By now, most businesses that want to reach people online know the term search engine optimisation. SEO is a key component of having a site rank on search engines, making it easier for potential customers to find a site and ultimately use its products or services. However, SEO comprises many different aspects that can make the task daunting, particularly to those who are not experts in the space. Fortunately, there are several simple steps anyone can take to boost a company’s SEO over time.
Before diving into tips for improving SEO, though, it is essential to understand the various aspects of optimisation. Technical SEO is the process of improving a website for the crawling and indexing done by search engines. When a search engine see your company’s website, it needs to be able to access, interpret, and index the site without any issues. SEO tactics listed below can help with this objective, as well as improving content SEO strategies and off-site promotion through other websites.
Have a Well-organised Website
First and foremost, a well-thought-out website is crucial to boosting SEO. Users visiting a site need to be able to find out what your company is about and gather the information they need quickly. Search engines want to same. A site needs to have a logical structure and hierarchy of information, without being overwhelming and confusing. Try not to have too many categories of information or subcategories, and keep things simple for the user (and the search engine crawlers). Having a website that is structured in a way that allows for this to take place is an easy way to improve SEO.
Produce High-Quality Content
In addition to a well-structured website, companies can boost SEO campaigns with the help of high-quality content. Content needs to be relevant to the users visiting a website, and it should include keywords that show authority on a topic. Just like the website structure, content needs to be organised in a way that makes sense to readers. Using headings so that visitors are not facing a wall of text and space out the content in a way that helps readers scan the information.
Most importantly, though, developing and published quality content that is meant to benefit the reader is a must. Companies should also have a plan for updating content on a regular basis, keeping things fresh for search engine crawling and indexing.
Link to Authority Sites
Another easy way to improve a company’s SEO is to add in relevant links to outside websites. To ensure this tactic actually aids to an SEO strategy, outbound links need to be to authority sites, not merely a site with the same keywords or anchor text. Linking to outbound websites helps increase relevancy of the content produced, and it may help readers spend more time on your site. Search engine algorithms give credit for this tactic when it is done correctly.
Include Metadata
SEO metadata is what shows up on search engine page results when a user searches for a specific keyword or phrase. Improving the metadata on a website can help boost SEO, but this can be a confusing task for those without experience or expertise. This is because metadata involves creating several meta titles, meta descriptions, relevant metadata keywords. Leaning on an SEO marketing agency may be beneficial for improving metadata so that it is both descriptive and efficient behind the scenes.
Optimise for Speed and Mobile Use
Finally, a simple way to boost your company’s SEO is through optimisation of the website itself. From a speed perspective, search engine crawlers need to be able to access the information listed on a site quickly and without issue. If the site is slow, format and edit images with a compression tool to help keep speed up to par. Additionally, optimising speed may involve including browser caching to help information load quickly when a user revisits a page.
Mobile optimisation is also a must, as this is now a factor in ranking for SEO. Running a simple test to check the mobile optimisation of the company’s site can highlight any issues with how a user – or a search engine – experiences a website on a mobile device.