Did you know that on average, the first search result receives almost 40% of the clicks? And that results lower than 10 receive cumulatively around 1%?
It pays to be at the top of the search engine results pages, and it might not be as difficult as you think.
In this article we offer five simple Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) tips that will help your website climb the ranks and attract more visitors – and ultimately grow your business.
Let’s explore simple seo tips:
1. Optimize Your Website for Keywords
Keywords are the terms users are searching to find your products or services. They can be general, such as ‘builder’ or more specific, such as ‘rear home extensions’. They can also be global, i.e., non-geographically-specific, or local, targeting a specific catchment area.
Keywords are the foundation of SEO. They dictate the content and structure of your website. Use keyword research tools to discover the search volume (the number of people searching that keyword) and the keyword difficulty (the strength of the search competition). As a general rule, the higher the search volume, the stronger the competition.
Be ambitious in your selection, but not overly so – after all, there’s no use targeting highly competitive keywords if you’re not going to rank highly for them.
In general, you should try to target 1 or 2 keywords per page. Pages can be optimised for keywords by including them within:
- Page titles
- Meta descriptions
- Headings and sub-headings
- Content (copy)
- URLs
Use the keywords naturally. Avoid keyword stuffing (i.e. unnatural overuse) as this can cause more harm than good.
2. Improve Your Website’s Loading Speed
Have you ever got frustrated with a slow-loading website and clicked away? Of course you have. But it wasn’t just you who noticed the website’s poor performance – Google did too.
When determining rankings, search engines consider the user experience on the website, and a big part of this is the loading speed. Make sure yours is up to scratch by compressing images, enabling browser caching, and using a reliable web hosting service.
You can check your website speed by using Google PageSpeed Insights, and if you’re at all unsure, reach out to a professional web designer for assistance.
3. Create High-Quality, Engaging Content
Google’s continual algorithm changes aim to improve the manner in which it assesses and ranks websites’ content, with the aim of returning useful, engaging content to its users.
So what does that mean for you? The answer is simple: Create great content!
Start simple in the form of informative blog posts and how-to guides and expand from there. Think video content, imagery and infographics. Use it to answer common queries, demonstrate your expertise, gain trust and make the sale.
Make sure to keep content up to date, particularly if it’s time-sensitive.
4. Build High-Quality Backlinks
Another way search engines rank results is by comparing the ‘authority’ of websites. ‘Authority’ is gained by having other ‘authoritative’ websites linking to yours, also known as ‘backlinking’. Backlinks can be created in a number of ways:
- Research and reach out to blogs within your niche and offer to write for them in return for a backlink.
- List your website in reputable online directories (but don’t overdo it). Local and trade directories are best.
- Create shareable content that other websites will want to link to – generating original stats is a great way to earn citations.
Avoid ‘spammy’ backlinks and always beware of offers to build hundreds of backlinks on the cheap – this can earn you a penalty from which it may be difficult to recover.
5. Optimise for Mobile Usability
In recent years, mobile searches have surpassed desktop searches. As a result, Google uses a ‘mobile first’ policy, whereby it indexes the content on the mobile version of your website first. Mobile usability is also a key ranking factor as it affects user experience.
To ensure your site is mobile-friendly, opt for a responsive web design and optimise images and videos for mobile viewing. Navigation is also key – make sure the menu and search options work on smaller screens.
If you’re concerned about the mobile usability of your website, use a mobile-friendly testing tool or speak to a web and mobile design expert.
5 Simple SEO Tips: Final Thoughts
By following these 5 simple seo tips, your website will climb the search engine rankings, generating actionable leads for your business. Don’t delay in optimising your website – get SEO-ing today!
