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Search engine optimization (SEO) can seem like a headache. But if you’re a business owner, it can be one of the best ways to get your business found online. It provides a source of regular organic traffic that is more profitable than other sources.
And believe me, once you figure it out, you’ll realize it’s not so daunting after all. In fact, after spending some time with SEO, you’ll probably love it.
Check out the four pillars of SEO you need to know.
Related: 5 Essential SEO Strategies for Entrepreneurs to Increase Their Traffic
Pillar 1: On-page SEO
As the name suggests, on-page SEO involves optimizing all the content on your website.
The degree to which web crawlers can read your content will determine how well your site ranks in search engines, so it’s important to produce high-quality content with optimized metadata.
1. Focus on your content
To strengthen your on-page SEO, make sure all your content is relevant, informative, and well-written. To stay relevant, your content must provide answers to your audience’s search queries.
To find out which search queries are relevant to you, do a little Google from a customer’s perspective. Search for relevant terms and questions related to your business and see what appears in Google’s “People Also Ask” section. You should also consider the autocomplete suggestions in the search bar.
Once you know what content is being rewarded by Google, you can begin formulating a content scheme that improves content that is already ranking. If your website content is able to provide answers to your audience’s top queries, search engines will see your content as credible and authoritative, which will help you rank higher in search.
2. Optimize for relevant keywords
Your website should also use keywords and search terms that mimic how your audience searches for content. By using these keywords, Google will see that your content is relevant within your industry and serve your content to your audience.
Incorporate keywords into your metadata, headings, URLs, body text, and alt text. This will signal to Google that your website content is relevant to your audience’s queries, which will help you rank higher in search.
Top tips:
Don’t forget to optimize your metadata. Metadata helps crawlers read your website, so you need to make sure that the metadata communicates the essence of your web pages. A key tip when optimizing your keywords is to use one long-tail keyword per page. This will show crawlers that your page is targeting search queries, which will increase your site’s authority.
Related: 5 Tips to Help Improve Your Website’s SEO Ranking
Pillar 2: Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO involves anything you do outside of your website to optimize your search presence.
When it comes to off-page SEO, it’s important to tell search engines what other people think of your website, which is where backlinks come in. Backlinks are links to your website hosted on other websites. Sometimes you can get backlinks without doing anything, but if you’re a business with a smaller online presence, you’ll often have to work to get backlinks.
Backlinks can be indicative of your website’s authority, so it’s important to build a quality backlink network.
While it may be tempting to buy backlinks, search engines penalize websites with high volumes of spammy backlinks. So, when it comes to your backlink strategy, look for quality over quantity.
Top tips:
Find a backlink outreach strategy that works for you. This may involve contacting authorized websites and notifying them that you have content related to their web pages. Or, you can choose to write free content for websites so they can reward you with backlinks in return. Try to gain backlinks from low, medium and high authority sites as this indicates natural links to search engines. Maintain a strong social media strategy that links. back to your website and web pages. Although social media links don’t technically count as backlinks, they still drive valuable traffic to your website, making it a good SEO strategy.
Related: Learning Google SEO Can Help You Grow Your Business on a Budget
Pillar 3: Technical SEO
Technical SEO dictates the way users and search engines move around your website. You should ensure that your website has a logical architecture and is easy to navigate for both users and web crawlers.
Maintain a clear site structure
The structure of your website is very important. Have you ever been on a website where certain pages are hard to find or the navigation menu is cluttered? If users and search engines find your website difficult to understand, this will detract from your site’s credibility.
Therefore, it is important to structure your site logically, so that users and search robots can easily navigate. A general rule of thumb is to make sure any web page can be accessed in less than 3 clicks, as this will make your site easy to navigate.
Page Speed
Page speed is an important element of technical SEO as it has a strong relationship with user experience. Today, it was checked that if a user has to wait more than two seconds for a page to load, they are likely to abandon the page.
To ensure your web pages have fast load times, run them through Google Pagespeed Insights. This tool will tell you exactly how to reduce your loading time. Optimizing your page speed will lower your bounce rate, which is the rate at which users leave your website after visiting a web page.
Top tips:
Keep your website mobile friendly. All websites should be built with a mobile-first approach, com more than 90% of the world’s population uses their mobile phone to search Consider responsive design elements. Make sure your website is optimized for a wide variety of screen sizes, as people’s browsing habits are varied and many households use multiple devices. Make sure there are no broken links (or links that lead nowhere) on your website. Use internal links to display them. trace the logical connections between your web pages. This will give your pages and site structure more authority according to Google.
Related: SEO trends that will affect all sectors
Pillar 4: Local SEO
If your business has a physical location, local SEO is important to consider. Local SEO involves improving your site’s visibility in location-based search results.
For example, let’s say you own a bakery. When a customer in your area types “bakery near me” into Google, having strong local SEO will ensure that your business appears at the top of the search results.
Top tips:
Google My Business is a great tool for businesses with physical stores. Help people in your local area find your store when they search for services related to your business. Because it’s linked to Google Maps, it tells people where your business is and how to get there. It will also display your opening hours as well as an image of your store, providing potential customers with extensive information about your business. Reviews are another invaluable tool when it comes to local SEO. Nowadays, people rely heavily on reviews when purchasing goods and services. While they are good for customers, reviews are also important for search engines. A high volume of positive reviews will tell Google that your business has high authority, making your store more likely to show up in search.
SEO is important for any business establishing an online presence. No matter how big or small your business is, with a strong SEO strategythe right people will find you at the right time.
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