Effective SEO Tips for Businesses

About 94% of users on Google will only look at the first page for results.

If you’re a small business, SEO is an acronym that you might hear often. Is it important to businesses? Do you really need it? While many people have an opinion about effective SEO, our answer to this topic is a resounding, yes. When your website has a high SEO position, you can bet that it’s similar to free advertising. Those who rank high can expect more clicks to their website along with traffic to their store.

Unlike before, Google has made it difficult for sites to stand out, but it is wise to take control of your options. What is SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. When users type a particular keyword on search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo, websites with a high SEO ranking are listed in order. Google is responsible for finding the sites that are worthy at the top, and this is based on effective SEO practices.

About 94% of users on Google will only look at the first three links for results before moving on. Surprisingly, 83% of the population uses Google worldwide! Of all 180,000,000+ existing websites in the world, Google has a rank for them. So when users visit your website more often the competition, the higher your ranking.

Why should you care? SEO is similar to free advertisement! Just as we mentioned above, users are more likely to click on your website when it is ranked number one on a particular key phrase. This means, more business traffic and interaction! So what are some things you can do to have an SEO-friendly website?

Your Keywords Matter

One way to be successful in SEO is by incorporating keywords into your website. This is the part where you do some research on which keywords are best for your industry using Google Adwords. Utilize these keywords in blog posts. If you’re using WordPress, use a plugin called Yoast.

Titles/Headlines- You want the keywords to stick out, and as close to the first sentence as possible.

Body- Utilize 1-2% of these keywords inside your content. You want to produce coherent sentences so eliminate the keywords that don’t flow correctly with the post. Avoid keyword-stuffed articles.

Meta Descriptions- This is where you put short descriptions for your blog posts. This will help improve your SEO as it creates a clear summary of your topic. When you write a meta description, try adding the keywords in the beginning.

Key Phrases Are Imperative

Key Phrases are descriptive keywords that can pinpoint a specific audience. For example, if you’re a marketing firm, you might utilize keywords like marketing in your blog posts. But if you want to target an audience to find your website, you may want to emphasize long-form keywords like ‘online marketing Las Vegas.’ Even though the number of searches might be lower, people who are really looking for you will find your business!

Too Many Keywords Will Hurt You

Google “spiders” are responsible for “reading” your website. If there’s anything that annoys your readers and these bots, it’s keyword stuffing. An overload of keywords might mark your website as a spammer which is the last thing you want to happen! Do yourself a favor, and use content that flows naturally with your site.

Pictures are Just as Important

Keep your images as small as possible. Images with large resolutions make it difficult for your website to load. Because of this, Google could rank you lower for slow speeds. So when you upload images, make sure that they’re optimized.

Along with sizes, your pictures should clearly describe your posts. You want to label your pictures and describe them according to posts. You never know when your photos will pop up on Google Images!

Content is King

You’ve heard us talk about content before, and it continues to sit on the throne of kingship! Basically, the longer your content, the better it boosts your SEO ranking. The reason behind this is that there are always fresh and rich ideas to them. So before, people used to post little content every day, but now they create epic entries once a month. In short, when you have little content, Google will think that they’re similar to watered-down content all over the web. Then,  when you’re thinking of blog posts, consider long-form content with a 1000-word count. Trust us; you’ll thank us later for this.

Fast is Imperative

How many times have you visited a website whose page loads like a turtle? Nowadays, websites that slowly load are uncommon. Still, they exist! If your site is running slowly, get rid of unnecessary plugins! While they make your website look desirable, they hurt you in the long term.

As mentioned above, you want your images to be in low resolution. Anything larger than 750 pixels is often frowned upon. Watch out for those sliders that can affect your SEO as they can take some time to load. Just remember how annoying it is to wait for a website to finish loading. How long did you stick around? Now, imagine your customer waiting for a slow-loading page. We can guarantee that they won’t stick around either.

Always Share Helpful Links

Links are great for your website because they are helpful. Useful websites with links, rank better on Google. But when you have links, make sure that they’re consistent. Broken links can hurt you to prevent them at all costs.

Avoid Hidden Keywords

If you’re thinking of an easy way out, well there isn’t any. Some users have gone to great lengths by adding invisible keywords on websites or in tiny fonts. This practice is called Black Hat, and when Google finds out about this, your site could be marked as spam.

So when you’re a business owner, you want to consider SEO. There are easy ways to do so without driving yourself into overload. Just remember to practice the tips above, and you should be on your way to ranking higher on Google! Still, there are no shortcuts to a good ranking website so put all your effort and give your best shot.