Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a major source of getting online traffic and buyers to your website. Getting exposure to a selected group of users can be achieved through advertising campaigns, but for a continuous flow of organic traffic, no one can ignore the search engine. An SEO strategy may not be suitable for every business, whereas the basics remain the same for all. Here are some of the tips to help you ensure your business web presence and reach in the search engines.
1. Select Business Keywords
Most of the beginners select keywords that have a low competition. It is good to start with low competition terms, but never stick to them for longer. Focus on the primary keywords that are highly relevant to your business. Getting higher ranking is a goal to gain traffic, but using the relevant one ensures higher conversions.
It also depends on the nature of your business. If you are carrying a local business, then the names of the cities or localities shall be used in the keywords. It is also one of the primary aspects to take care before starting a business. The online world is all about searching volume and competition. And, you must select the search queries that best meet your business requirements.
2. Find how the competitors rank
In SEO, it works fine to spy on the competitors and their activities. Most of the marketers need the inspiration to get started with a distinct nature of business. The competitors listing is a source to know the keywords they use, the most promising business listing and social media platforms, and from where they get backlinks.
It is suggested to track their footprints and devise a marketing strategy that is a step ahead. They might be ranked with a strategy that was planned 3 to 6 months ago. You can craft a more impressive and effective strategy with the current trends and achieve a higher placement.
3. Configure Google Analytics
Striving hard for better rankings without knowing your progress is blind game. You need to know the effects of each strategy you do for your business. And, alter it for higher performance. It often happens that you have to try different activities to rank business of a specific niche. To know which of your strategies is result oriented; you have to track the changes in traffic and conversions.
Google Analytics is a reliable tool to know the real time visitors, total session, bounce rate and exit pages. Configure it with your website and start viewing how many of your visitors are converting. It also gives you to filter traffic and get details only about the audience you need for your business.
4. Set GEO IP Redirections
A business that is operating in more cities and regions need to send traffic to the right URL. Most of the eCommerce websites have multiple stores that aim to target different regions. To help the customers land directly to a store meant for them, the merchants can set redirections. PrestaShop Block IP Moduleis one of the essential tools that recognize the IP based address of the users, send them to a relevant store view, display a message or simply restrict them accessing the store. It helps websites control traffic from different regions, serve them on the right store and prevent spamming as well.
5. Produce Top-notch Content
The search engines value the quality as well as the quantity of the content. Your website or blog is evaluated on the quality of content that you produce to educate them about a product, service or a topic. And, the relevancy is checked through the fair usage of relevant keywords. So, for higher rankings, use business-specific keywords within the content that looks natural and meaningful.
If you pursue writing top-notch content, it will already discuss the key phrases and relevant terms in a blog. But, still, you need to review the right placement of keywords to optimize a blog, article, web content or guest post for higher visibility.
6. Optimize Title and Meta Tags
The search engine snippet includes title and description along with your business web address. To make sure it ranks higher, write a compelling page title and descriptions for home, about us, services, and product pages. And, do include the keywords naturally. Keep a title limited to 66 characters and the Meta description to 160 characters. Make is easier for the end user to know about a page right before they visit it.
7. Improve Page Speed
The online users are in a hurry and never wait more than 3-4 seconds for a page to load. If your website takes more time to open in a browser, the user is more likely to cancel it and visit another link from the search results. It reduces the conversion rate and online rankings as well. It may also result in a higher bounce rate, which is not favorable for your website if the customers do not stay for a longer duration.
You can improve the page load speed by tweaking the design, removing large images and media files, or deactivating unnecessary plugins. And, let the users get all the details at a glance.
8. Optimize images as well
Image optimization is also important. It gives a boost to your online traffic and ranking by making sure the products or services appear in search. Images have the power to make the products more appealing and attractive. It is one of the engaging types of content that make the readers know more about a store item. To make more out of your website images, include a keyword in the title, description, and Alt tags and reach the audience you need.
9. Link Internal Pages of your website
Internal linking is essential for sharing the link juice of a page without another one. The rank of your home page flows to the linked ones which increase the credibility and reach of the entire website. You might have experienced this while reading a blog, where one post is connected with another through textual links. You can also do so to educate users about different products and let them visit more pages with a single click. It results in a demanding bounce rate and lower page exit rate, which finally boost your search engine rankings.
10. Get natural links from other websites
Getting links can be a painstaking job, but it is really worthy for your website. It gives you exposure and credibility. Guest blogging is one of the widely practiced methods of associating a website with a higher authority blog or domain. Connect with top bloggers of your niche, write creative content for the title they suggest and grab a link to your relevant product. It will result in getting relevant traffic and a higher exposure on social media networks. Build your brands by reaching out the online entrepreneurs, bloggers, and influencers.
11. Be active on Social media
Social media is a mandatory part of online marketing as it maximizes your exposure to different platforms where people search for their favorite product and manufacturers. Create official profiles on Facebook, Twitter, G+, and add more platforms that work well for your business. For example, Instagram is a heaven for photographers, artists, and professional designers. And, Pinterest is more popular among women for fashion, jewelry, art and craft.