Whenever you want something — a product, a piece of advice, a contact number — what is the first thing you usually do? You pull up a search engine and type in your question, right? Google processes over 3.5 billion searches daily. Therefore, it’s no surprise that so many companies are scrambling to get involved with search engine optimisation (SEO), a strategy that helps businesses rise to the top of search positions for queries associated with their company, services or products.
To the outside observer, SEO often seems complicated, intimidating and bogged down with technical logistics. But it doesn’t need to be.
Here are some simple ways to increase the visibility of your website:
- Optimise every page of your site with rich content.
This is undoubtedly the most complicated thing on this list, but it is fundamental. Without it, you will be hard-pressed to have visibility in search engines in any way.
All of your webpages, especially your primary line-up (home, contact, etc.), have to include concisely written, descriptive articles. Ideally, this content will be optimised for particular target keywords and phrases (so long as the text doesn’t seem unnatural). In case you have pages without a lot of content, prevent Google from indexing them by using the “noindex” feature, and “nofollow” any hyperlinks to those pages, also.
- Write unique title tags and meta descriptions for each page.
Title tags function as the headlines of your pages in search engine results pages (SERPs), whilst meta descriptions function as descriptive text. Not only do these constructs inform Google about the web content and purpose of each of your pages, they also dictate how your pages appear in search results.
They rank your pages higher and increase click-through rates from users on search engine results pages. It is possible to use a web-based tool like Siteliner or a comprehensive website crawler like Screaming Frog for an accurate evaluation of every page on your website, including name tags and meta descriptions.
- Weed out 404 errors.
404 errors are annoying for users and might interfere with the amount of pages Google may index. By themselves, they are not likely to hurt your rankings, but it is still usually worth setting up a 301 redirect or restoring the webpage if you observe that a 404 error where there should not be one.
Google Search Console has an excellent tool for assessing this: Look under “crawl mistakes” If your site is on WordPress, you can download one of a variety of plugins made to automatically make 404 pages useful and fun, or mechanically 301-redirect them to a different page, including your home page.
- Make your articles easily shareable.
This is a very simple change, and in case you haven’t done it already, you have probably missed out on some significant opportunities. On your site page, feature social share icons so that your users can actively and easily share your articles socially. Social shares do not contribute to positions directly, but might make your pieces more visible, which makes it easier for them to make more inbound links.
This advantage was recently confirmed as one of the top two ranking variables in Google’s algorithm. If your website is WordPress-based, you will find a range of plugins that may incorporate social share buttons to your site dynamically.
- Optimise your images.
You are probably using images and logo design in your articles advertising effort, but are you optimising them efficiently? It does not take much to get your pictures into optimum shape for search engines; all you need to do is name your pictures accurately; write a precise, keyword-rich description; and include alt tags along with a caption to categorise and describe the picture’s role on your webdesign.
If optimisation is done properly, your picture will be indexed and searchable in Google Image Search — an indirect, but valuable path for online searchers to get to your website.
- Make your site load faster.
Site speed is not a vital element for search engine visibility, but it certainly does count. Additionally, a quicker site usually contributes to a better consumer experience, which means a higher conversion rate, among other advantages.
You can enhance your loading speed by: optimising your pictures, using relevant pictures, using a good caching plugin, deleting unneeded meta data and utilising only using plugins you really need.
- Include structured mark-up.
Okay, to be honest, this one is not that simple, but it’s a powerful (and more or less straightforward) way to get your website more visible in search engines. Sooner or later, you have performed a search and noticed some stand-out response for your query situated above or on the side of the normal results; this might be a miniature calendar, an encyclopaedic entry or a brief summary-style answer.
These are rich snippets, and if you would like to get featured like this, you ought to include structured mark-up for a variety of kinds of digital content on your website.
Now, do not think these strategies are the complete extent of SEO. In actuality, they barely scratch the surface of what onsite SEO is about, and they do not even take off-site SEO into account. Nor will these strategies net you a dramatic difference overnight, but they’re easy to execute, and can offer a meaningful spark of expansion in your site’s search visibility.