If you people to find your website via a Google search then search engine optimization (SEO) has to be on top of your priority list. You will be unable to generate leads if your customers are unable to find you. About 93% of the experiences on the web start with a search engine. So what happens when a person enters a search?
The top result on Google has a 33% chance of getting clicked by the person. This means that if you are not on the top result page on Google then you have missed out on potential online traffic for your website. What is even more surprising is that 75% of the people will not click on the second page of the search result page.
The major reason why the other websites have a higher rank on Google than your website is that they constantly work on improving their SEO. However, this is not the end as you can get started and increase your chances of getting a higher rank on Google. Below mentioned are certain ways through which you can improve your SEO ranking for 2018:
Improve your website’s page load speed:
The page loading time plays an important role for a few reasons. Firstly, if your website loading speed is slow then Google will recognize this and this will, in turn, harm your ranking. Secondly, a slow-loading website also has a direct impact on the way your visitors engage with your web pages.
Hence, a slow-loading website will kill the traffic to your website. On the other side, having a fast website will encourage people to come back to your website, and also, Google’s algorithm will recognize the popularity of your website and accordingly adjust your search ranking.
Provide correct contact information:
Have you ever faced trouble in finding the contact information of a business on a site? If yes, then you should ensure that your visitors do not face the same thing with your website. There are chances that people may begin reporting your website just because there is no contact information mentioned. This will badly crush your SEO rank. So include correct and clear contact information and in plain sight so that people can find it.
Encourage people to share links to your site on social media:
With the high-paced competition in today’s world, it has become important for any business to stay active on social media. This is a fact that most of us know. However, the point that is unknown is that you can improve your SEO ranking if people start sharing links to your site on social media platforms. One of the best ways to encourage people to do this is by including social media sharing icons on your content.
Use relevant keywords:
Keywords play an important role in Google’s ranking algorithm. You should include keywords that people look for in your content. But do not just overboard your website with keywords as Google will recognize this and this will, in turn, have a negative effect on your ranking.
You should include keywords that blend naturally in the content. You can even include them in the header tags or in image captions as well. Moreover, if your keyword matches with the word entered by a person on a search engine then there are higher chances are of your website getting a higher rank on the search engine.
Produce fresh and high-quality content:
If you have not updated your website since the day you built it then you probably do not have a good SEO ranking at the moment. Having fresh and high-quality content will not only help you get a high ranking on Google but will also help your users as well.
Good content drives in more traffic to the website and also increases its popularity thereby giving your visitors a reason to come back to your website again. So ensure that your website has relevant, up to date and unique content. In this way, you will also be able to stay ahead of the competitors by providing the relevant and best information in an easy-to-understand way.
Make sure your website is mobile-friendly:
You should ensure that your users are able to visit your website on mobile devices in the simplest possible way. Having a website that is mobile-friendly and easy to navigate will attract more users. This year, the mobile experience is considered to be a bigger focal point, especially because users turn to their mobile devices more these days to access the web. So invest in a mobile strategy that works well for you and can help you rank better on Google.
Add more things other than text:
The content on your website should not just contain written words. Images can do wonders but there are other things that you can add to improve your SEO rank. You can consider adding elements such as audio, slideshows, videos to the website.
People like to watch videos as it is easier to watch something than reading content. Besides, adding such a feature helps to improve the amount of time a person spends on your website. The longer the duration of the video, the more people will spend time watching the video. So if this happens, it will surely boost your SEO ranking.
Link building:
Obtain quality links from other websites to improve your organic ranking on Google and improve your SEO this year. When you obtain a quality link from other websites which redirect users to your webpage, this tells Google that your content is strong and is providing the right users with the correct answers.
To conclude, SEO is there to stay and will not phase out soon. So if you implement the above-mentioned strategies then you will definitely be able to improve your SEO ranking on Google and also understand further what Google is looking for in the websites this year. So accordingly, by taking up the right strategy, you can dominate your search rankings for 2020.