576,000 new websites are created every day, and there is no guarantee yours will rank first on Google. There are, however, plenty of things you can do to increase your site's chance of showing up on Google. To appear in the top results on search engines like Google and Bing, you need to know a bit about Search Engine Optimization or SEO.
Choosing a URL
It's important to give your website a name before it goes live. The domain name is the address your visitors type into to find your website. Similarly, to the giant sign above a storefront window, it's one of the first things they see when they arrive at your website. Google also looks at it first to determine how to rank your site based on its content.
If you are a marketing company, you might want to choose a domain name like www.yournamemarketing.com which includes your business name and some relevant keywords.
Whether it's a product page, or a blog page - you should choose the URL that reflects the content on the page, and the keywords you want this page to appear for in search results.
If you're a marketing company offering social media services, make sure you include that in the URL for that page. For example, www.yournamemarketing.com/social-media-services.
Unique title and descriptions
For each page on your website, you can write a unique title and description. These are short texts that accurately describe what your business does, ideally with some keywords and phrases.
The short phrase that appears under your mouse when you hover over a tab is the title tag of that page. While the description is not visible on your page, it is essential to search engines in order to understand what your website is about.
The title and description of your site will tell web surfers what your site is about once it appears in a search results page, so they decide whether to check it out or not. Use an AI creator if you need help in creating unique titles and descriptions.
Anchor text
Whenever you write content for your website, consider using anchor text. Anchor text is the clickable text on a hyperlink that directs visitors to another website, either within your site or anywhere else on the internet.
A well-written anchor text will help your users find what they are looking for on your website. It should also include keywords and phrases that relate to your business. The words, “Check out our selection of print on demand t-shirts,” for example, can link to an online store stocked full of – you guessed it – t-shirts on your homepage if you own a t-shirt printing company.
Anchor text is a great way to boost your SEO, but excessive linking or anchors that don't help your readers can raise some red flags.
Adding alt text
In order to understand what’s displayed on a website, search engines look for “alt text,” a concise written description (no more than a few words) of each image. It's important to accurately describe the image in alt text, as well as include a few keywords related to what you do or the name of your business.
For images that are functional or design-related, such as a background image made up of shapes, you don't need to include alt text. If the image has nothing to do with your site's topic, you can skip it.
Choosing the right headers
You should include titles, subtitles, and so on on every page of your website. Using the correct text hierarchy will help search engines understand your content better when they scan your website. In the Text's Editor, you should define the title as an H1 (the most relevant part).
Choose your title carefully and don't forget to include your main keywords. H1 should be descriptive of the page's content and you shouldn't have more than one on each page. The next level of header is H2, H3, etc. H1 represents your title, while H2 and H3 represent your headings and subheadings, respectively.
Your website's content will be easier to digest for search engines if your text structure is clear.
Creating quality content
Creating great content is one way to improve your SEO and get more pages of your site ranking, for more search terms. The SEO strategy and wider marketing strategy for some businesses may include blogging, but it could also be as simple as adhering to Google's E-A-T on your homepage, product pages, and other site pages.
During the Medic update in 2018, Google added the E-A-T concept (Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness) to their Search Quality Rater guidelines. Exactly how Google measures web pages for E-A-T is unknown, and will probably never be known. However, when creating content that you want to rank, make sure you know what you're talking about, can back it up, and that users can trust it.
Make sure you get experts to write your content, where possible - if you're writing about business topics, make sure you get someone who knows the business world to contribute to it.
Keyword research
Unless you target keywords, you cannot rank your website. Every SEO optimization you make on a page - be it the URL slug, or the H1 or the meta title - will require a target keyword.
To rank a page, it needs a keyword, or several. That's where keyword research tools come in handy. It doesn't matter what type of keyword research tool you use - from simple, free tools that show you keyword trends over time to advanced, paid tools that help you decide what keywords to target based on intent, competition, and traffic potential.
Selecting the appropriate keyword is crucial for your brand's image and discoverability, as well as for achieving a higher ranking. One of the key considerations when choosing a targeted keyword is understanding its intent. When users search using this keyword, what type of content does Google believe they are seeking? For instance, those searching for 'SEO tips' are likely seeking informational materials, such as a blog post. Therefore, writing a blog article is the most effective approach when targeting this specific keyword.
Those searching for 'SEO agency' are, search engines presume, looking for a services or product page from an SEO agency, so don't create a blog article here.
Conducting keyword research not only aids in identifying potential keywords, but also provides insight into their level of competition. It is important to thoroughly examine the blogs ranking for a particular keyword, especially if they are well-established with a history of high rankings, extensive content, and a reputable company backing them. While it is possible to achieve success in competitive SERPs through strategic SEO efforts, it is also essential to avoid pursuing keywords that may prove too difficult to rank for with your current content.
The right keyword research tool will not only help you with keyword research, but will also help you analyze your competitors.
Proactive indexing
As soon as you've connected your site to Google Search Console and submitted your sitemap, you need to ensure that the priority pages on your site are indexed. There are more websites and pages on the internet than anyone could possibly count - if you want your priority pages to be indexed, you have to make it clear to search engines exactly what those pages are.
The first step is to exclude pages that you don't want Google to crawl because you don't want them to rank in robots.txt. These pages include low value pages, landing and campaign pages, duplicate tag and category pages, or customer order pages. This takes them out of the equation and signals Google which pages to crawl.
It is also important to utilize your social profile links - whether it is through automatic sharing of your website content to your social platforms, claiming local citations, or registering in online directories.
In addition to helping your site rank better, it is important to have an internal linking strategy that is effective. In addition to directing search engines to your most important pages, internal linking helps them understand your site's hierarchy as well as how users might navigate the site. Google, for example, can place and rank your content better when it understands not only your site but also your strategy - at least that's the theory.
For example, you can create pillar pages for blog content that sit at the top of a topic and link out internally to other pages on your site that address different parts of it. As an example, a pillar page on marketing strategies will link to articles about a variety of marketing strategies.
If you surface the right content on your website, both search engines and users will know what it is. This can be tricky depending on the size of your website, but getting it right can have a huge effect on your organic traffic.
External links
High quality backlinks from strong domains indicate to Google that your content is worth ranking. Think of them as a vote of confidence in your website, which Google sees and hopefully rewards.
Backlinks are hard to come by, and will take a lot of outreach on your part to get your content shared and distributed. You'll need to gain the trust of publications and PR firms.
Original content is more likely to be shared and picked up, resulting in reputable backlinks.
Track, report, and improve
One of the best SEO tips we can offer is that SEO is not a sprint, but a marathon. Success usually comes from months of hard work, constant content updates and optimizations, while improving internal linking, and fixing technical SEO issues.
Tracking rankings and organic traffic should be an integral part of your SEO reporting workflow to ensure your hard work is paying off.
Use Google Search Console, Google Analytics (soon to be GA4), Wix Analytics, and other keyword tracking tools to accomplish this
You'll be able to use these tools to see if you rank for your target keywords (and new ones too), as well as how much traffic you're getting from them. You'll also be able to note and act on drops in traffic rankings, loss of SERP features and any consequent reductions in organic traffic. If a page drops or decreases, it may be necessary to optimize it better, update its content, or adjust the SERP intent for a certain target keyword.
Be alert to Google Algorithm updates and plan accordingly when ranking and traffic drops occur.
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