Did you know that more than 40% of internet users click on the first search engine result only? Whether they’re looking for coffee shops, smartphones or pictures with funny cats, the first results are the ones which get the most attention.
Since there are more than 11 billion search queries performed monthly worldwide, now you probably understand why search engine optimization is so important for your business.
In layman’s terms, search engine optimization means making your website rank among the first ones in a result page. To do that, you need to know the most important elements of search engine optimization and constantly tweak your website to get the best results.
But what if you don’t know the latest SEO tricks? Well, you can learn some of them by reading this article.
Discover The Most Important Elements Of Search Engine Optimization!
Think of Google and other search engines as filters. They filter millions of websites daily based on certain criteria. By doing SEO, you are tweaking your website to meet these criteria. As a result, you’ll be “flying with eagles and not scratching with turkeys“, in the words of Zig Ziglar.
SEO works wonders for all kind of websites and industries. You can have SEO for business websites, blogs, websites in the design industry, automotive SEO, technology SEO, plumber SEO, you name it. As long as a website is up and running, there are many things you can do to improve its visibility.
1. Learn About Keywords
The keywords are some of the most important elements of your website. They basically describe what your site or blog is about. For example, a pet-related website should have keywords such as “cat food”, “dog training tips”, “accessories for your parrot”, etc. These keywords help to direct interested customers to your website, not to your competition.
There are numerous online tools which help you find the right keywords for your website such as Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, etc. Some of these tools are free, others are paid, but all of them help you find the right keywords for your website.
2. Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly
Most of the internet traffic comes from mobile phones these days. You simply can’t ignore that and you should do your best to make your website mobile-friendly.
This is a process which involves making every web page responsive and adjusted to smaller screen sizes. The buttons and links should also adjust automatically to make the website functional on a tablet or smartphone.
If you think this is too much for you now, don’t worry, you’re in good company. We suggest working with a professional website designer who can make your site mobile-friendly for an affordable cost. You’ll get your investment back in the long run when your site gets a lot of traffic.
3. Check The URL Structure
The URL is the actual address of your website on the internet. It’s the part which begins with “https://www.”. Each web page on the internet is associated with a certain URL and each URL should follow some SEO guidelines to make it rank higher in search engine results.
For example, your URL should be kept short and sweet. Don’t add too many words in there, making it look like a small paragraph. You should also avoid numbers and hyphens as these are not seen well by Google.
To make your URL shorter, you can simply remove certain words while keeping the essential ones. Let’s say that you have a page containing dog food products for puppies of all breeds. A poor URL structure would look like “https://www.yoursite.com/dog-food-products-for-puppies-all-breeds. This can be shortened to “https://www.yoursite.com/dog-food-puppies. The new URL basically says the same things while remaining short and easy to read.
4. Enable Breadcrumbs
The term “breadcrumbs” refers to the actual structure of your website. It’s a trail of words which helps search engines such as Google or Yahoo! understand how your website is arranged. For example – Home > About Us > Company History or Home > Blog > Dog Articles > Puppies > Healthy Foods for Puppies.
When you design your website, make sure that the theme you have chosen allows you to enable breadcrumbs. This will make your website more optimized for search engines and you’re one step ahead of your competition.
5. Gather Backlinks
The backlinks are to websites what blood is to humans. They are essential in making your website rank higher in search engines as well as increasing its reputation.
What is a backlink? A backlink is a link which comes from a different website than yours. This happens when a website refers to yours via a link in their blog posts or web pages. For example, if you have an article about dog foods on your blog and a different website links to it then you have a backlink.
Obviously, not all backlinks are alike. It’s better to have fewer backlinks, but coming from reputable sources, instead of multiple links coming from low-quality or even spammy websites.
How to get more backlinks? Well, this is a complex answer. For as long as you have a website, one of your goals is to gather as many backlinks as possible. You can create valuable content which will be referenced by others in their websites. You can also get into guest posting and get quality backlinks for free, as long as you provide useful content to other websites.
Start Optimizing Your Website Now!
Optimizing your website is not the easiest thing in the world, but not the hardest either, as long as you know the most important elements of search engine optimization. SEO can be quite complex, but if you put the aforementioned tips into practice, you’re on the right path. Learning about SEO on a regular basis and even working with an SEO specialist can drastically influence your chances of ranking higher in search engine result pages.
Don’t hesitate to share this article with your friends and check out our blog for more interesting tips and tricks when it comes to search engine optimization!