Resources and Tips / SEO 101: How to pump up your web presence
SEO 101: How to pump up your web presence
By SME Institute
As a small or medium-sized business owner, you know that having an online presence is essential to reach new customers. But how do you make sure your website is being seen by potential customers? That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in.
SEO is the process of making your website more visible in search engine results pages (SERPs). When done correctly, SEO can help you attract more website visitors, convert more leads, and close more sales. In other words: SEO can help you boost your bottom line. And who doesn’t want that?
If you’re new to SEO, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered with this beginner’s guide to SEO. Read on to learn the basics of how to improve your website’s SEO.
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Do Your Research
Before you can start optimizing your website for better SEO, you need to know what keywords your target audience is using when they perform a search. This requires a little bit of research on your part.
Start by brainstorming a list of keywords related to your products or services. Then, use a tool like Google’s Keyword Planner to see how often those keywords are being searched for and how difficult they are to rank for. Once you have that information, you can start focusing on the keywords that are most likely to lead to success.
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Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly
Mobile traffic now makes up over half of all web traffic worldwide, so it’s important that your website is optimized for mobile devices. If it isn’t, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to reach new customers.
There are a few different things you can do to make sure your website is mobile-friendly:
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Use responsive design: This means that your website will automatically adjust its layout to fit the screen size of the device someone is using – whether that’s a desktop computer, a tablet, or a smartphone.
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Use large font sizes: Mobile users have smaller screens and may have difficulty reading small print. To ensure they can read your content without zooming in, use large font sizes for all your text items.
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Include mobile-friendly calls to action: Make it easy for mobile users to take the next step with prominently placed calls-to-action (CTAs). For example, if you want them to call your business, include a click-to-call button so they can do so with just one tap. You can also use CTAs to encourage them to download an app or sign up for a newsletter.
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Optimize Your Images
Whenever you add images to your website or blog posts, be sure to include relevant keywords in the file names and fill out the alternate text field with a brief description of each image. This helps search engines understand what each image is of and increases the chances that your images will show up in image search results (another great way to attract new visitors to your site).
These are just a few basic tips for improving your website’s SEO – but following these tips will put you miles ahead of businesses that aren’t doing any optimization at all. Just remember: SEO is an ongoing process, not a one-time effort. To keep seeing results from your optimization efforts, be sure to keep up with the latest trends and updates from Google. Doing so will help you maintain – and even improve – your rankings over time.
While SEO may seem like a complex and time-consuming endeavor, there are some very simple things you can do to get started and see real results. So if you’re looking for ways to attract more visitors to your website, be sure to try out some basic SEO tactics – you might be surprised at how effective they can be!