Rise above your competitors with Search Engine Optimization

Now that it is relatively inexpensive to create a website, there is more competition for your website to rank well on search engines. Both well-established companies and startup businesses face struggles when it comes to online presence. This flood in the market has forced Google to push their organic search results down the page in favor of their paid listings. Furthermore, Google’s algorithm, which calculates website rankings, changes hundreds of times each year. These constant changes make Search Engine Optimization (SEO) an enigma for most website owners. As a result, it is becoming more and more difficult for companies to attract attention online.

The following suggestions can help turn the tide:

Pay attention to your metadata

Metadata is information about the contents of your web pages. There are three main types of metadata.

These are:

• Title metadata,
• Description metadata and,
• Keyword metadata

The title metadata supports the titles of pages displayed at the top of any browser window. Title metadata is the most crucial metadata on your site. Description metadata is the textual description that browsers use in your site’s search return. It should be concise and appealing to encourage visitors to enter. Finally, keyword metadata are phrases that people are likely to type to find your site. Have a variety of phrases, but do not get greedy, as having too many phrases may lead to the browser ignoring the data altogether. Ideally, 6-8 phrases are enough.

Publish and update relevant content

When it comes to website ranking, quality content will always be king. High quality content developed specially for your intended visitors boost site traffic. More traffic enhances your website’s relevance and authority. To start, determine a keyword phrase for your page. Repeat the keyword several times throughout the page. Use bold, headline tags, or italics to highlight them. Be sure not to overdo it. Remember, the best content is written for the users not for Google. Since content is so crucial to your ranking, it is important to update it often. The more you provide fresh, relevant content, the more authoritative you become and the higher your rankings.

Use Google Webmaster and other tools

Sign up with Google Webmaster tools if you have not already done so. If you have already signed up, strive to be adept with all its elements. You will receive a wealth of information about your website’s speed, health, crawl errors if any, and so much more. Then, you can make any necessary changes. Do not forget to use other tools such as XML sitemaps.

>>Get a free website analysis!<<

Be creative with your links

Concentrate on building a link-worthy site by having relevant links within your text. Rather than using “Click Here’’ as anchor text for your links, consider spelling out the name of the destination. “Click Here’’has no value for your Search Engine Optimization. Using an anchor text like “Learn to Improve your SEO’’ or other keyword-rich text will work better to enhance your Google rankings. Look for sites that mention your website without links, and then make contact and request them to lick back to your site. Set up Google alerts so that each time a website mentions your company, you get an email. Local online directory listings are also great places to link your page. UP Market actually offers local directory listing management for as little as $70/month. Our local directory listing program gets your business information on over 55 online local directories, and lets you easily update and manage the listings in one place. Very easy!

Make sharing your content easy

Aim to produce good content. Good content is worth a tweet or Facebook share, and there is no denying the power of social media on search engine rankings. After the recent Google updates, social signals from Twitter and Facebook are now directly related to higher rankings on search engines. Thus, it is a must to make your content as simple to share as possible. Try using visible share buttons and optimized meta descriptions.
The bottom line

There is no quick way to make your website rank on the first page of Google. All the above methods take some time to work before you can reap the benefits. As you may have noticed, some of the techniques are in this article are easy to apply and need little or no SEO experience. Other techniques may require for professional help. There is great value in using a professional digital marketing firm to increase your Google rankings. They take care of all the technical aspects of your website to allow you to focus on other crucial elements of your business.

One easy way to get started is to take advantage of our free website analysis. Just submit your information (including your website URL), and one of our SEO specialists will call you to set up a time to go over the results.

Good luck, and happy optimizing!