Are you concerned your content is not resonating with your audience? Do you fear your website is not considered “relevant” to Google? If so, you’re one of the thousands of business professionals who realize the importance of a healthy, strong, and consistent digital presence. Vive Marketing already highlighted having a poor website as one of the 12 common pitfalls that brands may face in their marketing.
In our latest blog, we’re going to explore the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) while presenting you with basic SEO principles to stay ahead of the competition and increase the overall user experience on your website.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your organic search traffic to improve the quality and quantity of website visitors. While this may seem like an overwhelming task, completing it without hiring a professional or relying on an in-house SEO consultant is possible.
The Basics of Search Engine Optimization
An optimized website will help a brand increase website traffic, which, in turn, increases the potential for quality leads and increased business. How do you gain better search results? It all starts with an SEO strategy.
Most SEO elements begin on your website, which makes it easier for you to get started! The first critical element of a web page is the title tag. The title tag communicates directly with the search engine, giving an accurate and concise description of the page’s content. Title tags should include specific information and keywords that relate to the page. Crafting the perfect title tag should be straightforward, with a character count of 70 or less.
The next element to discuss is the meta description. The meta description informs the search engines what information your page will share with the user. Its purpose is to get someone searching for a specific word or phrase, see your link and click on it. The more precise the meta description, the better opportunity you have to convince users that your content is the most relevant to their search. A good meta description should be between 150 and 156 characters.
While title tags and meta descriptions are the fundamental SEO elements, they are not the only elements that lead to a successful SEO Plan. To further enhance your website’s optimization score, consider the following SEO elements to increase performance:
- Internal Links
- Internally linking to other pages on your website. (Like this link here)
- Header Tags
- Headings on the page that help readers and search engines break up your content.
- Alt Tags
- Assists Google to determine which images are relevant, based on user search.
Ongoing Maintenance
Any well-run machine takes maintenance – your website included – to keep a website optimized and user-friendly, these SEO maintenance practices will keep you on the right path:
– Monitor Website Performance
- Google Analytics & Google Search Console are robust tools that will help you articulate how users interact with your website.
- Click-Through Rates (CTR%)
- Bounce Rate percentages
- The average duration of the user visit
– Optimize or Re-optimize Existing Content
- Review your content for accuracy. Is the content on your website still relevant to user needs?
- Verify content alignment. Does the information on your website align with desired user searches? Will your content illustrate solution capabilities?
- Adjust keyword strategies. Are the keywords, either organic or paid, your website ranks for driving the right traffic to your website or web pages?
- Do these keywords generate an efficient lead-generation funnel?
Takeaways
The implementation of these quick SEO necessities will help improve your presence on Google and overall site performance. If your business is looking for additional support to increase user engagement, enhance website optimization, and improve website performance – start a conversation with us!
