4 Ways to Maximize Your Website’s SEO Potential
Marketing is key to running a successful website. Without site visitors, you have no customers. Without customers, your business isn’t going to last long! Finding a cost-effective marketing strategy that offers both long-term growth and cost-efficiency now is key to setting your website up for success.
Fortunately, search-engine-optimization (SEO) fits the bill. SEO is the practice of implementing specific features on your website that help to increase the position that you rank for specific keywords on search engines like Google. With more than 51% of traffic coming from search engines (searchengineland.com), showing up on the first page should be one of your highest priorities.
So how do you set your website up for success? Below are 4 key methods to help you increase how SEO-friendly your website is. Keep in mind there are a ton of factors that go into your ranking, so consult with a SEO expert to maximize your potential!
- Write Your Web Content with Real People in Mind
You’ve heard it before, but we’ll tell you again: content is king. If your content isn’t quality, written with humans – not bots – in mind, then people won’t stay on your site very long. Make your content engaging and interesting and this, in turn, will be good for SEO.
Before you write your web content, research some popular search terms that apply to your site. For example, doctors in Florida may want to rank for “flu shots in Florida”. Then once you have a list, you can write (or have written) content that is appealing to visitors. Aim for as much text as you can comfortably fit in your layout without becoming redundant.
- Keep an On-Site Blog
In addition to the web content on your site, keeping a blog with relevant information and articles about your business or industry can be another way to be noticed by search engines. These blog posts follow a similar idea to the web content in point 1, but are generally long-form and don’t specifically describe your business. Instead they should aim to be useful resources that people would be willing to share as informational pieces, gaining more clicks and visitors on top of your search engine results.
- Don’t Forget Page Speed & Mobile Optimization
Google and other search engines value the quality of your site above all other aspects, making it important that you provide a great customer experience no matter the device being used. To do this, you should focus on your page speed and optimize your site for mobile devices.
Page speed is how quickly the web content loads and is visible to your user. With each piece of content that needs to be loaded, the page speed decreases. However, you can minimize the impact things like images have through methods like image compression, converting image formats, browser caching, and more.
You’ll also want to make sure your website supports mobile devices at smaller resolutions. While some websites, such as those run on WordPress can scale thanks to adaptive & dynamic coding within the theme, you may need to create a separate subdomain for your mobile site, or modify your existing site to allow for dynamic resizing and mobile elements for smaller screen & window sizes if it is custom-coded.
- Make Security a Priority
Safety comes after a solid experience in the eyes of Google. If your site poses security risks such as data leaking, unsecured connections, and more, you risk being shunned by Google.
A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate is one of the easiest ways to convince Google that you’re a safe website. These certificates encrypt any data that is sent through the website by the user, greatly reducing the chances of it being intercepted and read. You will also receive a lock on your web address, giving your customers piece of mind.
Now that you know how to improve your rankings, you can start climbing up the ranks until you hit the coveted #1 spot. Need help on your journey? Contact us and we’ll help you maximize your SEO potential!