Here are 10 SEO Tips to Help Boost Your Online Ranking
Whether you’re a startup or a growing business looking to expand your digital presence, search engine optimization (SEO) is integral for success in the digital marketplace.
If you are new to SEO you are guaranteed to have questions about how it can help your business. If you want advice, consultation, or support about any or all of the tips we give you, please contact us at Above the Fold Media today!
In order to help you in the meantime, we’ve put together 10 SEO tips for your business’ website that you need to use today!
-
Adapt According to RankBrain
RankBrain is the machine-learning AI system that is running on Google’s search engine, helping to optimize search by continuously improving.
The importance of RankBrain is paramount, as Google announced that it was one of the top three ranking signals used by them in the upcoming year.
It may be surprising, but there are millions of new searches every day. In order for Google to process these, it needs to learn patterns and ensure that it ranks.
RankBrain’s AI system automatically processes information and learns, helping to adjust searches and improve results as it processes.
This means that its ability to perform new and more accurate search results is continuously developing, helping to provide more legitimate and accurate responses for users.
The best way to account for this is actually simple: focus on the user and create great content. By creating unique, valuable content that answers the specific query that people are asking you’ll make sure that you’re optimized for RankBrain.
-
Use Local SEO Tactics
For many businesses, global SEO is an essential aspect of your SEO strategy, and it may even be the only strategy. However, for businesses that have a brick-and-mortar location and want customers to be able to find them, a local SEO strategy is equally as important.
Local SEO is focused on targeting the area that you serve so that users searching in (or for) your area, you’ll be found. This will make sure that you’re found by people in your market and that you not only gain traffic but that you gain quality, loyal customers that will convert.
-
Answer Queries through Content
SEO is all about catching users that are searching for something they need, filling that need, and helping to convert on the sale.
In the process, you create loyal customers and build a brand. It’s important to remember the basic idea that SEO is about answering questions.
The main purpose of search is to input a query and gain an accurate, sufficient, and reliable answer. To be effective at SEO, you need to fulfill this need.
Therefore, answering a question is the best way to make sure that your content will rank high in SERPs. You’ll still want to use keywords, as this will probably never completely die; however, focus more on genuine, valuable content so that it ranks as the algorithms get better at returning better results for the users.
-
Be Clickable, Linkable, and Shareable
When you create content, you want to make sure that you are building links and gaining links to your content, increasing your website’s authority and helping you rank.
By creating content that is clickable, linkable, and shareable, you’ll increase engagement and ensure that search engine’s see your content as relevant, relatable, and popular.
Content that creates interaction ranks higher, so making sure you are shareable is a great way to boost your SEO.
-
Put Mobile-First
While it may not seem related to SEO, since it doesn’t involve on-page tactics, keyword research, or link-building, it is important to have a responsive website and mobile-friendly page that is ideally suited for both users and search engines.
Although the mobile trend has been true over the last few years, it couldn’t be more than true for 2017. Google’s shift to a mobile-first index means that mobile-friendly pages will automatically gain authority and reliability in the eyes of search engines.
Having a strong functioning and user-friendly mobile page will give you great SEO potential and make sure that you don’t lose a number of your followers to other sites.
-
Full Speed Ahead!
Website speeds are important for your users and for search engines. More than impacting how much users will like your pages, site speed itself is a ranking factor for Google and other search engines; slow site speeds penalize your site while solid load times help give it authority.
There are a few ways that you can optimize your site to get the best speeds and keep both users and search engines happy.
The first is optimizing your images for SEO by compressing them and titling them appropriately so that they are used effectively.
If you’re struggling with site speeds, consider removing excess features from your site such as plugins and flash programming. Although they offer your users great features, these features really slow down your site.
-
Optimize Domain Names
Let’s bring it back to basics. When you’re adjusting your business page to be optimized for searches, there are a couple things you want to account for.
First, make sure you use consistent domains (i.e. example.com or www.example.com) so that all of your pages are the same. Pick one and stick to it so that users and search engines can always find you simply.
Second, make sure that you use keywords in your URLs in order to fit – and rank – within your niche market. This not only makes navigating your pages easy for your users but also helps search engines index your pages.
-
Help Users with Meta Descriptions
Although meta descriptions aren’t an actual ranking factor, they are important for enticing people to click on your links. Paired with an SEO strategy, they do greatly increase your chances of being clicked by users.
Be sure to use meta descriptions for all of your pages and make sure that it not only accurately describes the page, but gets users to click too!
-
Give Search Engines Sitemaps & Tell Them What to Index
While SEO sometimes feels like a game in which you are tricking search engines into ranking you above others, you are actually working with search engines rather against them.
You want to give search engines as much information about your page as possible so that they can properly index your content and bring you up for relevant searches, helping you to rank in the SERPs.
Use Webmaster Tools for Google and other search engines to submit XML sitemaps of your pages that are up-to-date, current, and accurate. That way you’ll be indexed properly and be sure to increase your chances of ranking high!
-
Maximize Paid Advertizing
Google’s switch to mobile-first indexing, their removal of side rail ads, and the addition of a fourth paid ad above the organic results will completely change the way we search in the near future.
All of these changes mean that you’ll now have to scroll down to view organic results. Not only will this likely be true of your desktop, but on your crunched mobile device, this will definitely be the case.
This means that organic results will be pushed further down, increasing the likelihood, relevance, and success of paid search. This means that it’s probably the best time to get onboard with paid search advertising.
SEO Can Help Your Businesses’ Website!
The ten SEO tips above should help your business’ website thrive in search engines, ensuring that you gain traffic. More than that, using a strong strategy and optimizing your efforts will give you conversions and a strong ROI.
For more information about this topic and how we can help you grow your business through innovative digital marketing strategies, give us a call at 416-477-1862 or send an email to david@abovethefoldmedia.com!