Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an essential tool in any online marketing effort. Proper implementation can lead to amazing results, with a higher search engine ranking leading to an increase in traffic (website visitors) and sales.
Of course, the ideal place to be when your prospective customer is looking for the types of products, services, or information you offer is at the top of their search results. This is what SEO is all about.
Let’s look at the factors that affect on-page and off-page SEO and how these can impact your search engine rankings.
On-Page SEO
1. Add a title tag. You will need this on every page of your website, as this will show the search engines and your visitors what the page is about. It should be 51-60 characters and include the keyword or key phrase that you want to rank for.
2. Write a meta description. Google looks at meta description and can use it in your snippet on the search results pages, so it is an important tag in SEO. Use it to explain in more detail what the webpage is about. Include the keyword or phrase within this description too.
3. Create sub-headings using H1, H2 ad H3 tags. These make your content easier to read, plus helps improve your search engine rankings. You can use them to add additional keywords and key phrases into your content. This shows the search engines that you believe them to be important to your content.
4. Build internal links. Put a link in your smaller articles to a longer, more authoritative piece of content. This helps the longer content to rank higher, but also helps your visitors move throughout the site naturally.
5. Use image name and ALT tags. Give each image on your website a meaningful file name that includes your chosen keyword. Alt tags are important and allow a little more text. When indexing the page, the search engines may use these images to help rank the page and may even rank the image these images when people search in Google Images.
6. Avoid over-optimising. When creating the content for your website, it’s important not to over-optimise the content. This means that it will benefit you to sparingly use the main keyword while including related keywords and phrases. Keep your language natural but meaningful. Avoid filler words, opting instead for specific words. Common filler words are “solution”, “range of products” or even “we” (when used instead of your business name).
7. Make your website mobile-friendly and fast. These days, most searches and social media traffic will come from mobile devices. So, it’s important that your website works properly on mobile, and is fast to load on mobile and desktop devises. If your website is slow or isn’t mobile-friendly, this will impact your user experience, and therefore your ranking signals, negatively.
Off-Page SEO
1. You must build trust. Trust is arguably the most important ranking factor and off-page SEO is the tool to improve that trust. It shows the search engines that what you say is accurate and that visitors can trust your content. To develop trust, build high-quality backlinks from other trusted sources and ensure that your content is high quality and accurate.
2. Build backlinks. Most SEO experts gain backlinks by building relationships with other websites. It’s crucial to avoid spamming your links or building them too quickly. This could result in your website being penalised, which is essentially being banned by the search engines or dropped down in rank.
3. Get social signals. Google has said that social signals are “not directly” a ranking factor, however social posts can show up in the search engine rankings giving your brand a boost. So, it makes sense to create the most valuable content you can and share it with your own social media accounts, where others can like and share it too. Make social part of your off-page SEO.
Now that you know what on-page and off-page factors affect your SEO efforts, you can make any necessary changes to your website, leading to a boost in rankings and sales.
Just remember that good SEO takes time to work. SEO is a long-term strategy— It won’t happen overnight. It can take several months before you start seeing significant progress. However, the effort you invest will pay off, as it leads to a steady stream of targeted traffic from search engines, ultimately driving consistent sales.
If you need help reach out to discuss your SEO needs.
