Even if you have not taken your business online yet, your customers already are. As such, you are probably missing out on amazing opportunities to market your products, engage with your customers, and promote your brand. The internet has changed the way we do many things in our everyday lives. Today, customers have greater access to information than ever before, and businesses can rely on the internet to access the global marketplace. Search engine optimization, abbreviated SEO, helps to make your website more visible so customers can find you easily. However, to use SEO correctly, you will need to understand what determines the rankings and ways to increase your rankings.

Here is some information to help you create an effective SEO strategy:

What Determines SEO Rankings?

SEO requirements keep changing, making it important to be in the know if you want to get more website traffic. While it is not always easy to keep up with the latest developments, understanding SEO ranking factors will help you to fine-tune your strategy for better results. Here are some factors that determine SEO rankings:

Quality Content

It is no longer possible to increase your search engine rankings through keyword stuffing. Today, algorithms are smart and will pick you out if you try to game the system. One of the best ways to bring traffic to your website and stay ahead of the competition is to develop well-written and relevant content that is optimized for search engines. Quality content will help you establish authority and keep customers coming back.

Link Building

Having a reputable site linking back to your site will help you build trust and credibility. Since this is a sign that you are doing something right, the more reputable backlinks you have, the better you are going to rank in search results. Although link building is complex and takes time to achieve, it ultimately helps to improve your online reputation. It is also one of the factors that search engine algorithms rely on to rank your site.

Site Speed and Performance

Search engines strive to provide searchers with great user experience. As such, site speed and performance will hugely affect your search rankings. Mobile-friendly websites with fast load speeds and are likely to appear among the top search engine results. Great user experience will also make it easy for users to find the information they need and help you have happy customers.

Meta Information

Meta information refers to the content at the back end of a website. This information is visible only to search engines, with meta descriptions playing a major role in telling search engines what a specific page is about. Meta information makes it easy for search engines to rank new content in a faster and more efficient way.

Duplicate Pages

Duplicate pages and content on your website can hurt your search rankings. Search engines will split up search relevancy among the different pages when seeking to rank your website. Duplicate pages will undermine your efforts to create an image of business with authority and expertise in your field. Websites with original content and minimal duplication are likely to be more visible to users who enter related search queries.

Local SEO Citations

When running an SEO campaign, some businesses fail to seize the opportunities associated with local SEO citations. Simple steps such as adding and verifying your business with search engines will go a long way in improving your visibility. Better visibility projects your business as a valid and trustworthy entity, placing you ahead of the competition.

How to Increase my Rankings

Once you understand the factors that determine SEO rankings, you will be in a great position to increase your rankings. Here are some steps you should take to make it easy for customers to find you.

Publish Relevant Content

Quality content is one of the important drivers of your search engine rankings. While it takes time to create, there is no substitute for great content when it comes to SEO. In addition to ensuring that your content is of high quality, you should make sure that it is relevant and SEO-friendly. Lastly, make sure that the content flows naturally, is readable and useful.

Update Your Content Regularly

Optimizing your site for SEO is a continuous process. If you are to maintain your position at the top, you will have to update your content regularly to ensure that it is relevant. You should also conduct an audit of your website to help you get rid of duplicate pages that could affect your rankings. Keeping your website fresh and relevant will help you to attract more online traffic.

Make Link Building a Priority

Considering that links are some of the top-ranking factors for search engines, you should work on attracting links from trustworthy and reputable sources. To do this, you should connect with publishers, webmasters, and bloggers to get your content some press. Although getting your content recognized will take time and dedication, your efforts will pay off in the end.

Metadata

You will need to provide meta-information when designing your website. As your site changes over time, you should remember to review and update metadata. For the best results, focus on title metadata, description metadata, and keyword metadata.

Build a Responsive Website

Since search engines are focused on improving user experience, having a responsive website will help you rank higher. Optimize your site for mobile so that it can adapt to different screen sizes, making it possible for people to access the website from their hand-held devices. Similarly, you should optimize it for speed to improve the performance of the website.

SEO-Friendly Videos and Images

As businesses strive to capture the attention of their online audiences, videos, and images have quickly become an important part of online content. However, you must ensure that the videos and images you use will help your marketing campaign by providing a better user experience and improving search engine rankings. SEO-friendly images and videos should feature an optimized file name, include an optimized alt tag, and maintain a compressed image size. A well-optimized website will also ensure that the speed of your website is not compromised.

Increase Your Rankings Today

There is no doubt that your website is the foundation upon which your online marketing strategy is built. With the right strategy and techniques, SEO can offer your business amazing benefits. Before launching your SEO campaign, you should familiarize yourself with the concept and find effective ways of ensuring a successful campaign. BizIQ, one of the best SEO companies for small business, works with businesses to help them identify effective and affordable marketing solutions that will contribute to growth.