Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a practice of optimizing a website in order to increase its traffic and rank higher on search engine results. The higher the rank is, the greater the chance of attracting visitors from the target market. SEO helps to ensure that a website is accessible to visitors and web crawlers as well.
SEO has evolved a lot since it has started however, these easy techniques are still practiced. Learn the techniques that can help you in climbing Search Engines results. If you need professional Search Engine Marketing services, we can help.
- Anchor Tags. Anchor tags are used to create links to pages on a website. A good keyword combination inside an anchor tag is important. In order to get your readers’ attention, your links should be interesting to gain clicks. Links within your website is also a good practice to point your readers to related topics in your site. Spiders that crawl websites love to jump on links to another.
- H1, H2 and Strong tags. Headings give weight to your text especially if it is inside the H1 tag. Use H1 for the main heading or your target keywords and H2 for sub-headings or sub-topics. These headings show the spiders that these are the main subjects on your site, helping your content to be indexed.
Strong or bold texts also give emphasis to a series of words. Just like the h1 and h2 tags, they also weigh more than the regular texts. Make sure that your headings are related to your content. Again, a good combination of words pays a lot. - Titles. The title tag is one of the most important parts of your website. Your target keyword should be used on your website’s title. To activate this on your Terapad website, go to settings, and type the keywords on the boxes for site name and tagline. Different title tags on each page should also be practiced. On Terapad, we do this automatically for you.
- Alt tags on Images. Being said that texts play an important role in SEO, alt tags should be placed when you use images on your website. Oftentimes, we use images to further illustrate our subject and give life to our content. Since spiders cannot see these images, use alt tags to describe what is being shown.
- Choose your domain wisely. Spiders also read domain names when they crawl. A relevant domain pays more on your search engine rank. A number of factors should be considered when choosing a domain (or sub-domain) name. Most of the time, the domain of our choice is already taken. Don’t lose hope. Try to experiment by re-arranging the words or adding a new word to generate a new domain related to your first choice.
- Quality Content. Pay attention on the quality of your content rather than quantity. A long post might bore your readers making them leave your site instead of staying longer. An efficient practice of writing a blog post is by summarizing it in bullets just like this post. In this way, your readers can easily see the important points clearly. It is also necessary that the keywords you used in your Meta tag can be found in your content.
- Usability. Bear in mind that in websites, ‘First impressions last’. If you give your visitors a good experience during their first visit, they will come back. Simplicity is the key to usability. If your goal is to rank well on search engines, set aside some design factors. A simple interface with a simple menu is effective because your visitors can immediately see where they can navigate. If your site is not user-friendly, your visitors will lose patience and leave your site.
- Update Regularly. Spiders love to crawl on new information so it is important that your website is updated regularly. Content is king! Make sure it is composed of unique and relevant information. Duplicated contents that are copied from other sites do not help on your rankings. In addition, a minimum of 250 words is necessary to get to higher spots.
- Use SEO Tools. A number of SEO tools are available for free. These tools can help you monitor if you’re making progress and analyze your website. Avoid using automated software that promises to help you rank well or build links for you. It is important that you’re hands-on to the whole process. Few samples of free online SEO tools are, Google Analytics, Keyword Suggestion Tool from SEO Book, Alexa Traffic Analyzer, and Google Webmaster Tools.
- Patience is a virtue. SEO is not a one-night miracle technique. It takes time before you can see results. The more you improve your content, the greater the chance you can get noticed by spiders. Avoid overdoing anything that is beyond the rules of SEO. Avoid black hat SEO techniques that promise quick results and increase your site’s traffic. Hidden texts, link-farming, spamming and duplicated contents are a big NO in SEO.
These are just basic and easy techniques to help your site be indexed by search engines. Never stop learning. Search engine algorithms keep changing therefore, you should keep yourself up to date.It might take a while to get decent ranks on search results so do not be disappointed if you can’t get there soon enough. Good luck on your SEO quest!