We have talked about search engine optimization and why it is important for your business, but we have not told you how to improve your SEO. That’s what we are all worried about, right? Let’s dive right into it!
1.Update Content Regularly
Search engines are looking at your content and tend to view regularly updated content as more relevant. This is what you want! Keep it fresh! Audit your content as needed and make updates. One great way to keep your content fresh is through blogging; utilizing rich keyword phrases in blogs and posting regularly helps significantly with your SEO.
2. Use Alt Tags
“Alt tags” are alternative descriptions used throughout sites or platforms for pictures and videos. Adding these descriptions, especially with keywords, is crucial for SEO. Be sure to utilize alt tags on all photos and videos, capitalizing on keywords in these descriptions.
3. Optimize Content Around Long-Tail and Low-Competition Keywords
You want to tap into keywords that are still relevant but not being used by your competitors. You can usually generate these by answering highly specific questions your target audience needs to understand. Additionally, long tail keywords are important to utilize. These are terms that, individually, do not get a lot of attention, but make up a large number of total terms people are searching.
4. Publish Relevant Content
Relevant content is what the bots are looking for when they crawl your website; content that is quality and created specifically for the intended audience improves site traffic, which also helps your site rank higher with search engines. All of your content should have relevant keywords or keyword phrases; using multiple keyword phrases, though, will likely not cause your website to populate for all of the phrases. It is just unlikely. You can, however, utilize your chosen keyword phrase in the URL, page title, and headings/subheadings. Be aware of how you are doing this; you want your content to always be natural and user friendly. You do not need to add the keyword phrase to everything; usability and readability are still very important in ranking with search engines.
5. Structure Content for Featured Snippets
When you search something and the little box with the answer pops up at the top, you are looking at a featured snippet. You could appear as this result if you use subheadings, utilize list features, and ensure you are using HTTPS. Giving search engines easy to crawl content improves your chances of ranking higher on the SERP (search engine results page).
6. Optimize Images
People love pictures! However, you have to ensure even your images are optimized for SEO. We already talked about adding alt tags to describe your images; you also have to make sure they are relevant to the rest of the content on the page, are mobile friendly, unique, and have the correct file size and format.
7. Get Backlinks
Backlinks, or links to your site on another website, are a great way to improve your SEO. The links need to come from credible sites, though. A few ways to do this are by creating highly shareable content, following trends, and legitimate guest posting. It is important to be cautious that you do not fall into a “link scheme.” This is where you have a bunch of useless links leading back to your site; the algorithms are smart, will know what you are doing, and ignore those efforts.
Optimizing your website and social media channels for search engines can be difficult; it requires constant effort; if you are struggling to keep up or do not know where to start, contact us today!
