Posted by Kole
It’s 2022. We no longer live in the age where the best ways to promote a business are billboards and flyers. While both of these may still be advantageous for certain businesses, the best way to ensure that the world sees your business in 2022 is SEO – search engine optimization.
What is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimization, is defined as, “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine,” (Oxford Languages). In simple terms, you know when you search for something online and you see thousands of suggested websites that may have the answer to your question? Those suggestions are in a particular order because of an algorithm that finds the most relevant and high quality sources based on your search query. Today, it is essential for businesses to optimize their websites so that the algorithm ranks them near the top of the search results!
How do I get my website to the top of the search results?
The first step in optimizing your website to rank higher in search results is keyword research. What are some keywords someone might search in order to find your business? Create a list of the best ones that you should use throughout your website. There are many different keyword research strategies, but we recommend using the keyword planner tool in Google Ads or another excellent SEO tool, SemRush. You can find keywords based on your own website and/or competitors’ websites. After coming up with a list of keywords, you are ready to optimize your site.
Here are 5 things you can do to improve your website’s SEO:
1. Optimize Your URLs
Optimizing a website’s URLs is one of the most important steps in ensuring that search engines will rank the site higher in search results. A page’s URL should be short and to the point, avoiding any repeating words. From your list of keywords, find the keyword with the highest search volume for the page you are optimizing. This keyword should be your slug for the page. For example, let’s say you are optimizing the services page for a construction company. If the keyword with the highest search volume is “construction company services”, then the page’s URL should be constructioncompany.com/services. Here is a comparison of a good URL and a bad one:
| Good URL | Bad URL |
|---|---|
| constructioncompany.com/services | constructioncompany.com/construction-company-services |
| Good URL | Bad URL |
|---|---|
| construction company.com/ services |
construction company.com/ construction- company- services |
Between the simple and concise URL and the long and spammy URL, a search algorithm will rank the simple and concise one higher. It will also be more attractive to users.
2. Optimize SEO Title Tags
Optimizing your web pages’ SEO title tags is critical. This is what people will see in the search results.
A great SEO title tag is one that catches the eye, comes across naturally, and is around 60 characters long. Similar to optimizing a URL, the title tag should include the highest searched keyword(s) for that particular page. It is also recommended to use descriptive words – “modern”, “quality”, “innovative”, etc. – to make a page stand out. Let’s use the construction company services page as an example again. Here is a comparison of a good title tag and a bad one:
| Good Title Tag | Bad Title Tag |
|---|---|
| Cutting Edge Construction Services – Company Name | Services – Company Name |
The good title tag is close to 60 characters long, includes a descriptive term to stand out, comes across naturally, and makes use of the keyword “construction company services”. The bad title tag makes use of the keyword, but is much too short and incredibly bland. A user is much more likely to click on the good title tag.
3. Optimize the Page Title/H1 Tag
As well as the SEO title tag, search algorithms will consider a web page’s page title, or H1 tag. The page title should be similar to the SEO title tag, but not identical. Changing the wording and including different keywords that are relevant to the particular page will help boost your rankings.
| Title Tag | Page Title |
|---|---|
| Cutting Edge Construction Services – Company Name | Construction Services – Preconstruction, Design & Build, and More |
In the table above, the page title is an altered version of the title tag, that still makes use of the keyword “construction company services”, and includes two other keywords, “preconstruction” and “design & build”.
4. Link Building
The more trustworthy links leading to your site, the more an algorithm will read, and the higher your site will rank.
Internal Links
Internal links are links from one page of your site to another. They will keep users on your site for longer periods of time and will lead to conversions if the content is promising. Keep the links relevant to the content. For example, if you have a services section on your home page, include a link to your services page.
Backlinks
Whereas an internal link is a link from one page of your site to another, a backlink is a link from another website to your own. The simplest way to build a backlink is through social media, where you can simply add a link to your website in the bio of your profile. Another great option is guest posting on a renowned platform, such as HubSpot or Inc.com. Most platforms require approval of your blog from their team prior to being featured on their site, but others, such as Medium.com, allow you to post without submitting for approval. Guest posting and including a link to your website is a small, but effective step you can take to boost your SEO.
5. Improve User Experience (Site UX and Speed)
Not only do search algorithms read a website’s metadata and trustworthy links leading to the site, but they now take the quality and speed of the website into consideration. User experience and speed are now more important than ever. If a user clicks on a link to a website and it takes more than a couple of seconds to load or the content is simply not engaging, they will immediately leave the site and find a better option. Human beings have a short attention span, so it is critical to have a site that loads quickly and immediately draws a user in.
Some ways to improve user experience and speed are:
1. Responsive web design
According to Statistica.com, approximately 54% of web traffic now comes from mobile devices. It is absolutely critical to have a mobile-friendly website.
2. Ease of navigation
It should be very easy for users to find the information they are looking for. Your navigation menu and footer should be neatly laid out, and internal links should be used strategically throughout your site.
3. Images and videos
Images and videos are a great way to catch users’ attention and break up content, making your site much more aesthetically pleasing.
Make sure to optimize your images for web. Try to keep your image size within 500kb. Anything under 200kb is golden.
4. Digestible content
Keep your website’s content concise and embed keywords without overusing them. Be straight to the point.
Make sure your content is easily readable by keeping body font sizing around 14-17px, as well as aligning and spacing your paragraphs nicely.
Today, search engine optimization is one of the most important factors in promoting a business. While these 5 steps are just a fraction of the many proven ways to improve your website’s SEO, they are an excellent starting point with guaranteed results.
Pulse Marketing’s web services include search engine optimization* to ensure that our clients are seen. View our services page for web and other heartfelt marketing services.
*Other than social media backlinking, our SEO services do not include building backlinks. Although, our team can write articles for clients to submit to guest posting platforms.
Sources: