More businesses are beginning to take advantage of search engines to drive traffic to their websites, there is increasingly becoming the need to address SEO issues.
By using the proper SEO techniques, you will help improve the search index ranking of your website, thus generating more traffic. Here are 3 ways that are sure to improve website ranking.
Choosing the Right Keywords
One of the most important aspects of getting a website ranked is by targeting the correct keywords. Keywords are the text phrases that are entered into search engines like Google and Bing when trying to find specific information. However, as the internet has increased in popularity, so has the competition level for certain keywords and this means they are more difficult to rank for. When you are trying to determine the best keywords for your website you will want to do some research to find low competition keywords. There are a variety of free online tools, such as Google’s keyword planner, that will be able to indicate competition levels of keyword phrases.
Quality Content
In the early days of the internet it used to be possible to create subpar content and still achieve high search engines rankings, but this is no longer the case. The ever-increasing levels of competition, combined with more advanced search engine algorithms, has brought about the necessity for well-written, high-quality content. In fact, search engines have begun to deindex websites that use poorly written content or duplicated material. The best way to ensure that the content on your website will help your ranking is by creating content that is completely unique and informative. Unique content will make your site stand out amongst the others and search engines will recognise this. If you are worried about having a duplicate content issue, there are a number of content checking tools online that will help ensure that there are no problems when posting new material.
Backlinks
A significant factor in getting your website ranked is the number of backlinks associated with the site. A backlink is created when a separate website links to your website. Backlinks help search engines determine which websites can be trusted by assuming that if another site is linking to yours, then it must contain valuable information. However, there has been an influx of websites using artificially created backlinks, and search engines now look for these occurrences. If a search engine like Google feels that the backlinks to your site were artificially created, it could lead to the site being dropped from the rankings. It is for this reason that backlinks should always be generated organically and allowed to grow slowly over time.
Using Metadata
The concept of metadata may be unfamiliar to those outside the world of web development and SEO, but it is certainly worth learning for those wishing to increase their web page rank. Metadata is information about the website which is placed within the code on the main index page where thetags are located. If you are using web services such as WordPress, then these fields are probably already completed with relevant information, however, it is still worth checking.
There are three types of metadata that can be entered into the head section of the code – title metadata, description metadata, and keyword metadata.
Title Metadata
The title section of the metadata will be the content that is contained on the browser tab. Usually, the title is fairly short and concise, but it is still important to use tags that use keywords to will help users and search engines identify the content on the page. In fact, many feel that the title metadata is the most important tag on the page, simply because it is the first thing that users will see when they visit.
Description Metadata
The description metadata is the text that the search engine is going to display when the website link is shown in the results. This information is one of the first lines of contact with users, so it is important that the information contained within is both informative and contains the keywords that you wish to rank for. For the description meta, you will want to use short sentences, so that it will not appear cluttered when users see the page in the search index.
Keyword Metadata
Keyword metadata is one of the good ways to input a list of special words so that search engines are able to rank your site properly. While keyword metadata will help search engines decide which phrases your site will rank for, it is still vital to produce content that targets specific keywords. However, it is worth noting that you should not go overboard when inputting keywords into the head. If there are too many keywords listed in the file, there is a chance that search engines will think the material irrelevant, thus passing over it without registering the words. It is best practice to keep the keywords to about 6-8 phrases, with each one of these phrases containing roughly 1-4 words.
In Summary
It will not be a secret that in order for a website to receive organic search traffic if it is rank well in search engines. If you are trying to improve the ranking of your website, you will want to make sure that the proper keywords and phrases are being targeted, as this will help search engines classify the material. In addition, it is vital that the content is well-written and unique. By creating unique content, you will set your site apart from others in the same market. Furthermore, the number of backlinks that lead to the website will play a significant role in ranking. However, it is important to let backlinks grow organically, rather than artificially creating them. Lastly, make sure that you are properly using metadata, such as keywords and descriptions, as these short phrases will go a long way in helping to increase your website rank. When you are looking for ways to improve the ranking of your website, be sure to consider these 3 methods and ranking will surely improve.
At Krome, we specialise in website design services as well as SEO-ready websites. If you or your client are interested in creating a site, it’s time to tell us about your project or have a chat about what we can do. You can contact us here.