What is SEO, and why is it so important?
You seem to hear about SEO, or search engine optimization, wherever you go. In fact, it has grown so important to all organisations’ internet marketing that the industrial market for it is estimated to be worth almost $80 billion . A fast Google search will reveal tens of thousands of companies all trying to sell you the same thing: how to increase website traffic. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of increased traffic. Every company, organisation, non-profit, and other entity has – or should have – a website. Without a solid understanding of what SEO is and how to implement it, you’ll struggle to attract people to your site and lose out on potential revenue. You’ll study the SEO Basics – 3 Steps to Increase Website Traffic in this article.
STEP ONE: Keywords are… key!
To begin, what exactly are keywords? Keywords are the words and phrases in your content that allow visitors to find your website using search engines. Consider the words you type into a search engine (google, bing, or yahoo) to be keywords. They must be present on your website in order for more people to find it.
For example, a managed service provider like us should have terms like “IT support,” “outsourced IT,” and “remote IT assistance” all over our website and primary pages. You can probably think of at least ten keywords and phrases that pertain to your business off the top of your head, but it’s more crucial to think about what your target audience is putting into a search engine. To put it another way, your website should communicate in the same language as your target audience.
Where can I put keywords?
Keywords should be used in as many places as possible within a sentence, where the phrase is both easy to understand and enticing to read. Of course, your keywords should show in your website’s page titles and content, but any photos you have on your site are a fantastic location to hide them. Every image has a name and a spot for alt text (the text that appears if the image does not load), and these are excellent places to include keywords. Last but not least, ensure that your keywords appear in the domain name of your website.
This may lead you to believe that “if adding as many keywords as possible is best,” “then my website will just contain keywords.” This is known as keyword stuffing, and it is frowned upon by search engines. “Welcome to Cats,” for example, is an illustration of this. We adore cats and anything related to them. Cats are the most intelligent animals on the planet. Cats are extremely gentle, and they have nine lives. This is the finest environment for cats if you love cats.”
It’s difficult to read that, and most of your readers will abandon the website as soon as they arrive. Keywords are important, but they must also be accessible and engaging, as if they were not present at all. Count how many times you’ve already heard the phrase “website”… It didn’t seem like much, 15 times.
STEP TWO: Let the Linking Begin
When it comes to search engine optimization, website linking is crucial, and the reason for this is to improve your Domain Authority, which is the measure of how authoritative your internet domain is. The number of domains linking back to your website is used to determine your domain authority. Have you ever wondered why Wikipedia consistently ranks first in search results? It’s because, similar to how I just connected to them, they have 1.7 BILLION external backlinks.
How do I get backlinks?
There’s no way to gain 1000 backlinks overnight, and if you think making 1000 bogus websites and connecting to yours is a smart idea, you’ll get penalised as well. Depending on the type of business and company you are, you may have to go the old school route of writing amazing content and asking people to connect to you.
Creating excellent content is an excellent technique to increase your backlinks. People will instinctively share exceptional content that they believe will help others. It’s also critical to make it simple for people to share and encourage your work. Many businesses have blogs and latest news sections, such as ours, to promote sharing and generate backlinks to their websites. I would advise you to develop a blog section to share your knowledge if you don’t already have one.
If you’re not the kind to beg others for links, another wonderful option is to hunt for blogs that are searching for guest authors. Searching for “(your keyword) intitle: “write for us”” will bring up hundreds of blogs that are searching for authors to contribute. They will link back to your website in exchange. For instance, a search for ‘Website Design intitle: “write for us”’ returned 8 680 blogs looking for guest authors.
STEP THREE: Content is Everything
We’ve already discussed the benefits of strong content for backlinks, but it can do so much more. Great content improves the user experience, which is vital to search engines.
Can you recollect a moment when you Googled a question and were directed to a website where you didn’t obtain an answer? It’s infuriating, and you decide to leave straight immediately. This indicates that the user experience was poor, and search engines will penalise you for it.
In contrast, if someone searches for an answer and comes upon your website, this is fantastic for your website, and you will be rewarded by ranking higher.
Concentrate on a particular niche if you want to write exceptional content. Websites that attempt to write about everything often perform poorly than those that focus on their area of expertise. You can develop a lot of material and be thorough if you focus on a particular niche. The perfect content answers all of the user’s questions and leaves them satisfied.
You should write many pages on the same subject and connect them with cross links. Both pages will have a better chance of ranking on the first page of search engines as a result of this. For example, I might create a blog about the biggest cyber security threats and how to defend yourself from a criminal’s refuge — they’ll both cover the same themes and use the same or comparable terms.
Your content, no matter how good it is, will eventually become stale. It’s critical to keep your content fresh. People want content that is relevant to the present year, not 2006, in 2019.
Finally, don’t forget to share your material on social media! Don’t be afraid to post more than once. In fact, over the course of a six-month period, you should share each article 4-5 times, growing your audience..
Need help with getting your business found online? Stridec is a top SEO agency in Singapore that can help you achieve your objectives with a structured and effective SEO programme that will get your more customers and sales. Contact us for a discussion now.