We have spent a lot of time discussing how Search engine optimization can be used in your websites to ensure you are reaching your potential customers by scoring high in SEO ranking. The way that you use SEO is going to change from year to year. Search engines are always changing their formulas to try and provide the best results to their searchers and to avoid a company taking advantage of the system and placing bad results on top.
Let’s take a look at how to improve SEO ranking on Google.
Title
By this point, you should have a good idea of the keyword you would like to use on your web page. This keyword will make it easier for your potential customers to find you and should give a good description of what your website is about and what you are selling.
Many people forget that their title is an important part of the article and can be one of the best places to put your keyword when you are talking about SEO. It doesn’t make much sense to have a website about a keyword if that keyword isn’t even important enough to place in the title.
When it comes to Google, the first thing that is looked at is the title. So make sure that you are wisely using the main keyword somewhere in the title. Don’t try to force this though. Be careful and ensure that the keyword actually fits into place. Forcing the keyword will sound and look awkward and could lessen your chances of getting into a top ranking spot. But if you do this properly and make it flow naturally, you have a good chance of getting ranked highly.
Domain Name and Keywords
If possible, choose a keyword that would work nicely in your domain name. If you are able to do this, it is highly likely that you will be able to get the first position, or at least one that is very high, in the rankings for this particular keyword. When the keyword is available right away in the domain, it is much easier for the website crawlers to find your website and they will rank it right on top.
Domain Name Age
In this case, you want to go with a domain name that is older. Search engines like domain names that have been around for a while. This shows that the site has gotten enough views and popularity to stay around for awhile and that the content is probably good enough to keep you around. Also, many spam sites will only go up for a few months before being found and taken down. For this reason, a domain that has been around for only a year is going to have more issues ranking high compared to one that is five years old.
What this means is that you need to stick with the work. Don’t give up after just a year or so of your website. The first few years might be a bit difficult, but over time, you are automatically going to get higher rankings. Keep with this work, and you will find that it is much easier to rank higher and get more viewers.
Low Keyword Density
In 2017, it is not a good idea to try and stuff as many keywords into a web page as possible. This is going to set up some red flags with the search engines and can make it really difficult for you to see the results that you would like with rankings.
For the best results, you should make sure to keep your keyword density to less than 3 percent. In most cases, going closer to 1 or 2 percent is the best. This helps to fit the keyword into the article a bit better without stuffing the article or making it sound awkward when the searcher looks at your page.
There are a few different tools that you can use to help determine how many times the keyword is found in an article. You should use these tools on each page or article you decide to place inside your website. If you find that the keyword is showing up too often, you should try to cut it down a bit to get the best SEO results.
Website Speed and Mobile Friendliness
No searcher wants to spend forever waiting for your website to load up. If they have to wait more than a few seconds, they will probably go backward and pick out a different website. This means that you will lose at ranking points and have trouble bringing in some more searches later on.
So, one of the first things you should do is make sure your website is able to open and function quickly to make the searchers happy. You should make sure to keep the domain fresh and work with a company that can keep the website working properly at all times.
Another thing you should consider is making your website mobile friendly. More and more people are starting to use other means to go through and find the information they need. Mobile phones are one of these popular methods, meaning that if your website does not work properly on many devices, including mobile devices, you are going to find it almost impossible to get a good ranking.
Sitemap of the Website
When creating your website, make sure the sitemap is easy to use and well organized. The crawler’s a search engine like to go through and look at every piece of your sitemap before you become indexed. This is so the search engine has all of the pages matched up to the right keywords and can find your relevant pages faster when someone does a search that might match up with you.
If your sitemap is not in good shape, it can be really difficult for the crawlers to find your information. You may be indexed, but the information is all over the place and no one is going to be able to find you later on. Keep is organized and things will go so much better.
Backlinks Approved by Penguin
Backlinks can do a lot of great things when it comes to your website. They make it easier for people to find your website and they show the search engine that you are gaining in popularity. This can be a complicated procedure, but can really help you to increase in rankings if done properly.
With the advent of Google’s Penguin program, you have to take extra precautions to ensure your links are actually helping you rather than causing harm to your ranking system. Some of the things you should do to ensure you stay relevant with Google Penguin and continue seeing results include:
Don’t pay for links. Never pay people to post links or go around and post your links all over the place. These are not quality links and Penguin will be able to see it quickly. Real links by your customers are going to rank you higher than anything else.
Pick quality sites. When you want to have links back to your website, make sure you are going with quality sites. Don’t pick ones that are considered spam or that have only a handful of viewers. While these sites might be really nice, placing links on these sites can harm your search engine rankings.
Pick sites relevant to your website. While it would be nice to place links on the most visited site all the time, this does not always point out a quality link. It doesn’t make sense to place links on a site for shoes if you are in the hospital market. Not only can this hurt your ranking, it will keep you away from the customers who would actually make a purchase through your website.
Update links when needed. Always keep your links updated. You don’t want your indexed links to be outdated or rundown. This is going to make your rankings go down.
Pick high ranked sites. When picking out websites to link with, make sure you are going with those that are ranked higher. This shows the search engine that you are well liked and associated with other high ranked sites, so maybe you should be ranked higher as well.
Duplicate Content Issues
Never ever take content from another source and use it as your own. Search engines like to see quality content that is unique. While you can have a similar product or story to another website, you just shouldn’t use the exact same wording on your own website.
This was a problem that occurred for some time with websites. They would see that a breaking story came out, or one that was well-done and very popular, and many websites would copy the work and try to put it on their own. They may try some more linking, keywords, and other tactics in order to increase their rankings and perhaps sell a product. Soon, you would do a keyword search and find ten or more websites with the exact same article on them.
Search engines have started cracking down on this. If you try to publish duplicate content, you are not able to get a high ranking in the search engines. The search engines don’t want to disappoint their users with a lot of duplicate content so always strive to make your own and make it high quality. This will bring in the viewers and ensure that you get the best ranking results.
Social Shares
When it comes to SEO, social media can add a lot of power. The more comments, shares, and likes you can get on your social media sites as well as with your blogs, the higher you will rank in search engines. This is because these activities show the search engine that you are really popular with users and that others are talking about you. If this group of people uses energy to talk about you, it is easy to see that others would want to find your information as well, making it easier to become ranked.
When you create a blog or have a social media page, make sure to provide quality content. This is true even on a Twitter or Facebook page. Update the information often to keep consumers coming back to see your page again. It isn’t going to help your rankings if you provide one great article or event that draws people in and then they never come back. But continuous good writing and content can help to keep your viewers coming back and your rankings high.
When you follow some of these easy tips, you will see great results in your search engine ranking. Just remember to pick the right keywords, produce original and quality content, and don’t try to fool the search engines and you are sure to get some of the great results you have been looking for.
