Search engine optimization (SEO) as a business strategy has become ever more important. If the first couple of entries on a search engine results page yield high quality websites with the information you need, it’s unlikely that anyone will find the sites on the next page. In order to get to the top of the list, there are a few things you need to do:
1) Keywords
When writing your web copy or blog posts, make sure to have one or two keywords or phrases tied to your theme. Use these a few times on one page. These keywords should be what you expect Internet-goers to search for when looking for your information. This is one aspect of how a search engine functions. If you search for “keyword,” an article that uses “keyword” judiciously will have a better chance at hitting the top of the rankings.
2) Keyword Density
In unnaturally overusing keywords, you lower the quality of your content, and high quality content is paramount. If you have good material, viewers will come back to revisit the site, which is the ultimate objective. As a rule of thumb, use the keywords no more than 2 times out of every 100 words.
3) Title
The title of your page is what is shown in the large underlined print in a search engine. You can optimize your websites or posts for search engines by giving the page a title that tells exactly what you are writing about — be sure to use your keywords in the title. This not only attracts potential readers to your site, it also lets the search engine know what you are writing about. Vague and non-specific titles won’t get your target audiences attention.
4) Keywords in Alt Tags
Last but not least, use keywords in the description of photos and graphics as well as in the filename. These are called alt-tags and search engines love these! Under the URL in your image info, there is an alternative text box. Filling these in with relevant keywords plays an important role in search engine optimization. This is especially important if you want your photos and graphics themselves to show up well in image search results. This change also allows blind people to be able to tell what a photo is as their screen-readers detect alt-tags, so don’t go stuffing your alt tags with keywords.
Ignoring the need to develop a search engine optimization strategy is not an option. SEO can be a very time-consuming effort and there are many more tips and tricks besides these you can utilize that will improve your ranking in search results. Hiring a proven company that specializes in SEO can be beneficial, especially for highly competitive keywords. This is the tip of the iceberg; the importance of SEO cannot be underestimated.
