Not getting enough website traffic? You’re not alone. Over 96% of webpages get — quite literally — zero clicks. Today, I’ll show you how to change that with the power of SEO.
Here’s the goal: earn the highest ranking on Google as possible. Of course, that’s a goal for most businesses. Who doesn’t want to be the #1 result on Google for search terms that are relevant to your business? Investing time and money in SEO to improve your ranking factors will help you pop up earlier in Google results and trounce your competition.
Step 0: Perform an Audit
Before you do anything else, you need to get a proper and thorough website audit done. Do a deep dive and really make sure you have a complete picture of how your website is performing, including which pages perform the best and which perform the worst. This will help you understand what you need to change on your website to get better SEO.
Step 1: Improve Your Keywords
You need to have a keyword-rich website — it’s as simple as that. You may write the most relevant, useful information on your website, but if you are not packing your content with keywords, you are missing the boat.
Here’s where to start:
Think about the words your target audience would type into Google or another search engine to find a company like yours. Those are keywords you NEED to focus on. For example, if you own a bakery in New York City, your potential customer may Google “bakery near me” or “Manhattan bakery.”
Include these words on your website wherever possible. You’re facing a sea of competition, all fighting their way to the top of the search results. Using the most relevant keywords, and using them often, gives you a leg up.
Step 2: Tag, Tag, Tag
Tagging is absolutely crucial to placing your website higher in the search rankings. You need to have strong meta tags and descriptions along with strong title tags. This will also help your website to be seen as credible by the search engines, which will positively impact your rank.
To get a better idea about which keywords your competitors are using and which ones you should use on your website, try popular keyword research tools such as SEM Rush. Tools like this generally also let you see your overall SEO performance and provide suggestions on what you can do to improve.
Step 3: Don’t Confuse Your Visitors
Is your “contact us” form on a random page of your website? Are your menu options unclear? These elements of your website need to be easy to find and easy to use. Without it, you risk visitors bouncing or moving on to your competitor’s website.
Go through each page on your site to make sure that everything is in the right place. Start by looking at your homepage. Is the font too small? Are there so many pop ups that it becomes distracting? Make sure that your homepage is as neat as possible.
It helps to think in terms of clicks. How many separate clicks does it take for your visitors to find the information they’re looking for? How much time do they have to spend searching? Most people aren’t visiting business websites just to browse around — they have a specific purpose. Identify what visitors are looking for most, and make sure they can find it easily.
That’s Not All
These SEO tips are an excellent foundation for website success. In my experience, optimizing your website for SEO isn’t just good for boosting your search rankings — it also tends to result in a more pleasant experience for your audience.
Stay tuned for part 2 next week, as I dive back into SEO optimization and share more key tips to take your website all the way to the top of the rankings.
