How to Make Sure Your Website is SEO Optimized

For smaller organizations, search engine optimization (SEO) can seem like a daunting task. A large amount of information is available online, but much of it is rather technical. Many people choose to look for industry experts to perform even the basic tasks of optimizing a website.

While that’s a good option if the budget is available, there are other ways you can optimize your website that are simple to perform and lay the groundwork for expanding an SEO campaign. These relatively simple areas are the foundation of a successful ranking on search engines. Start with these suggestions before you move on to more complex tasks.

Metadata and keywords

Before engaging in any optimization tactic, you should understand how potential customers will find your website: they type in keywords into search engines, and you need to make sure that relevant keywords appear on your website. As a starting point, use Google’s Keyword Planner to come up with some initial ideas — this tool provides valuable information regarding the amount of traffic that certain keywords generate. Also, do a bit of research on your competition. Look at what type of information is published on their website and observe which keywords stand out.

Afterward, make sure that the keywords align well with the content that is on the website. Also, consider seeking out some help in this area. Industry experts in the area of link building and content development like Link Graph have a set of free tools available that businesses can use to check web crawlers, review domain authority, and perform a rich snippets test.

Content building

The value of high-quality content cannot be overstated. It’s the most important part of a page and what generates traffic. Not only does it help build domain authority (which predicts how likely your website is to rank in search engines), it gives visitors a reason to visit the site and return to it. It also gives others a reason to link to your content, which also increases domain authority.

For decades, many businesses engaged in different tactics including duplicate information, keyword stuffing, and others to fool Google into ranking their page higher (these are called “black hat” tactics). However, the company has significantly improved their algorithm to use sophisticated techniques that detect and understand quality content. So it doesn’t make sense for companies to substitute valuable information for short-sighted and short-term results. Instead, focusing on the continual development of compelling content is a long-term approach that all search engines value. Apart from the quality, make sure that the content is relevant and update the information regularly.

Link building

Link building is just as important as content when it comes to search engine optimization. The reason is simple: if someone with a great website and a high domain authority score values your content enough to link to it, your content and page must also be great. Therefore, the page itself will appear higher in a search engine results page (SERP).

There are generally three types of techniques for link building including organic, white hat, and black hat tactics. Black hat tactics are spammy and should be avoided. White hat tactics involve SEO strategies targeted at appealing to humans more so than search algorithms. Organic links are links from high-quality sites that you do not ask for. These are the best but take the longest because others must see your content and value it enough to link to it.

However, you can improve your organic SEO strategies by submitting guest blog posts to quality blogging sites, listing your page in business directories, creating social media posts, and reaching out to other businesses and providing content. As you engage in these practices, always make sure to test and measure results, and maintain your website by reviewing and adjusting accordingly.

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