10 SEO tips every website must follow

Despite the fact that social media marketing has become an integral part of many businesses marketing strategy, search engine optimization is still vital to long term website traffic and lead generation. The reason is that properly optimized content for search engines can be found by web visitors for many years to come. My experience says that a combination of SEO and social media marketing can bring in the best results, so pay equal attention to both strategies.

I have made up a list of 10 seo tips you need to follow in order get the best results from search engines. There are more things to be done; however, this guide will help you get to get started. Above all, never stop learning new tips and tricks, which is the only way to develop an expertise on any field.

1. You must commit to this task for the long run. Do not expect to see results from your search engine campaign overnight, unless you are paying per click. Search engine optimization is a long lasting task that requires dedication, consistency and great content above all. Depending on the keywords you are targeting you may have to wait for 6 months to see some real traffic coming from Google.

2. Decide on the keywords you are planning to focus on. If you web property is a static website or an ecommerce store, you can pretty much decide from day 1 on the keywords, e.g air control airplanes for older boys. Do not use just a a single keyword because majority of them have immense competition on search engines so your chances or ranking higher are close to zero. Instead, focus on long phrases e.g air control airplanes for older boys.

3. Use google keywords tool and google trends tool. Both are vital to optimize your content. Once you select your keywords, go to google keywords tool and see the volume of searches on a monthly basis for this term. Choose terms that have medium to low competition and at least 2000 monthly searches and above. Avoid high competition keywords as it would be almost impossible to reach the first 2 pages of google. Be creative on the keywords, you will be amazed how many phrases we use on a daily basis have low competition. Then move on to google trends and see the potential future of these terms, if they are on decline you may want to rethink and find new ones.

4. Creating great content helps your website rank higher on search engines as well as bring in more viral traffic via social networks. People love to share things they like and make them learn something new.

5. Knowing where to use the keywords on the pages. Here are the key points:

a. Page title is the first thing that search engines see, so your keywords must be there. Start the title of a page with the keywords followed by your brand e.g Radio control airplanes for older boys – My Company. Do not put your company’s name first unless you are google or facebook.

b. Use a H1 bold title in the beginning of the content that includes the keyword(s) and repeat the keywords at least once for every 150 words of text but do not overdo it.

c. Use SEO friendly URLs. They must include the keywords and hyphens e.g mydomain.com/radio-control-airplanes.html

d. Add your keywords on the meta description.

6. Create a sitemap and upload it on your server. Sitemaps are used by search engines to find pages on websites. You do not have to do it manually as there are plenty of tools available. Search engines visit your site daily and record all changes that take place, the best way to let them know is via a sitemap.

7. Having in place google analytics is very crucial in order to determine the success rate of your search engine optimization strategy. See which contents bring in more traffic or converts on your goals and capitalize on that.

8. Building links is very important for your search engine ranking as well. Participate in blogs, forums related to your keywords and add your website in directories. If you have a blog, write guest posts and be active in your online community. The more quality links you have the higher the boost for your website on search engines.

9. Do not be a “ google bitch “. In other words, is acceptable to optimize our website for search engines but do not overdo it with keywords. Focus on your readers and how to make them learn something new, educate them and let them get exactly what they are looking for. Do not forget that great content is shared and this can bring in great viral traffic from social networks, hence focus on your readers/visitors.

10. Produce fresh keyword related content often; there is no shortcut on that. If you have a static website or an ecommerce store a great way to produce content often is via a blog. Set up a blog and do posts related to your keywords. For instance if you have a store with radio control airplanes do posts on how to assemble a new airplane, how to fly it or provide tips on maintenance. Quality blog content helps on SEO, keeps your users engaged with your brand and most importantly is a source of great and shareable content.

How many of these 10 seo tips do you currently follow and what other tips would you suggest?

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