When you create a website and publish it on the internet, it’s not going to magically attract traffic. After all, how is anyone going to know your website exists? They need to be able to discover your website on an internet search engine like Google.
Since Google is the most commonly used search engine, you must get your website indexed and ranked high on Google if you ever want to receive organic traffic – when users discover your site by “Googling” relevant search terms.
Google determines its search rankings based on a complex algorithm, so optimising your site to accommodate the known ranking factors can boost your rank, increasing your organic traffic.
If you can achieve a high amount of organic traffic, then you have a popular website.
Search engine optimisation is the key to achieving a high rank on Google. Most people don’t know how to go about practising SEO. This is where good SEO training and education comes in. Mastering the basics, which never really change, is one of the ways you are going to become a sought after expert in your field.
It’s also a good idea to have the systems in place to maintain a consistent flow of content and outreach. Using business proposal templates to interact with influencers and other brands is going to help you make the most of the great work you have done on your own site.
1. Optimise for Speed
People think they need a fancy website with lots of videos and graphics to attract a lot of visitors. The problem is that rich media like these take more time to load.
Internet users can be impatient, and they don’t like to wait an extra second longer than necessary. Each second a user waits will increase their chances of leaving before they see any of the content.
Therefore, try to have a fast and simple website that doesn’t make users have to wait for it load.
2. Publish Backlinks on Relevant Websites
Google’s rankings are based in part on a site’s level of authority, which can be improved when other relevant sites – the more popular the better – publish a link to your page.
Backlinking is probably the most popular SEO method. It occurs when you get another relevant website to publish a link to your website.
There are various ways to accomplish this feat. You could pay them to publish the link, post the link on their blog in the comment section, or even offer a link exchange with them, whereby you publish their link if they publish yours.
The more relevant backlinks that point to your website, the more your website will be treated as an authority site of your niche.
3. Publish Backlinks to Relevant Websites
As important as it is to have backlinks pointing to your website, it is also good to publish backlinks to other relevant websites on your own website.
You might think these links will take people away from your page, but it actually increases your website’s value in the search engine. Again, make sure the website content is relevant to your own.
4. Publish Original Content
Original content is a must for SEO. Do not plagiarise or repeat content on your website, or Google will automatically lower your rank significantly.
You should create content yourself or hire someone else to do it. Avoid using any automatic article generation tools because they create illegible content.
5. Focus on Keywords but Don’t Stuff
Using Google Adwords’ Keyword Planner Tool is a great way to conduct keyword research. Keywords are the important search terms and phrases that will point users to your website.
While you want to place some focus on inserting keywords into your content, don’t stuff your content with an unnatural amount of popular keyword phrases.
If you list too many words in unnatural sequence, or if you over utilise a certain word or phrase, it will red flag your site to Google. The keywords need to sound natural within your content, not as though they were purposely placed there.
6. Add Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are what people see when they’re on a search results page. These important phrases explain to users what your content is all about. They include a title and a summary of the content on your site.
Meta descriptions are modified in the HTML coding of the website, in between the HEAD tags. If you’re using WordPress or another publishing software, you easily can modify the meta information on the administrative dashboard.
You need an original meta description. Without it, your website will have no description when people find it on Google.
7. Avoid Pound in Your Web Address
Google does not index websites that include a “#” in their URLs. Your landing page probably won’t have this sign, but make sure the rest of your web pages don’t, either. After all, you want all your pages ranked on Google without any problems.
8. Design a Responsive Website
A responsive website design ensures people on laptops, desktops, tablets and mobile devices can view your website clearly.
In other words, your website should be optimised to view in multiple screen sizes and formats without anything missing or cut off the edge of a screen. Google will reward you for doing so, and it will help you attract more attention, too.
9. Regularly Update Your Website
Don’t just publish your website on the internet and then leave it for months without updating it. If you do, Google might lower your page rank because the system will think your website is abandoned.
Websites that are highly ranked are always the ones most frequently updated. The easiest way to update your site is to publish new content regularly.
10. Consult Google Analytics
Finally, you should track the results of your SEO strategies by installing Google Analytics into your website. The installation involves creating a website profile on your free Google Analytics account.
The tool will give you an HTML code to paste in between the HEAD tags of your website. Again, if you have WordPress, certain plugins make this process a whole lot easier.
Once installed, Google Analytics will let you track the traffic to your website, as well as your search ranking according to various keywords and your overall domain and page authority levels.
All of this information will tell you if your SEO efforts are successful and how you should best modify your strategy for best results.
