We know how important your website is…but what good is a website if no one can find it? The Internet is increasingly competitive and constantly changing and it is essential that your website shows up on search engine results in order for you to run a successful business. We are continuously researching the new algorithms and updating our strategies to keep our client’s websites high in search engine rankings.
The goal of any business’ website is for people to first find it and then click on it! So how do you make your presence known and how do you achieve your goal of visitors clicking on your site?
According to a recent study from Conductor, 64% of website traffic is generated from organic searches – not from paid results such as Google AdWords. Optimizing where you show up organically in search results is done through SEO, an essential marketing strategy in order to have a successful online presence, so how does it all work?
Here are five important SEO strategies to remember:
1- Meta Title
This is what the user will click on after they perform a search. It is the first thing they see and what takes them directly to your landing page. According to Moz, your Meta Title has the most impact on your search engine rankings.
You want your Meta Title to be below 55 characters and to successfully inform users how relevant your site is to the particular topic they are searching for. Moz also suggests including keywords in the Meta Title because the search engine will highlight them showing the user that your link has what they are looking for. Placing keywords closer to the front of the title tag will also increase ranking!
2- Meta Description
Directly below the Meta Title is the Meta Description. This is the second thing users see and usually what entices them to click on the link in hopes that the site has what they are searching for. If the Meta Title is the catch, the Meta Description is the hook, so you want it to be informative, accurate and concise!
If you do not provide your own Meta Description, search engines will automatically generate it and will pull content from your website. Sometimes this content is irrelevant to what the user is actually searching for and will deter them from clicking on your website.
Your Meta Description should only have about 155 characters. It is a great idea to include keywords into your description which will appear in bolded text, showing the user once again that you have information pertinent to what they are searching for.
3-Image ALT tags
Image ALT Tags are the titles to the images on your website. When a user rolls their mouse over the image, an ALT tag shows up informing them what they are exactly looking at. ALT Tags are beneficial for SEO since search engines can’t view your image and label it themselves. All images on your website should have an ALT Tag.
4- Keyword Optimization
Speaking of keyword optimization…. you want to make sure that the keywords that are in your Meta Title and Meta Description also appear throughout your website. The more keywords search engines find throughout your site, the higher the ranking and the better your chance is of increasing organic search traffic.
5-Schema Mark-Up Tags
This one is a little more advanced… A schema tag is specific micro-data that you can insert into your HTML code to improve the way search engines represent your page. If you have a product on your site that has a 5 star review, you can insert a schema tag into the HTML so the 5 star rating shows up in the search engine results.
SEO is complex. There are a lot of strategies that go into pleasing search engine algorithms and there isn’t one solution to all of your problems. Give us a call and we can help you navigate the confusing world of SEO.