What does SEO stand for? Search Engine Optimization.
It is a form of obtaining organic traffic to a specific brand’s domain or website. This means when users search for a term or keyword in a search engine such as Google, they will discover only relevant sites.
Therefore, organic traffic is traffic that is not derived from any paid advertisement or other PPC efforts.
There are various methods marketers can do to improve a site’s rankings on today’s most popular search engines.
Here are some of the most useful SEO tips, but certainly not all. Search engines like Google are continuously revamping how their algorithms work in order to locate the most appropriate websites that match search terms.
Nevertheless, whether you have an online business, employing SEO will enable Google, Bing, and/or Yahoo to rank your site more favorably amongst the search engine results pages (SERPs).
1: Make Your Website Aesthetically Pleasing For Users
SEO TIP #1: Operating an online business is not about having the most desirable or aesthetically pleasing website.
SEO is more about having a website that is uncomplicated and simple to navigate for any user. SEO is about using your amazing content as the best way to showcase your goods/services within arms reach.
"Content is king", is an SEO saying you most likely see all over the internet - it’s an easy way to explain SEO.
This notion simply means that the first thing any adequate website needs is quality content. Quality should always take precedents over quantity.
2: Finding Your Targeted Keywords
SEO TIP 2: Before you organize any content on your site, as a marketer you need to curate a master list of keywords or search terms that your team wants to rank for.
Make sure that you utilize Google's free keyword research tool (found within the dashboard) to uncover pertinent keywords and check the monthly search volume of each keyword.
Start with keywords that have higher search volume but lower competition. Why? Because your website, while working to improve your SEO, will not hold that much weight in the eyes of Google.
Therefore, working towards lower-hanging fruit (or search terms) will give you the best shot at ranking quickly.
From there, you can repeat this process and once you post enough quality content you should compound enough monthly users to equal more competitive keywords.
3: SEO Tools Are Your Best Friends
SEO TIP 3: When it comes to improving the quality of your website, dividing your efforts among these 4 categories:
- Design and website navigation
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- High Engaging Content
- Internal Marketing
If this sounds like a daunting task, that’s okay - you don’t have to do this alone!
There are a plethora of tools (most free) online and at your disposal that gets most of the jobs done for you without needing a coder or any technical website knowledge.
Check out our list of recommended tools for SEO & SEM that will save you not only time but budget dollars.
4: Be Strategic With What Keywords You Target
SEO TIP 4: By selecting medium or more elevated volume keywords, or what us marketers refer to as long-tail keywords. It will be easier to get a higher position.
When it comes to choosing which keywords you want to write about we suggest you shoot for any and all search terms over 100 monthly searches.
There are hundreds of ways users search but if you target keywords with too low of search volume you risk wasting your time.
Focus on moderate volume with low competition - and write lots of content!
5: On-page Keyword Placement Is Imperative
SEO TIP 5: Once you've settled on the most suitable keywords or search phrases for your web pages there are optimal placements for these terms on each page.
Make sure to use your desired keyword in the title, meta-tags, description, as well as URL.
As for your on-page verbiage and copy, use your keywords at the start of each title on the page. It is important to not overstuff your keywords on the page.
Google will penalize you if it thinks you are trying to “game” the system for better rankings. Make it very legible and relevant to the search term.
One of the KPIs search engines such as Google use to rank a website is your bounce rate. This is how long a specific visitor spends on your website before they leave.
The lower the bounce rate the better, too high of one will result in Google limiting your impression share by reducing your SERP positioning.
6: Optimize Your Headlines (H1, H2, etc)
SEO TIP 6: One of the quickest and most useful tips is to insert your keywords in headlines and sub-headlines.
When you bold, italicize, and/or underline a word on your site, Google’s web crawlers will pay more attention to your content.
7: Avoid Keyword Stuffing
SEO TIP 7: We touched on keyword stuffing earlier - however, we cannot stress this enough.
Back in the 90s, you could throw up a new domain with a single page that just had the word “dog park” over and over again and you might have shown up on the first page of Google.
Since then Google’s web crawlers have evolved. Now you must not only provide the best content, BUT it needs to be presented in the best manner possible while being easy for crawlers to check frequently.
8: Keyword Placement Is Everything!
SEO TIP 8: The right SEO approach starts in the header and continues to the footer. Web crawlers will take everything on your page into account while trying to determine where you should rank.
Make sure you sprinkle in your desired keywords and search terms in various ways throughout the page. Remember the start your headlines off with these terms and mentioned something about them in each body paragraph as well.
If you can find photos that you can append to your pages make sure you use your desired search terms as the images’ alt texts.
Below the fold refers to any and all content that appears once a user begins the scroll down the page.
Ensure that your main messaging is bold and apparent on the first fold as most users won’t scroll unless they can see a hint for the answer they're searching for.
9: Information Quality > Quantity
SEO TIP 9: The biggest leg up or competitive advantage you can give yourself right out of the gate is information.
Start with the answer - give the users what they want - then elaborate on this in the following body paragraphs on your page.
Not only will your users thank you for making their life easier but Google’s web crawlers' job is also simplified by giving them all the ammo they need to rank your webpage.
The on-page content ought to be well-organized, transparent, and straightforward, but most importantly, the content must be accurate.
It is important to routinely modernize your site as frequently as possible with reinvigorated content - frequent edits also show Google you are updating your website with possibly better content.
We refer to this as the ‘SEO snowball effect’. Search engines such as Google or Bing like to monitor how often a specific website is updated. The more edits the better.
10: Don’t Forget About Alt & Anchor Text
SEO TIP 10: Include a variety of keyword variations into your images' alt text as well as on-page hyperlink anchor text links.
Make sure to only send users to relevant sources - and a little tip is to make any and all hyperlinks open onto a new tab.
This will reduce your website's bounce rate as well as give users a chance to return to your domain after looking at your sources.
Third-party hyperlinks allow you to choose backlinks from do-follow sites that help improve your page domain authority as well as SERP rankings.
Do-follow links refer to any link on your website that will follow that link and give wait to the site it links to.
Think about this as a “trusted” link - when this occurs it is essentially a vetted source from one website to another.
If it isn't a do-follow link Google’s web crawlers will most likely ignore it. Building trust in your website is the best way to rank your website higher and higher in the eyes of search engines.
You should be spending the same amount of time making connections with other authority names in your vertical (or close to without it being a competitor) as you do when creating new content for your website.
Start sprinkling in a domain you admire and maybe eventually that will get you in the door for a link exchange.
When it comes to SEO, it is not always a perfect science however these 10 SEO tips above you will set yourself up for success. Want to chat more? Contact our team and we’ll reach out to you as soon as we can!