5 Steps to Improving Your Website’s SEO

Remember the days when you reached for the Yellow Pages to find a plumber, pizza parlor or barber shop? One must admit that the Yellow Pages was a revolutionary invention. It gave us access to hundreds of businesses right at our fingertips. But with the explosion of the Internet, the Yellow Pages became obsolete. Now when you want to find out directions to the newest restaurant in town, it’s your smartphone that you reach for. As technology continues to evolve, so does the need for SEO.

If you want to achieve and ultimately maintain high search rankings, it’s critical that you stay on top of emerging SEO trends. Although the fundamentals of SEO remains relatively the same, it’s important to understand what factors can give you a competitive edge.

Above all, the first thing you need to do is adhere to best practices. Elimination of ineffective practices combined with implementation of content-focused tactics is what SEO is all about. Below are three key elements that you need to be doing now to optimize your website.

What’s in a Name?

Make sure you choose a company name that will get you noticed. The goal is for people to find you online. If you choose a name too similar to your competition, it will be difficult for people find you when they search on Google.

Build a Strong Foundation

Think of your website as an extension of you. It needs to demonstrate who you are, what you do and how you do it. Do your homework and find out which keywords are searched most frequently. Embed them in your meta description, which should contain a strong title and excellent page description. Also keep an eye on your meta tags. Make sure they are working for you, not against you.

Blogs are Important

Even in the digital landscape, consumers want to see your human side. They want to interact with you and be part of the conversation. One way to accomplish this is to embed your blog into your website. Keep in mind that if you let someone else host your blog, it will be difficult to maximize your SEO. In addition, post on a consistent basis, for example, once a week.

Writing blog posts is easy. If you don’t have the time, then request permission to use custom content by others. There are a lot of writers looking for their first byline. You can also hire a ghostwriter to write your posts. Regardless which route you go, it has to be high-quality content.

It’s also important that your blog has a continuous flow. It’s better to have one blog post a week as opposed to spamming the Internet with 40 posts in a week and then remain stagnant for 3 months. Finally, make sure you are incorporating keywords into your title that are directly related to the topic of your blog post.

Increase Traffic

Bringing new traffic to your website is the main purpose of SEO. In addition to website optimization, there are other social media channels you can use to drive traffic to your website. If you happen to have a following on Twitter, sending out automated tweets every hour can do wonders. Make certain your tweets have substance by adding interesting tidbits of information from your blog. Try incorporating short video clips that will pique interest.

The Search Factor

Sitemaps are a great way to mark your website’s place on the map. Google Webmaster Tools provide a number of tools to help your website’s searchability. If you aren’t familiar with the technical side of things, Google has representatives who can help with the process.

Climbing the ladder of SEO success isn’t hard, it just takes patience. Although it takes time, planning your blog posts and researching prime keywords in advance will make the journey to the top a lot easier.