SEO experts speak in numbers, real-time acquisitions, bounce rates, conversions, clicks and other unfathomable terms. Here’s the thing – SEO professionals are basically focused on using different tips and tricks to get your website to appear as high in the search ratings as possible.
Some of their work is highly technical and involves codes and analytical tools. Other actions are things that you can do on your own. If you have a basic understanding of how to put content up on your site and how to use the back-end to make sure that the search engines will read that content and consider it as they rank you, you can take care of some of your company’s SEO needs yourself.
SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. The search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc) reward sites that provide meaningful content by putting those pages at the top of their listings for people searching for your type of business. It’s the job of the website builder to make sure that the site’s pages provide this content. The search engine “picks up” on sites that offer authoritative content and pushes them up in the ratings.
Developing a website that is SEO-friendly involves making it easy for people to find what they’re looking for. That means that the website needs to be accessible to people who are looking for the kinds of words and phrases that are part of what you offer.
If you speak to a SEO company you might walk away feeling like a dummy. That’s because they speak in professional jargon and give you the impression that it’s a highly technical field. To do SEO on its highest level is, actually, very technical. There are definitely SEO actions that you can take on your own with some basic information.
SEO 101
SEO is basically a matter of dos and don’ts. It can be broken into 3 basic components:
- Don’t do anything that will limit your visibility on a search engine or will cause the search engines to pass your content over in favor of another site’s content.
- Build up your site with good content.
- Develop your back-end so that it meets SEO standards. That means, make sure that your SEO keywords match the keywords in your content and make sure that you have the applicable codes for search engines to find you.
Tips and tricks
When you first start taking responsibility for promoting your website on the search engines, it can seem a bit overwhelming. Remember some basic rules and you’ll find that you can accomplish a good deal of the work yourself.
Mobile
Make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. Today over 50percent of search queries globally come from mobile devices. Some website builders (like Weebly and Wix which are do-it-yourself website creators) enable your website for mobile automatically. Other sites need a website builder to perform the task. But if your website is mobile-friendly, meaning that it’s optimized for small-screen viewing, you’ll attract 50% more viewers. That’s worth the investment.
You can use the Fetch and Render tool (available through the Google Search Console) to test your site. The tool will show you how the search agent views your mobile pages versus your desktop pages. Then you will see exactly what your site visitors are seeing and you can decide whether you need to tweak the site further.
Google my business
Create a Google My Business Page. While this page doesn’t necessarily push up your website in the organic search results, it does make your page more visible by highlighting the page on the right side of a search page when someone searches for your site.
Emojis
Add an emoji to your site. Google shows emojis in search results which can attract viewers who are searching for your product or service.
Content
Content is king on Google. The more useful and valuable content that you provide on your site, the higher up on the search results you will appear. You must make sure that your content includes the keywords that relate to your site.
For instance, if you’re promoting a bakery that’s located in St. Louis, your content should include the keywords “cakes in St. Louis, cookies in St. Louis, St. Louis cakes, St. Louis cookies, etc. Then, St. Louis residents will identify your site as a local bakery that they should check out.
Keywords
In addition to the importance of adding keywords to your content, you must add those same keywords to your back-end. The back-end is the code that the search engine reads. It wants to make sure that your keywords appear in the site’s code as well as in the site content.
For example, if you have a site that’s devoted to casino gaming, the articles that you put up on your site should have keywords such as online casinos, casinos online, Vegas games online, playing online, etc. Then, those same keywords should appear in your backend.
Keywords should be “long-tailed,” meaning that each keyword should involve two or three words. Don’t just write “online” but rather “online games” or “online casino.”
Backlinks
Search engines review how many other sites link to your site. Those are called “back links” and they’re very valuable. You need backlinks from sites that are connected to your business – a backlink to a flower site from a construction site won’t be very helpful (and can actually drive down your search results). Create online relationships with other businesses that are similar to yours and cross-link to give a boost to both of your websites.
Google maps
Google Maps is another way to make use of the Google Suite of business tools. You can optimize your location (if you’re a brick-and-mortar store) to display your location and opening hours to drive site visitors to your online site and to your land-based site.
