SEO is a term often thrown around but what’s the best way to get started in SEO when you are new?
Essentially there are two ways to show up on search engines, either be selected for free by the search engine or pay the search engine advertising dollars to show up there…
Search engines are in the business of showing useful content to its customers. SEO is about giving your site the best chance to show up rather than your competitors on the search terms relevant to your business.
By investing in SEO you can increase your site visibility on search engines. SEO is still regarded as one of the top ways to increase site traffic, improve conversions, acquire brand awareness, and boost your sales. Increasing site visibility is a foremost element of SEO.
Stay updated with search tools
The changes you make for SEO purposes are usually not noticed by search engines right away. That to say that SEO takes time.. You can manage the website’s search presence by using various tools offered by Google and Bing. Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console are both excellent resources when it comes to increasing site visibility. You can always request the search engine for content re-index when you make any major changes to a webpage or the site.
Pay special attention to site and page titles
Search engines tend to give priority to page titles, site titles, headings, and blog post titles. These titles need to be written in such a way that they are both human and bot friendly because the titles appear in both search results and browser tabs.
What is a page heading? Its the tags that show up within an <h2> or <h1> tag on your site… Some rules around heading tags,.
- Only Use the H1 tag once
- H2 tags, just write naturally
It is a great idea to set a default format for titles on the homepage and for collections, like album, gallery, products, blog, and event page. You could also set default title format for individual events and blog posts. You would get the same result whether you use default variables or enter manual text.
However, an advantage of using default titles formats and then customizing them for posts ensures that formatting on your site remains consistent for all content pieces.
Set unique and individualistic titles
Each site page has page titles, navigation titles and SEO titles. You can go to the Page settings to edit these titles individually.
- Page titles: Page titles are what appear in templates on your site. Know that these titles can be longer than navigation titles since there is more space on web pages as compared to navigation menus. You can make the Page titles more detailed, such as Contact Us, or About Our Company. Typically, Page Title gets displayed in search results only when there is no SEO title.
- Navigation titles: Navigation titles are useful for creating links in navigation menus. You should keep these titles short, such as Contact or About.
- SEO titles: These appear in browser tabs and search results. SEO titles are indexed or crawled by search engines. You should make sure that an SEO title is added for each page since they are a great place to promote keywords for easy indexing by search engines. SEO titles can be added to individual blog posts, events, products and other collection items.
Add strategic keywords
Include keywords and phrases in your website text that matches the terms people would use most to find the type of content you are offering. These keywords are an integral tool to improving site visibility. They help search engines identify your site as a relevant search result for people using those keywords.
The right keyword strategy can do a lot for your site in terms of improved ranking, better visibility, and increased conversions. Keyword strategy depends on various factors, such as the kind of visitors you are hoping to attract, pain points addressed by your site, etc. It is very important that you include keywords to the context in a natural and clear way.
It should not be added for the sole purpose of search engines. That is called keyword stuffing and is a highly frowned upon practice – just keep it natural and write with your audience in mind.. You should go about including keywords in your content in such a way that it adds value to the context and reader.
Use headings
Organize the content on your page by using heading text formatting. Search engines give a higher priority to headings, like with titles. It is easier for search engine crawlers to follow content that is described using clear headings. It also allows the crawler to detect major topic themes on your site.
Headings are useful in allowing visitors to skim through a page easily. They allow for easy read. Visitors can quickly gather the information they are looking for when the content is structured that directly leads to a higher rate of conversions. If you want to rank for blogger outreach agency, try to include this at least one in a heading tag.
As a thumb rule, you should consider ordering the headings in a descending format. This shall allow visitors to glean the broadest information first before reading on to more specific aspects. Keep these tips in mind while creating headings:
- You need to remain consistent with heading sizes within a page and across the entire site.
- Never use headings as a means of formatting effect. For instance, you should never include pull quotes in a heading.
- Avoid using the exact same text when writing headings. This can create duplication of content.
- Pepper your headings with keywords. Primary keywords are preferable in H1 and H2 tags.
- You need to ensure that each heading in a page is consistent and structured. You can make use of the same heading type multiple times.
Images should always have alt text
The text associated with an image to make it more accessible for visually impaired visitors is known as alt text. This text describes the image in a concise and crisp manner so that visitors who cannot see images can still understand the context of it.
Search engines cannot see images, but they can read and index text. The right alt text can make your site more visible by improving its ranking score. By adding alt text to the images on your site, you essentially allow search bots to understand what the image is about and to include it as a relevant search result.
Always use human-readable terms when adding alt text. Make sure the words you use can describe your site as well as the image. It is suggested that you add primary keywords to the alt text for SEO optimization.
Add categories and tags for SEO
There are numerous tags that allow search engine bots to identify what the content is all about. These include heading tags, title tags, viewport tags, and canonical tags among others. Categories and tags allow search engines to accurately identify the product, gallery image, blog posts, or any other item. This can give your site a big boost in terms of search results visibility.
Start a Blog
If you own a site, you need to really consider adding a blog to it. There is only so much information you can add to a site by way of web pages. Sooner or later the extra pages are going to bog down your site, impacting page load speed and other rankings. However, you can let search engines know that you are active by frequently posting blogs on your site.
Adding a blog page to your site, whether you are a business or an individual, and keeping it up to date with relevant information can help attain your SEO goals, while creating brand awareness. People don’t just come to the net with a transactional purpose, they want information. Your blog can do just that.
Don’t forget to use categories and tags when you add individual blog posts. You should also structure your posts with Heading tags, such as H1, H2, and H3 tags. H1 formatting is typically set as default for the blog title on most blogging templates.
You shouldn’t just publish any content while adding new blog posts. If you really want your site to rank higher, you need to focus on creating content that is relevant to your target audience and will add value to their purpose and lives. You should also focus on the pain points your target audience shall experience to be compelled to search for a site like yours.
It goes without saying that you should add content that is relevant to your brand and product. Make sure you always optimize every blog post that you publish for keywords.
Enhance page loading speed
The amount of time taken by a web page to load can directly impact its search ranking. Google has identified page load speed as one of the ranking signals, which means that a slow loading page could negatively affect your entire site. There are several steps you can take to increase the page loading speed. For instance, remove unnecessary images or change their format to .jpg. You could also consider reducing overall page size.
List your address
Businesses have an easy way of making it to search rankings. You need to list your physical address on your site, preferably under the Contact Us navigation title. This can make it easier for visitors to gain access to location-based services. There are many places where you can list your location, such as text blocks in site footer, business information settings, and map blocks.
How SSL encryption helps with SEO
SSL encryption gives your site more credibility. Check your URL. If it has a custom https at the beginning, then SSL is enabled. See our guide here for complete info on seo and ssl. You can also check the SSL panel on your site to confirm whether it is set to “secure” setting or not. Visitors would gain access to every page with a secure location. Search engines tend to penalize sites that don’t have SSL enabled.