There is no doubt that the internet is a core pillar of our modern society. The internet, social media, mobile devices, and more are now being used by more people than ever before. According to Statista, as of April 2019, over 4.4 Billion people were active internet users – that is over half of the world’s entire population! America comes in on top with a 95% internet penetration rate amongst the population. As a business owner, it’s important to establish yourself online — with a website and social media presence if you want to be competitive. Although important, having a website and a presence on social media alone will not bring in new leads, clients, and customers to your business. In order to do this, your business must also be visible in Google search when potential customers come looking for the products or services you offer. With over 63,000 searches being conducted via Google per second, you can guarantee people are searching for your type of products or services. Now, the question is, how do you get your business website and social assets to appear in front of potential customers when the internet is saturated with other businesses just like yours? In order to do this, you need an effective, strategic, and focused Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy.
Search Engine Optimization, commonly known as SEO, is a systematic approach that’s purpose is to increase the visibility of your website without the need to pay for driven ad spaces (PPC or Pay Per Click) on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bring, and more. In other words, it is the process of increasing organic search engine traffic to your website. The process behind SEO involves technical and design criteria that set you up to rank best among your competitors and drive website visitors to your site. Essentially, it makes it easier for search engines to find your website and display it at the top of its results. In fact, its search engines need to find your site but also need to decide to display it at the top of the search results. Search Engine Optimization is a broad strategy that involves optimizing your website to search engines — While making the site user-friendly and engaging for those that do visit. In many cases, these two strategies are at odds with each other — Therefore, the SEO’s job is to balance and create synergy between the two sides of the equation. In this article, we have compiled an exhaustive list of the best tips and tricks you can implement in your own SEO plan to drive more organic traffic to your website and increase your online visibility.
Beginners Guide To SEO For Quality Websites Make Sure Your Website Optimized For Google Search
First and foremost, you want to make sure that your website is optimized for desktop as well as mobile. According to Bright Local’s study, 61% of mobile users are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site. In other words – your clickthrough rates will skyrocket if you are optimized for mobile devices. If you aren’t sure, you can use “Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test” tool. Simply Google “Mobile Friendly Test,” enter your domain or URL in the box provided and shortly after, Google will tell you whether your page is mobile friendly, or if it’s not. From an SEO standpoint, the primary objective of website optimization is to strike a balance with the proper amount of keyword density on a page. In other words, once you’ve identified the type of keywords you’d like the page to appear for, your goal is to include those keywords throughout the page at a density that will satisfy Google and other major search engines in order to rank your website. Google is constantly changing and adjusting their algorithm so this part of the equation involves constant updating and experimentation. At our agency, Oregon Web Solutions, we use sophisticated software programs to ensure that we have the correct density to deliver the best possible search engine results and are successful at beating Googles algorithm.
Setup and Optimize Your Google My Business Listing
Google My Business Listings are one of the major ways new and existing customers will discover information about your business online. Learning how to set up and optimize your GMB is one of the most valuable SEO technique you can learn during your SEO training. Google My Business Listings are arguably one of the most important parts of SEO -, especially for local businesses. Functioning as a local business directory, Google My Business Listings or GMB’s for short should be a critical part of every companies Search Engine Marketing strategy. If your business doesn’t have a Google My Business Listing setup, simply go to Google.com/business, sign into your Google account, and it will prompt you to put in your NAP (name, address, and phone number.) If you have a business with multiple locations or you purchased a franchise, then you can start typing in the business name, and you’ll see a list of businesses that are already registered in Google’s database. In most cases, these existing GMB listings can be claimed by the business owner. One quick tip is that your business name is not meant for keyword stuffing – do not write something like “Oregon Web Solutions Portland Oregon 24/7 – Oregon Web Solutions”. It’s not going to help you appear at the top of Google, so don’t bother. Next, you would add your address – if you’re an independent service provider like a work-from-home consultant then you can enter in your home address, select “I deliver goods and services to my customers,” and choose to hide your address since it’s not a storefront. Now, when your business shows up in Google search, it will show the city and province/state where you work from, and the general area your service. Next, you will be prompted to drop a pin on the map to show Google approximately where your business is located. Finally, you will be prompted to enter your business hours, phone number, and some other details. Once the information has been added, it’s time to publish your listing. Setting up a GMB is important and will enhance a customers user experience, but setup alone will not guarantee that you will be found online or that your business appears at the top of the search results. If you’re looking for help in this department I recommend reaching out to our agency as we employ advanced SEO strategies.
Identify Your Target Keywords Through In-Depth Keyword Research
Identifying and optimizing for the correct keywords is critical for the success of your business website. Keywords can be defined as “a word or concept of great significance” or, they are essentially “keywords” identifying what you do, sell, service, etc. In other words, these are the types of phrases your potential customers are searching when trying to find a business like yours to patronize. There are many ways to do keyword research and identify potential keywords, but one of the easiest is simply using Google’s autocomplete feature. This is one of our most valuable informative tips for beginners and it is as simple as searching on Google, and typing in the main query you’d like your business to appear for – for example, “Coffee Shop Portland.” Next, make note of the types of “suggested” search phrase Google is recommending to you —Phrases such as “…open late,” “…Portland Oregon” and so on. This tactic can also be used on any website or search engine that has a suggested search feature. Remember – when using this SEO technique quality over quantity is the rule of thumb. You don’t need to try and rank for ALL of the keywords Google is suggesting – just the ones most relevant to your business. This can help you identify the types of keywords people are searching when they are interested in products or services that your business offers. Another option is to identify potential keywords that your competition is already optimized and appearing for. This strategy works well because your crowdsourcing your competitions keywords assuming they have already done the research. Furthermore, another great strategy is to use a tool like Moz and simply enter in the domain of one of your search competitors. Next, go to the organic keywords report and it will show you all of the search queries that the domain you entered is rankings for. You might find that your competitor of choice is ranking for a lot of branded queries so we suggest using the “exclude” box and typing in said brand name which will give you a nice list of other relevant keywords to target. Some keywords we found using this tool.
Optimize Your Homepage For Keywords & User Experience
In general, most single location businesses should optimize their homepage around their primary location and the most desirable keywords. For example, as a Portland-based marketing company, we would primarily target keywords like “Portland SEO” rather than “SEO.” In most cases, your potential customers are looking to do be business with a company in their general location. Another important factor is to list your name, address, and phone number on your homepage. We suggest having this in the text of the homepage as well as in your footer — if you’re a single location business we recommend including this info in your footer across all pages on your website. If you’re a business that has multiple locations, then you’re exempt from the rule of optimizing your homepage around your primary location. Instead of optimizing your home page, you would want to optimize local landing pages or inner pages by including key elements like the location’s name, address, phone number, and hours. You should also be using related keywords targeted at the specific location each landing page is for.
Furthermore, an additional strategy to optimize your homepage is by adding Schema markup. Schema markup is code that you add to your website to improve the data and information search engines can read and understand about your page. This additional information will make it easier for search engines to properly position your website in the search engine results. Our personal favorite way to do this is using Technical SEO’s Schema markup generator. Simply enter your information, copy the code they generate — add this code to the head tags of the page you’re trying to optimize. Bonus tip — if you have a WordPress website (which we recommend) simply download the plugin “Per Page Add To Head” and it will give you a box at the bottom of each page when editing. Next, simply input your Schema code and voila! Your page is one step closer to dominating your competitors in the SERP’s.
Optimize Inner Pages For Multiple Locations
Properly optimizing your website for multiple business locations can be challenging. In order to do this properly, it’s best to give each location a unique page. This page should be used as the primary landing page for all assets — both social and otherwise — that are related to that location. These assets could include social accounts, Google My Business Listings, and online directories. Next, use on-page SEO tactics shared above to configure the proper keyword density. Finally, make sure to properly optimize your URL structure for each location page to properly reflect the specific keywords the page is targeting.
The Difference Between On-Page and Off-Page SEO
One thing that must be considered, is the difference between on-page and off-page search engine optimization strategies. On-page SEO put simply is optimizing individual web pages to help your website appear at the top of the Google search engine rankings. On-page refers to the content of a page that can be optimized as opposed to off-page SEO which refers to external ranking factors including referral website visitors, contact, and backlinks. Both on-page and off-page SEO has changed a lot over the years as technology advances, so it is important you stay up-to-date with the latest practices. Here are some of the ways we suggest optimizing pages to increase your organic traffic, and rank higher in search engine results.
5 Simple Tips That Will Immediately Improve Your SEO Performance
1. Have a descriptive, eye-catching, keyword rich title.
The title will be the first thing potential website visitors see in the search engine results. With that being said, you don’t want to keyword stuff or add too many keywords.
2. Easy to read, short URL’s
Your URL’s should be descriptive, but short and to the point. For example, “oregonwebsolutions.com/best-seo-tips-2019” would be a better choice than “oregonwebsolutions.com/the-best-seo-tips-and-tricks-of-the-new-age-and-beyond.” Another example of a less than desirable URL would include symbols, random numbers, etc. Google has specifically said that these types of symbols are unnecessary unnecessary-unnecessary unnecessary and can actually hurt your Google search results.
3. Have an attention-grabbing meta description.
While meta descriptions are still used by search engines, they are only a small portion of the Google search algorithm. We like to think of them more as a description of what the consumer will see when they click on your web page. You want to use this as an opportunity to draw the consumer in — tell them why they should click on your webpage but also leave the statement open-ended so they have to click on your website to read more.
4. Use target keywords intentionally throughout your URL, title, first paragraph, content, etc.
There are lots of free tools out there to help you optimize pages based on your keyword. Sometimes it’s easier to be told what to do and where to do it rather than figuring it out yourself.
5. Take advantage of image search traffic by adding and optimizing images.
Google’s image search is undoubtedly a huge part of where the search engine’s traffic comes from. In order to take advantage of this valuable traffic source, add keywords to your image titles before uploading them to your website. It’s important to note, that large images can actually slow down your website and hurt SEO performance. Make sure you reduce your image file size prior to uploading them to your website.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
The world of SEO is constantly changing and it takes a full-time focus and commitment to stay ahead. As the internet grows more competitive, more websites will be competing for limited resources. In order to stand out from the crowd, your team must deploy significant resources of both time and money to keep your competitive advantage. Many clients ask us, can I do SEO on my own? Do I even stand a chance against the competition? The reality is in most cases business owners would be better to outsource this portion of their business to a professional SEO agency. This allows the business owner to focus on their core competency and leave the technical aspects of search engine optimization to the experts.
If you’d like more information about our services and to receive a website search analysis please click on the link below to get started: http://149.28.13.162/~oregonwebsolutio/discovery-form/
{SEO, SEO Tips, SEO Website Tips, Search Engine Optimization Guide}
