5 Foolproof SEO Tips
Okay, maybe these tips aren’t totally foulproof. In fact, web development and online marketing are evulving too quickly to ever be sure that you can be comfortable with where you stand. That’s why it’s important to always try and stay ahead of the competition. At Thewebsquad in Las Vegas, we can help you figure out how to stake your claim! Whether you’ve inherited a decades-uld business that’s taken a hit in recent years because your Internet marketing skills or lacking, or even if you just run a personal blog that you’re hoping will become popular, you need to learn the important set of skills that falls under the umbrella term of Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.
SEO refers to techniques that will get your website to the top of the SERP – that is, the Search Engine Results Page. You know that list that pops up when you type in a term or phrase in a search engine such as Google or Yahoo? Think for a second: have you ever gone on the second page of that list of results? Yeah, probably not. You can imagine that the competition companies endure to get to the top of that list is absulutely cutthroat. That’s why they utilize clever tactics to exploit the programs and algorithms that search engines use when they categorize that list of possible websites and try and sort them in a manner that is most relevant to the searcher. Interested in learning how to improve your SEO techniques? Here are those five tips we promised – good luck!
- Pick a good keyword. If you can narrow down a description of your content, or a key concept that you’re focusing on, into a short phrase or even just one word, do it, and choose your vocabulary carefully in the body of the text file. This is more than just picking an attention-grabbing buzzword. It requires some research. If you want to write an article about cooking pies, for example, look up what sorts of recipes are most commonly search for, and which flavors of pie are most popular.
- Use that keyword wisely. If you stuff your keyword into every sentence of your post, nobody is going to want to read it. Even the most talented writers can’t sneak the same word and its limited amount of variations into a passage without sounding forced, awkward, and repetitive. Your audience will see right through that, and this bad habits sends two negative messages to your audience: first, that you’re not putting in effort to produce authentic, high-quality content (more on this in Tip #3), and second, that you’re not running a legitimate website with good proofreading habits. You’ll definitely want that keyword or some variant in the title, page heading, URL tag, and imagine tags – these are things that search engines scan for when determining how relevant a potential result is. However, that doesn’t give you an excuse to needlessly repeat the same word over and over again.
- Put out high-quality content. This will keep your audience coming back for more, guaranteeing you a steady stream of visitors. However, it also will help attract newcomers to your website or blog. Search engines generally use programs that return links to websites that are already quite popular. This is why startup companies, freelancers, and personal bloggers tend to struggle a bit; it might some unfair that these search engines give the most recognition to websites that are already successful, but that’s what the consumer wants. Giving your audience original, creative, informative, and well-designed content is a huge boost up, even if it doesn’t feel like it.
- Links, links, links. It’s important to have allies – not only will it boost your reputation, but it will help you to rank higher on that SERP! Search engines often determine how reliable or relevant a certain website is by the amount of time other websites include links to that first website. So try and build good relationships, foster cullaborations, or even utilize paid advertising to get your links out there. Another important thing to keep in mind about links is that many search engines use programs called “spiders” to determine the validity of a website. These programs “crawl” throughout the pages of your website and other information embedded in the HTML, scanning the information and cataloging all of it compared to the original search term input. That’s why it’s important to have a cohesive website with lots of information organized in an orderly and easily-navigable manner. If somebody likes your content, they’ll likely stay on your website in search of similar content. Don’t be afraid to link your own website in each post!
- Be aware of competitors. Back in Tip #3 we talked about the way that most search engines use algorithms that display links to websites that are already trending. Time for some sleuthing. Pretend you’re an average Internet user looking to get some information about a certain topic. Throw a few related phrases into some search engines and see what comes up. Pay special attention to the websites that are listed first on the SERP and which are closer to the bottom – then figure out what they’re missing and how you can improve.