I’m sure you have heard quite a lot of buzz about SEO right?
But truth be told, Search engine optimization is more than just a marketing instrument, it is a user discovery tool for internet user, and a hub for people and businesses alike.
The search engines are saturated with billions of information and data and the only thing that makes you stand out are the key components and actionable strategies you put in place to appear on the first page when users search for subjects that are relevant to your business, product or service.
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However, you should always strive to rank your website to appear as one of the top five(5) search display results for keywords that are relevant to you and your business. Research according to Chitika shows that 91.5% of search results that appear at the top fold consistently see more traffic than those on other pages. On page 2, 3 and 4, traffic dropped by 27%, 11.3% and 5.4% respectively from the first position to second position.
Google alone receives about 3.5 billion average searches per day, which means that once you are above the fold, the tendency of your business being noticed is great in line with the statistics above.
So, if you want to increase your brand awareness, click through rate, website traffic, leads acquisition , revenue, and even customer loyalty, search engine optimization is one important element that should be of priority in your digital marketing strategy.
Investing in the right SEO strategy to enable your visibility should be at the top list of your priority.
You’ll notice that i said the “right SEO strategy” , that’s because with the wrong SEO technique it would not only get you into trouble but it can get you blacklisted and negatively affect the objective of your digital marketing campaign.
Every website that exist on the globe wants to take a good spot in the search results most especially Google as it is one of the biggest search engines in the world.
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To the dismay of some people, they have not been able to make it to that spot that marks their success as a business or enterprise simply because they are doping SEO the wrong way.
Results for the first quarter of 2016 shows that 93 percent of online experiences begin on a search engine.
Why not make the most use of the opportunity to get your business out and running in the face of internet users. These tips will help you grow your search ranking for all major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing etc.
Once your web pages begins to rank high on any of the search engines, you will notice the increase of leads in your sales funnel and a potential increase in revenue if your conversion strategy is good. But you should note that Not all of your prospects are going to pass through your sales funnel and automatically convert into customers as you may wish. Sometimes it requires a little thinking outside of the box to get them to bite.
Here are some useful tips to help you through to the top.
1. Simple and clear designs
Creating a website for your organisation gives you the foundation to achieve brand awareness and leverage the power of the internet to attract more customers and grow revenue.
When creating a website, your key objective should be simplicity and clarity. Avoid using too many colours and choking up the whole web page with too much unnecessary information.
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As they say, less is more and more is less. The font size and all that concerns your website should be readable and understandable for people who will visit your site. Am sure you think it’s such hard work to create your website but am glad to let you know that in this post, i will be teaching you how to create a simple website without having a technical background on website development.
2. Keyword research is another ranking technique
Before selecting a particular keyword, you should be able to research on that keyword to know how often it has been search for using any of the search engines. For Google, you can use Google AdWords keyword planner to check the rating of that specific keyword.
Google’s algorithm uses Latent, which gives it the ability to recognize different words or search terms with the same meaning.
Thus, instead of sticking to using titles and Meta descriptions that match your exact keyword, use the ones that are more engaging.
For example, if you want to rank with the keywords “content marketing”, be sure not to only use that as your exact title but use a title like “15 Effective content marketing strategies” which is more appealing and easy to read and comprehend.
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By knowing and understanding the way the SEO’s work, your competition will only be a thing of the past. Also, making us of use of research tools such as Semrush,Keywordspy, Ahrefs, and MOZ to identify your competitors’ keywords, back-links, rankings, and page authority can also fix you in a favorable position. This will enable you create SEO strategies and tactics that will give you a better chance to outrank your competitors on when a search is conducted.
Unless you have so much to spend on online marketing, your business will likely never be able to rank as first for major keywords. That’s why you need to rely on an effective keyword tool generator that can help you find more specific keywords to help you rank higher.
3. Good title description
This is also very much important for search engine optimization. Using a proper title in your post and ensuring that the right keyword is used in your title is necessary for growth on the pages of the search engines.
Also description is another vital element for SEO. Make sure you have a proper description for every single page and posts. Also try to put your target keyword inside the description section this is to help google or any search engine notice you and rank you.
Google doesn’t always use page description on their search results, but most of the other search engine do, so be careful not to miss out on this. Be more descriptive with your titles and meta description based on your target location.
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This SEO tactic doesn’t only improve your local search engine visibility, but it also helps you reach your target customers.
Be specific with your titles and descriptions with regards to time, especially when publishing articles or blog posts.
This way, you are sending a message to search engines and users that your content is up-to-date and has the necessary information they seek.
4. Ensure your site is mobile friendly
With the increased trends of upgrades when it comes to phone technology, you can agree with me that most people use their mobile phones to access information on search engines.
With your mobile phone, you can access websites from either a search engine or directly type the web address. When users go straight to search engines for help, the likelihood is, once you are on the first page, it is easy for the user to check your site but once you are not visible on that search engine it is possible the user will make d with what they already can see.
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With the increase in mobile phone usage, it is wise for you to put in all necessary strategies to ensure your website is mobile friendly. Try to search for your website on Google using your mobile phone. If your website is friendly to mobile users, Google will indicate it as mobile-friendly.
5. Publish outstanding content
This is one of the key ingredients to climbing the SEO ladder fast and steady. Most search engines are obsessed with the nature of content you put out. It’s not all about creating a website and having it on the search engines but the key factor to move you up to the topmost page of a search engine is your content.
The type of content you put up is equal to the type of response you get and the more response you get, the more your chances of succeeding in this dynamic business world.
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If you have a good and unique content which appeals and satisfies more users than any other popular site, Google will place your site at number one spot.
Create an outstanding content with the power of your own research and write something so unique that it will impress anyone who comes across it.
6. Auditing your site
To start with, auditing is a systematic process to examine variables in order to make a better decision and in SEO, auditing is a means to grow from one level to another higher level.
Auditing the entire frame work of your site will help you know why you probably are not ranking on search engines like you think you ought to. The whole essence of auditing to make sure you fix the required parameters to enable you achieve a successful business ranking.
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You closely examine your overall site performance, then set and implement new goals based on what you have gathered from your findings.
Your audit assessment will help you rectify any such issues that pertains your ranking on the search engine. Also, you can fix errors using Googles webmaster tool and this can help you manually access your site to evaluate the quality of content and if it is leaving up to expectation by ensure maximum user experience by satisfying them.
7. Make sure you use proper alt tag for your image
Almost 76% website on the web does not use proper alt and title tags for their images. Most websites prefer to insert the image link and post it on the web. Make sure almost every image you have on your website do have alt and title tags properly which will help the search algorithm’s to easily rank and locate you even with your images by describing them using the alt tag when fixing images in your post.
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As i said earlier on, alt tags increase your search engine visibility and improves your visibility on search engines image results.
Use relevant images with the right title tags, alt-texts, and Meta descriptions on your pages or posts.
8. Avoid stuffing your post with your keyword
A lot of writers make this mistake of stuffing their articles or posts with their keyword; it is really unnecessary because it makes the post very clumsy and all you keep seeing is the keyword after every sentence. This is in fact a way you can receive penalty from google for over clustering your article with so much keyword and the penalty is that google will demote you.
In the early periods, keyword stuffing was not a big deal but this days, it is and comes with a huge backlash for your business and all your efforts. Instead of using a keyword a million times in an article of probably 1,000 word count, fix a maximum limit for yourself to maintain.
Most times, clustering the article with your keyword can make the post very boring and your readers will lose interest because they won’t be able to follow up.
9. Keep linking
In the section of SEO, links are a valuable resource to make the kind of impact you want with your business. The more links you have going to your website, the higher it ranks in search engines.
It helps to create great content that deserves to be shared, of course, but marketing professionals should also create relationships. By linking more often to others in their field, this way they are more likely to link back to you. The best links come from pages with high views and great reputation.
10. Be abreast with SEO algorithm change
Sometimes, we get distracted or should i say carried away that we hardly notice the little things which matter to our business. Keeping yourself in the know of every single new development in the SEO world, this is for your own growth.
A great tip for SEO is that the algorithms of search engines change regularly. Google, Bing and Yahoo may change their formulas, which can impact your page rankings. It is important to stay ahead of these changes, paying attention to any big shifts.
When you miss certain important innovations that can change your ranking, it might take a while to have a grip of whatever it is that must have happened and already, your competitors must have gone a step ahead of you. Be sure to always know what is new and what’s not to help you move up the SEO ladder.
11. Maintain your domain name
Some website owners feel the best way out of a frustrated traffic issue is to change their domain name, let me be honest with you, that is the worst mistake to make because it will only backfire and the opposite will be achieved.
Changing your domain name is like changing your identity which in my own thought is a total disaster. One thing i realized is that part of your site ranking on search engines has to do with the number of years of your domain name, which means, the longer your age history, the more you keep claiming the spot as an authority.
This means your website will gradually move up the ladder. Honestly, from my own stand point, you can’t keep running from one place to another just because you probably lack traffic, the more you persist, the more you become visible.
Just take out time and have an audit of your website to be certain of the things that are causing you traffic set backs. That is the best step to take than change your domain name which will only set you back in ranking.
12. You should hyperlink certain search terms
Hyperlinks are links embedded right into the words on a page, it’s just link an in text citation like you have in books or projects.
An article either about your company or a blog post might include a few links to probably the home page of your website or for some posts, you just need to reference a particular intellectual material by someone else to buttress your point properly.
Hyperlinks are always a great idea, especially when you link to great sources or authorities in your field. When others link to your own post, you sort of are recommended as a reliable website; this is dependent on the frequency of links from others and this can increase your ranking also.
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Instead, hyperlinks should be used for specific terms that relate to your business.
13. Take note of search engine penalties
A search engine penalty is when your page’s rank gets lowered based on a few actions or mistakes that paint your page as less than valuable to users. You could get a penalty for awkward keyword stuffing, thin or minimal content or a high bounce rate, which means that users leave your site quickly.
14. Include your contact address on every page
In the digital world, including a physical address on every page might feel unnecessary. In reality, it can be smart moves that can help search engines rank you higher in certain geographic locations.
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If, for instance, your address is in Abuja, your business will rank higher among users from the area, who are likely, your target demographic. Using small font and placing the address in an obscure location towards the bottom of the page is perfectly fine in this use.
15. Use engaging images and videos
To increase your search engine visibility, improve your visibility in search engines’ image results. Use relevant images with the right title tags, alt-texts, and meta descriptions on your pages or blog posts. Using Screaming Frog, identify your existing images used on your website or blog that don’t have related titles, al-texts and descriptions yet. Once identified, do the necessary actions.
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Remember that relevant and useful pictures make your pages and posts more interesting to view, read, and even share. They also increase your site’s bounce rate and credibility.
Increase your search engine visibility by improving your brand’s visibility on search engine video results page. An effective tactic is to produce useful videos and upload them at your YouTube Channel. If you want to optimize your business for Google, do it also for YouTube, which is also owned by Google and is considered one of the largest search engines in the world.
Conclusion
There you are. These ranking techniques are very important as it will help your business to be more visible on search engines and will turn our to be users favorite. These tips are mere ideas which have worked for a lot of people but no matter how actionable they are, they will not bear results only if they are executed in the right way for maximum success. So, if you will permit me, i will add one more important tip, that is, you should take the bold step and apply these tips that can enable you move above the fold and have a 360 change in your business.
The post 15 actionable ranking techniques to get on the first page of search engines appeared first on NATIVEDGE.