In this Cyber Age, the Search Engine is the temple, an individual or a company who is in search of the query is a devotee, and Businesses that aspire for success get themselves registered to the temple. However, with so many sites being constantly uploaded and updated, possibly your company might get lost in the crowd. In this case, how do you ensure your website’s visibility and customer reach? The answer is simple: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). SEO is a strategy that is rapidly gaining popularity amongst all forms of businesses.
SEO strategising, to a newbie, may look to be intimidating and full of technical jargon. However, following these simple steps and voila, your business can thrive!
1. Relax
No need to worry; because, thankfully, it is not the Rocket Science which cannot be learned easily or if applied slightly improperly, not going to cost you heavily. Few changes and improvements to the website for Search Engine Optimisation are definitely going to benefit you as a company. The simple steps are furnished in the below paragraphs.
2. Understand Your Users
You are here to serve your users. The better you offer your services, the more customers you shall have. For example, restaurants serve food to the customers based on their preferences to ensure their satisfaction. Similarly, understand your users’ preferences, needs, and expectations. Accordingly, design your website to serve your users in the best possible way so that they keep coming back to you. Your website needs to be responsive, user friendly, and experientially effective.
Structure your website around breakpoints and grids. Very often, at the time of developing your website, you will be asked to create breakpoints in your pages marking the point where the content moves into a new direction, leading to a new contextual avenue. This is necessary to ensure clean distribution of the content across the website. It does also ensure easy and user-friendly navigation experience. In addition, it is important that you understand and implement the basics of structuring your website with the help of an optimised grid system. You may choose any grid system that best suits your requirements for a clean website design. Moreover, the cyber space is an open forum with users from all nationalities. For optimum visibility and engagement, it is advisable to create a bilingual /multilingual website.
3. Content Is King!
Content is king in SEO, as stated by Bill Gates. Content marketing should be rich in terms of both quality and quantity. Quality refers to well-written content that is free from embarrassing errors and rich in keywords and information. Quantity refers to regular updating of the site with the addition of new and relevant content and removal of outdated and irrelevant content.
What and why: the two most important quality questions that you need to answer while strategising your website. Every single page in your site should have logic and every page needs to be optimised with content that is rich, unique, and interesting. A website is typically divided into sub-pages or categories, each of these should be titled carefully using title-tags that express their content clearly.
Each title tag acts as a preview of the content within, at the same time; they inform the search engines regarding the respective page contents. They also shape the look and feel of your website. You can use any one of the several web-based website assessment tools to secure and activate your website optimisation.
4. Right Keywords Can Make All the Difference in Your Rankings
The usage of the right keywords is important. However, how do you know what are the right keywords? To know the right keywords, you need to step into the user’s shoes. If a user wants to search for a portable media player, s/he is inclined to search for an Mp3 player instead. Use keywords that are simple yet effective. Keywords research can be done by finding and selecting most searched words and phrases that are most commonly searched.
5. Error 404 – Page Not Found & SEO
For a user, 404 errors demonstrate bad user experience which usually diverts them to follow another link. These errors are similar to weeds that need to be removed to ensure the safety of the pretty flower plants. 404 errors not only irritate users but also hamper the search engine’s process for indexing pages of your website. These errors need to be fixed for both users and SEO. This can be handled by using a simple 301 redirect in case web page which you have removed from your website has an alternate web page. It is an easy and effective solution to add to your SEO strategy. In case a 301 option is not feasible, better to customise your 404 page to help people find useful web links or information there so that they sustain in your sales funnel.
6. Visuals Do Matter!
Attractive, interesting, and creative visuals, when added, can make a significant difference. A recognised saying among chefs is you eat with your eyes first applies here very well. Engaging and carefully designed visuals have potential to attract and hold attention even before reading the textual content. At the same time, optimised images and other marketing content can further aid the search engine to index your web pages. Never forget, a picture is worth a thousand words! Every online written article is advisable to be supported by an appealing image.
7. As Fast as the Hare
The most familiar and famous story ‘The tortoise and the hare’ pretty much applies in the context of SEO as well since it is a long-term strategy.
Let us see from the perspective of ‘hare’. If your business has thrived in SEO and has a well-positioned website with multiple important keywords, the key is to keep the thrust going. Actually, when your company is doing well physically you should really cash on it to uphold that presence and take it up to the next level. Most of the businesses take the approach of the hare, get self-satisfied, and may opt to scale back a bit. They probably lessen their SEO budgets assuming it is not required anymore. This is a very restricted approach. Instead of lowering the SEO budget, they should really boost in definite areas of the campaign.
Now, let us see from the perspective of ‘turtle’. If your business is struggling to succeed in SEO, the key is to stick to your efforts. It may happen that you may not see much progress in search engine rankings within the first few months of a campaign. That is absolutely fine. You need to stick with your efforts and continue to invest in it that sooner or later you will witness a return. Simply giving up assuming you cannot compete with the “hares” is the wrong approach. As outlined in the story, hares do make a mess, and that is when, the tortoise can actually excel.
In practice, it does not matter whether you’re the hare or the tortoise, the ideal player needs to be a combination of both.
8. Share the Joy
Last but not the least, share and expand your knowledge. You will greatly benefit by adding social media devices and features to your website. In the era of increasing social media interactions, shareable content has a long way to go in order to gain greater visibility among users across the web platform.
The kettle has boiled and the whistle has blown. Now, it is the time to sit back and enjoy your cup of tea. Let this Search Engine Optimisation strategy shows its magic. These 8 easy steps, though not exhaustive and certainly not an overnight booster, will most definitely help propel your website towards the centre stage gaining maximum visibility and growth.
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