For companies today, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is extremely important to invest in. Search engines utilize their own algorithms to determine which page is most relevant and trustworthy to consumers searching with keywords. To help you get the most out of SEO, GROWL has put together some top tips to move you up in Google’s massive library of information.
Ideally, the shorter the URL, the better. If your most important site URLs are under 60 characters, you’re solid. If you are creeping around 101+, you may want to rewrite to gain SEO value. Short URLs make it easier to copy and paste for visitors who may share your link on social media. They are also less clickable in the search results, as they will be cut off. Avoid long, hard-to-read URLs that look ugly by keeping them short and sweet.
Page titles are important to provide a glimpse of what to expect. Search engines want you to include keywords that define your content. You want your keywords relevant to what people are searching for so they have a better chance of finding your product. Research the language people are using regarding your product or company. This way, you can create content that drives them to your website. And then describe that content in your page title.
Successful websites today have more than just simple photos and text. In today’s high-tech world, websites are much more engaging with slideshows, videos, infographics, virtual reality, etc. These visual elements, in place, will engage the visitor to spend more time on your site and reduce the bounce rate. The bounce rate measures the number of people entering your site and leaving immediately. They don’t engage or click any internal links on the page. Creating fun, engaging content may also lead to visitors sharing what they’ve found with friends and family – resulting in additional visits, shares, links, leads, and revenue.
Most of the time, headline tags are added automatically on platforms like WordPress. Although some settings may have changed the feature, be sure your coding is correct and gets the page heading it deserves. Keywords play a huge role in these “H1” headers, just as they do in title pages. Subheadings are known as H2, which should include at least one target keyword as well. These support your header and provide organization for more in-depth paragraphs of content.
This might be the most important tip in this article. Mobile technology has been a part of our lives for more than a decade now. Mobile traffic has been exploding for years. And it makes sense: It is much simpler to pull out your smartphone and look up a website than to get on a computer. Google penalizes websites for not being mobile-friendly, which means they won’t come up on a mobile search at all. Google’s move toward mobile-first indexing means they will use the mobile version of the site for indexing and ranking. If your site is not mobile-friendly, it will surely encounter a loss of rankings, traffic, leads, and revenue. There are no signs of the mobile trend slowing down. In fact, it continues to grow every year.
Outbound links should be related to your site, which in turn will help Google track down the topic of your page. It will also show your site has quality information. It is natural to have links to other sites on the web and communicate to both Google and your prospects that you are a hub for information. Be sure to get authority to those outside sites linked to your website.
Internal links are important for many reasons: They direct visitors through your site and describe the relevance and authority of pages to Google. Remember to link to older posts when publishing new blog content. This helps both prospects and search engines find and weigh older posts as a sign of your relevance for a topic.
Google was the first search engine to weigh links from other sites as an important ranking factor. In fact, it is still the most important ranking factor – but now counting quality much more than quantity. Posting high-quality content is not enough by itself: Google counts links to your site as “votes.” Think about what sites should be linking to yours and what approaches might be needed to get those links. We can help you figure out this step and get those links!
Google has hundreds of ranking factors, but most are centered around these tips. Have no idea where to start? No problem. We are here to help. Contact the GROWL team today.