SEO tips to improve your website Visibility and ranking

Written by Adam Basheer | 16-Dec-2016 04:08:16

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)? SEO is a fundamental online marketing tool and strategy used to generate organic traffic to your website in order to achive a higher ranking in Google search results and other search engines. In basic terms, Google crawls web pages to find quality sites based on what the web user is searching for. The following article discusses the importance of ensuring your web pages consists of keywords and phrases relevant to your service offering and tips to improve the visibility and ranking of your website.

Copy is just one of the many different factors effecting SEO. Content has a tremendous influence on both searches and on the activity of search engine spiders and visitors. SEO is all about bringing targeted traffic to your website from search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo and Bing). It is also about converting or capturing those visitors and ensuring they perform a desired action; be that a purchase, a newsletter sign up or completing a web enquiry form.

Compelling, unique and frequently updated content makes search engines happy. For search optimisation purposes (and just general reader-friendliness) your content should be tightly on-topic and strongly centered on the subject matter of the desired keyword phrases. Keywords are the words that your customers (or prospective customers) may use when they try to find you online. Try to pick one primary keyword phrase per page. The more focused your page is on a single topic, the better chance you have of achieving high rankings for it.

Keywords and keyword phrases should be used in specific areas of your web pages; in the main descriptive copy (which if you have a content management system is simple to change) and in the title, description meta tags and headlines. The latter may need to be done by your web developer or someone with an understanding of the 'back end' of your site. The title and meta tags do not appear on the page being viewed but they are recognised by search engines and can substantially increase your chances of optimising search results.

Within content copy, you want the page to be 'keyword rich', allowing them to:

help the page be found in the results, and
entice searchers to want to visit your website.

A content body length of at least 300 words will also help to rank higher - too short and you will tend to miss out. Keyword frequency is the number of times your targeted keyword phrase appears on the page. Keyword density is the ratio of those keywords to the rest of the words on the page.

It's generally accepted that keyword frequency affects ranking but you also don't want to overdo the density of keywords or the page will be seen as 'keyword stuffing'. Measure that frequency against the overall length of the content. A keyword density greater than 5.5% could find you guilty of keyword stuffing and will mean that Google and other search engines will start to ignore you.

While it may seem obvious; the basis of success is using compelling content written in the language of the 'searcher'. And don't forget to encourage the visitor to do something! Focus on getting a tangible result for every visit. While there are many other factors involved in SEO, keeping your visitor foremost in your mind will get you well on your way to better search results.

To build your online presence it is important to consider other online marketing tools as SEO only represents one component of a digital marketing strategy. Social media, email marketing and content marketing are examples of additional online tools to assist in improving your website visibility and ranking whilst generating leads for the business. In particuarly, inbound marketing is the most powerful online tool for stimulating business awareness and lead generation. The inbound marketing process fully integrates all online tools helping to bring all your online marketing activities together. See the What is Inbound Marketing? article for a full overview.

If you're seeking SEO or need a complete inbound marketing strategy please contact Fit 4 Market, marketing strategy and inbound marketing specialists.

Fit 4 Market are specialist marketing consultants operating in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth

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