Do you want to rank higher in search engines?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) might be the best marketing investment your business can make in 2021. Consumers overwhelmingly search online for products and services before purchasing. Studies show that over 50% of people perform internet searches for products, even when they ultimately intend to buy offline, in store. There is no doubt that snapping up sales before losing them to your competitors means you need to rank higher in search results.
SEO takes time. And it can be a fiddly business. Your web developer will consider your target market when building your site and an SEO specialist will help you decide on ‘keywords’ (search phrases) that your potential customers are using. This research will enable them to optimise every aspect of your website; site map structure, page titles, image naming, meta tags, keywords and importantly, the content included on each page. The SEO-related set up of your site can be done at the build stage, by an experienced developer. Then, over a period of time, incremental improvements can be made, on and off site, to further ramp up SEO value.
Getting on page 1, and as high up the listings as possible, should be your goal. It can be done! Here are a few things your web developer and SEO specialist will take care of to optimise your website’s SEO value:
1. Improving Title Tags
Category and product page titles – organic search results are largely driven by these pages. Ensuring the titles are relevant, make sense and are in line with what your customers are searching for can make a huge difference to where you rank.
2. Master Keyword Research
When setting up your website, understanding the demand for your product, popular search phrases and which keywords to target is essential. Your web developer can then assign these keywords to the relevant pages within your site to ensure your site appears when consumers search.
3. Understand Your Competition
Check which websites appear when searching for the same keywords you want to use. Ask yourself what they are doing well – consider their website layout, content, user experience, how they engage users etc. List the things you need to improve to match them.
4. Optimise Your Site
Consider updating the content on the critical pages in your website to work around the keywords assigned to that page. Create new pages and sections to further utilise keywords. This will include updating page titles, meta descriptions and body content.
5. Produce Regular Content
Updating your site regularly will help Google recognise it as an ‘active’ site. New products, images and content will keep it fresh. You might also consider adding a blog to your site and writing short articles related to your product or service – this will give Google more chances to make your site pop up in results.
6. Boost Link Equity
Link equity is the quantity of high-quality relevant sites that link back to yours. Essentially, the more places around the internet that contain a link to your website, the better for SEO. Each one counts as a kind of vote for your site and makes it more important in Google’s eyes. Create articles, videos, podcasts, forum posts, blogs etc. to increase your business’s footprint online.
7. Build Your Social Presence
Social media gives you a massively increased chance to engage with your target audience. It will also act a driver of traffic to your site. Make your accounts look professional and post content regularly. This will accelerate the number of people finding your business online.
8. Watch the Results Roll in
Over time, the above steps, albeit the basics, will start driving more users to your website and increase your business revenue. Using analytics will help you keep track of the changes to your site traffic and recognise the changes that have worked best.
Improving your website’s SEO organically is an incredible investment for the long-term success of your business. Talk to your web developer and get started ranking higher and increasing sales.
Webizzy is a web design agency which has been established for almost 10 years. To find out more about improving your website, get in touch.
