Featured article by Zach Lundgen
If you have a website, you should always be looking for ways to make your page more SEO friendly. SEO, or search engine optimization, is a set of tools and strategies designed to boost a website up the search engine results pages (SERPs). Why does this matter? Just think. The last time you made a search query on Google or Bing, when’s the last time you actually scrolled past the first or second page? Perhaps never.
This is why SEO matters. Making your page visible in the crowded online world of content is essential for clicks and visits, and if you’re an ecommerce page, more potential conversions. Working with an experienced Denver SEO agency is an effective way to improve your website’s SEO. But there are also strategies and techniques most anyone can utilize to make their page more SEO friendly. Here, we’re taking a closer look at the importance of SEO and how this digital marketing strategy can drive more organic traffic to your site. After all, the web is a crowded space. Imagine the difference it would make to land on page one of Google?
Why Does SEO Matter?
SEO is all about visibility. In the online marketplace, there’s simply never been more competition for any product or any service. Fewer and fewer people are driving down Main Street to find products these days. Instead, they’re searching online where they can find a wider selection for more competitive pricing. While this is great for consumers, it’s a challenge for businesses. How do I reach these potential customers when there are countless websites offering a similar product or service?
The answer is SEO. Google and other search engines strive to make the web, simply enough, a better place. They do this by connecting users with information and products that are reliable, relevant, and trustworthy. Let’s face it. The web can be a suspicious place at times, but through creating advanced algorithms that rank sites on a variety of factors, Google and other search engines can effectively “weed out” the poor quality sites and send web users to the highest quality content out there.
The tricky part, however, is that Google doesn’t reveal what these ranking factors are. And on top of that, they’re consistently changing with algorithm updates throughout the year. This leaves SEO experts in a continual game of trying to understand search engine algorithms and then update sites to align to these values. Through advanced SEO tools and an understanding of metric and analytics, you can work to crack the search engine code and rank higher than ever by understanding the world of SEO.
How to Make Your Website SEO Friendly
Sure, SEO sounds great, but in reality, it’s a lot easier said than done. This is why there are entire SEO firms and SEO experts dedicated to improving their client’s SEO and boosting them up the rankings. The most effective way to become more SEO friendly, of course, would be by working with an SEO company or hiring an expert, but not everyone has those types of resources.
If not, here are some tips for making your website SEO friendly:
1. High-quality content.
Of all the shifting SEO ranking factors, high-quality content has remained one of the most consistently valuable. Content, after all, is what it’s all about. When someone is performing an online search, they’re looking for information, products, or services that are trustworthy, accurate, and relevant. Producing consistent and quality content will help deliver to your users what they need. Of course, not all content should look the same. If you operate a sports blog, your content could be informative, entertaining, and fun. If you run a website for a doctor’s office, you should be informative, yes, but also emphasize accuracy, reliability, and authoritativeness.
2. Using the right keywords.
How does Google match users with websites? A major factor comes down to using the right keywords. Most search queries are short snippets of text. By using the same keywords as your users, you’ll show the search engine that you are a relevant site for their needs. You should perform keyword research and use these words throughout your website, including the content, image descriptions, meta titles, and more. Of course, you want to also keep your content natural and informative.
3. External and internal links.
Links are an essential tool for connecting the web. External links, also known as backlinks, are also a way for websites to give each other a badge of approval. When you backlink to another site, you’re telling users (and Google) that you value this page and it’s information or services. Linking out to the wrong site can actually hurt your SEO score. Internal links are also important. Internal links help Google find other pages on your site and should be created using relevant anchor text.
4. Improve page speed.
This one is a bit trickier if you don’t have much technical website or coding knowledge. When people go online, they expect websites to load quickly and correctly. Improving how fast your page loads is essential for a good SEO ranking. By doing things like compressing image sizes on your site, you can speed up your score.
5. Mobile friendly.
More people than ever are using their smartphones to search the web and locate their favorite products and services. Therefore, you need to make sure that your page loads correctly and is still usable in a mobile format. Having a website that looks funky or doesn’t function correctly on a phone can lead to a higher bounce rate and less users on your site.
Conclusion – 5 Ways to Make Your Website SEO Friendly
In the digital world, SEO has become absolutely essential if you ever want your page to be discovered. It can feel like being a needle in a haystack as a website owner, but this doesn’t mean you can’t be discovered. Having an effective SEO strategy can not only make you more visible to web users, but also improve your website overall.
