goal of search engine optimization is to build backlinks to your website that refer traffic back to you, helping to ensure a steady stream of traffic.
But you don’t have to wait around for a company to help you get a page ranking. You can do it yourself. Just follow these steps to get started:
- Contact more than three to five businesses within your industry or niche.
- Find out if they’re linking back to you through other websites, and if they’re interested in linking back to you through yours.
- Invite them to link to your website by a reciprocal link and provide them with the content that will be appearing on your website.
Conclusion
There’s always more to do, more to improve, but the sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll see results. Set small, achievable goals that will gradually give you the momentum to take on the difficult goals you want to reach. It’s easy to feel like you’re constantly working to stay one step ahead, but if you really want to achieve your goals, you have to take one step at a time.