The power of SEO lies in the user’s search intent. Search engines assist users by providing the most relevant, useful information available based on this intent. This means that the more useful and valuable user experience you create, the more chances that search engines will rank your pages higher. By prioritizing good SEO habits, you can continually work towards higher search rankings. Here’s an overview of our top SEO tips for ranking SERP results:
Website, On Page SEO Tips:
1. Relevant keywords: Using a keyword tool like SEMrush or Moz help determine which words will help attract the most visitors based on the search terms popularity. Pick the most relevant keywords for your business, that also have a good search volume, to try ranking higher for them.
2. Link-bait title tags: Title tags are catchy descriptions that grab your audiences attention, enough to make them click through to your website. Keep these descriptions short to help users and web crawlers determine that your page is relevant for this search. For an optimal display on SERPs, limit it to 55 characters.
3. Keywords in the beginning of page title tags: Google rates title tags that have keywords at the beginning as more relevant and therefore they are more likely to rank higher.
4. Keyword focused meta descriptions: Meta descriptions are shown under the title tag on SERPs, giving users a more in depth description of the page they are interested in going to, to ensure that it is what they are looking for. Meta-descriptions are limited to 160 characters, so aim to keep within the 150-160 range.
5. Proper sitemap: When a websites structure is up-to-date and easy to navigate, the easier search engine crawlers can find and index pages, which means ranking higher and being found online. Remember the three-click rule—customers should find what they need on your site in three clicks, or less, otherwise they will go to another site.
6. SEO-friendly URLs: URLs should match the page topic because crawlers take this into account to determine the relevancy of the page. Creating short URLs with your keywords in it, using “-” instead of “_” between words as well as spelled out numbers, will help users and crawlers read URLs faster.
7. Internal linking with anchor text: Internally linking to other web pages on your site adds keyword-rich internal links to each page linked. Internal linking helps search engines crawl your site, helps readers click through your site to find more information and improves keyword ranking.
8. Outbound links: Outbounds links are essentially references within your text, that link to an outbound site. When you link to reputable and authoritative sources, it improves the relevancy and usefulness of your own information. Sharing is caring and it will help you in the long run.
9. Load speed: Nobody likes slow pages. If your website loads too slowly, most people wont wait because they can click back and get on another site in the same amount of time. Use Google Analytics to determine your page load speed, and strive to improve it until it is in less than a couple seconds.
10. Truly helpful content: Think of what information could really benefit your customers. Make it easy to read, visually and grammatically, and keep it as unique as possible. When you content is truly helpful and relevant people in your target audience will stay on your page to read it and others will link to it.
Off page SEO practices:
1. Search engine request: It may take longer than desired for search engines to find and crawl your site, which means your page won’t start ranking for keywords. You can speed this process up by requesting for your website to be crawled by popular search engines. (Google Analytics)
2. Local directory submission: Crawlers confirm your business information through business listing directories, so naturally it will help to submit your business listing information to the most popular directories. This also creates more places for customers to find you. When your name, address, phone number and website are submitting with the category information, it helps search engines connect the relevancy of your business to a keyword.
Here is a list of the top business listing directories to start with.
3. Backlinking: When you use content PR to get your content out to more people, this gives the chance for others to possibly link to you. The more quality, authority backlinks your web page has, the more your page will be relevant and useful, for search engines to use.
4. Social media marketing: Manage your online reputation through all relevant social media channels. Post your relevant content from your website on social media to get likes, shares and links. Remember to keep promotional content to 20% and the other 80% for helpful information.
5. Video marketing: Share relevant, useful vidoes on Youtube, Vimeo and any other relevant platform, so that more users can find you.
6. Forums and communities: Positioning yourself as an industry expert by answering questions can provide the opportunity to reference your website or blog link as a solution.
We hope that you can implement some of these bite sized SEO tips to start ranking your business higher!
