You hear about it all the time – search engine optimization; but what does it mean for your business? The bottom line is super simple: SEO means you show up on the first page of Google’s search engine results, and since nearly everyone uses Google to conduct online research, this is pretty crucial. You also tend to show up on the first pages of the other search engines, so implement the latest tips into your digital marketing strategy to ensure you are and remain at the top. Here are eight for 2018.
- Google-Friendly URLs
Don’t let the title of this post fool you SEO in London is the same as anywhere else, and the first thing Google looks for is a URL that its spiders can identify easily as valid and high quality. The spiders must understand your text, visuals, links, and other website and social media page content so it can index it properly; otherwise, it tosses your pages to back of the results.
- Keywords
Keywords are the backbone of any SEO strategy. Keywords are the phrases searchers put into Google’s search engine to return their desired results. Keywords go beyond best hamburger in Los Angeles; You must find your base keywords and then use them in long-tail phrases that answer searchers questions and concerns. Think about the questions they would ask to get to your product or service.
- Search Yourself
The best way to find out what Google thinks is relevant to any searcher is to conduct searches yourself. Plug keywords for your product or service into Google and see if competitor businesses come up in the results. Pay attention to Google’s suggested search query terms at the bottom of the page, too. These are additional ways people search for the same thing you just searched for.
- Be Brainy
In 2011, Google release Panda, a change to its algorithms to prevent low quality websites from ranking high in results. As such, you need authoritative, credible, and reliable content on your websites and social media platforms. If you don’t have the ability to draft credible content, hire an expert to do so.
- Don’t Forget Your Tags
Each page on your website and each post on your social media platforms must also have credible title tags or tags. Another strategy many businesses fail to implement is meta descriptions, which tell the Google spiders and searches what’s on a specific page. Use these tools and put your keywords in them. Don’t forget about photo, product, and video descriptions either.
- Don’t Keyword Stuff
If you think stuffing your website and social media with keywords is a good idea, think again. Google penalizes pages for keyword stuffing, which is why experts break keywords down into primary, secondary, and related categories. Categorize your KWs and then use a variety of them in your content. A keyword every 100 words is usually a good strategy.
- Rich Snippets
When Google returns its search results to a query, you may have noticed underneath the title and link of each result is a snippet of the content. These are called rich snippets and you want to format your content to take advantage of them whenever you can. Some rich snippets also include pictures.
- Tortoise or Hare?
Finally, don’t load up your online present with a ton of high resolution photos and videos. Yes, load the pages up with visuals, but make certain they don’t slow everything down. Users hate slow-loading pages so Google hates them, too. Everything must be optimized for speed and security.
The latter is particularly important. Google will not load pages it doesn’t deem secure, and it won’t allow a user to load the page either. Make certain your digital certificates are in order, your backlinks and other links are legit, and you have an HTTPS URL. Otherwise, Google will deem your web insecure and toss it to the back of the search results.
