Tuesday, September 6, 2016

5 Quick Ways to help your Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a marketing strategy to help your website appear higher in search engines such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo.  It is important to be listed in search engines because that is how customers will find you. Being listed in the top spot makes it more likely than anyone else. How often do you look at the 42nd ranked item for your search results?

Each search engine has their own algorithm which helps put content in order. Every organization wants their web site to come up first. This creates a competitive industry where businesses will do anything they can to get one spot higher than the other. Businesses will hire people to constantly be working on improving their ranking because it is so critical to their business.

Think of Search Engines as automated
analysis of your web site's reputation. 
Odds are you won’t have the resources to pay someone full time to get you on the first page of Google organically. Sometimes, you can have a day or two in downtime and want to do something quick to help improve the traffic to your website. Some of the things people do to help their search engine ranking can be done quickly, and are long lasting. Here are five tips that you can quickly do to help improve your ranking.


Secure your site


According to a 2014 post from Google, using a secure connection will positively impact you and your search engine ranking. Google is calling for HTTPS everywhere on the web, and as a result, they’re trying to push website owners to help out.

HTTPS allows for a secure communication between your visitors and your website. This is used with any reputable bank, e-commerece site, or anyone using information that could be used in identity theft. While securing your site is not free, it does allow for a quick way to help improve your page ranking.

Update Content Regularly


As a user, would you rather have content that came from today, or content that came from 1996? By providing new content regularly, you’re showing that your site is being maintained. Things such as industry news, product sales, or a simple blog can be a great way to generate new content for your web site. Not only will these help your search engine ranking, it gives your visitors a reason to return to your site regularly. Returning visitors are more likely to be engaged in your content and trust your brand.

So write a blog post. Change up your home page a bit to feature a different product. Update your about section. Content is king. Provide fresh, relevant content regularly and you can get a great boost to where you are in a search engine.

Link


Think about how CNN or any other major news outlet is one of the top web sites when you search “news”. One of the big reasons for this is the way links can impact where you rank in search engines. When many people are linking to your web site, it is considered to be an inbound link. These help your credibility as a trusted source. Trusted sources are listed higher than non-trusted sources.

Additionally, when you link to trusted sources, it helps you as well. These are called outbound links By referencing a trusted source, it is viewed that you are using trusted references, and that your content is documented.

Links are also what help create the Internet. When search engines find new web sites, they find them through other web sites. This is how these search engines build their database of web sites. When many sites are linking to the same site, or page, the importance of that site is increased.

Remove Broken Links


Remove any broken links on your current site. Over time, websites go away, they change URLs, and so on. When you have a link that breaks, it comes across as your site is abandoned and no longer maintained. There are a lot of great tools to help make sure that your links are in working order:



Remember – the search engines you are targeting are about delivering content to their users. If you help make it easier to deliver content, they’ll help drive traffic to you in exchange.

Contact Page


Create a contact page – correctly. At the bare minimum, have your name, address and phone correctly marked up with the appropriate micro data.  Take advantage of Google’s Map and Street View. By having it easy to find your location, and contact you, your page becomes easier to index. Search engines are designed to make it easier for users to find information and this type of content is considered to be valuable content.

Big search engines additionally favor local businesses over ones further away. This is why when you search for “driving range” or “dry cleaners”, local businesses are returned higher than a business a thousand miles away.

A few things to remember


  • Results do not happen overnight. While these are considered quick tips, they’re quick from an implementation perspective. 
  • Everything is automated. It doesn’t matter if your page looks amazing – the content has to be easy to get to and read by a computer. No one is out there manually ranking your page higher than your competitors.
  • Reputation is important. Do not take short cuts. Do not try anything shady that will get you black listed from a search engine. Once you’re blacklisted, you’re done. Your business may end up closing its doors if no one can find it on google.