Hey everyone, it’s your friendly neighbourhood, TechnoMedia web developer and today I’m going explain SEO. It’s actually a lot of fun when you understand how it works. So here we go!
Everyone wants to be on page one of Google search results. Great search results takes work and don’t happen overnight. There is no way to guarantee search rankings, but not to worry! I’m going explain a little bit about what you can do to rank higher in Google search results.
Two parts to SEO: On-Page SEO & Off-Page SEO
Part 1: On-Page SEO
On-Page SEO includes things you can do on your website pages to make sure Google finds them.
The first and most important thing is always quality content. Always keep the user in mind and give them a quality experience on your website to keep them coming back.
All of our websites include an SEO plugin that appears at the bottom of every page in your admin. There you can Search Engine Optimize (SEO) your web pages. Google tries to match what the user is searching with the content on your website. The closer the match, the higher up the search ranking you go. But don’t try and cheat, because Google will know and penalize you for it. Again, the most important thing is to have quality content on your site.
1. Start with the Focus keyword.
What is your page about? Think in terms of what the user would enter in a Google search to get them to this page.
2. Check out the Analysis section.
After you enter your Focus keyword, a list of action items will appear in the Analysis section. Make improvements based on those items. As you make these changes, the dots will hopefully change from red and orange to green. Your goal is to get as many green dots as you can while staying true to your “quality content”. Remember to Update the page to see the latest page analysis.
3. The Snippet Preview.
This shows you how your page will look in Google Searches. Click Edit snippet and follow the guidelines for SEO Title, Slug and Meta Description that will appear.
I recommend to write your SEO Title and Meta Description in a way that provokes the user to click it. For example, “Google Search Results” or “How To Rank Higher in Google Search Results”. Which would you click?
Eventually, when Google crawls your website, your new SEO Title and Meta Description will appear in Google Search Results.
Internal Linking
This is simple. Create links within your own website. Choose good anchor text terminology that will show Google your site is relevant. For example: Click here for more search engine optimization information! Choosing “Click here” as your link text, or ‘anchor’ text, wouldn’t tell Google much, but choosing “search engine optimization information” as your anchor text would tell Google your website was relevant to this query.
Related Link
Do you have a blog? We can install a related link plugin on websites with blogs. At the bottom of posts there will be 3 to 5 related blog posts to create more internal linking and keep people on your website. Love that plugin!
Content
Always keep your website content fresh. Just like the kid who raises her hand in class gets called on, if your website is active it will get Google’s attention.
Part 2: Off-Page SEO
Off-Page SEO is how other websites are linking to you and telling Google about you.
Link building will drive your site up the search ranking. Now these have to be good, reputable websites. Google is smart and knows when a site is legit or spamming link schemers, and Google will penalize you for it. But you won’t have to worry about that because you are only putting out quality, user-focused content that people want, right?
Here are a few ideas for off-page link building:
- Write blog posts, create content on a consistent basis, include internal and external links, guest blog, leave comments on other peoples’ blogs, and online articles such as news sites, etc.
- Create profiles on different, relevant online communities.
- Use social media to drive traffic to your website. Make sure you are not just posting on social media, but paste the link to your website to drive traffic there.
- Add the sharing plugin to your website so users can share your pages with their friends and colleagues.
- Put out press releases.
- Get your site on industry directories.
- Create a contest, participants have to write and link to you from their blog.
- Ask people you know to link to your site.
- Use email signatures with a link to your website.
- Embed a Google Map on your contact page.
- Sign up for other Google products including Google My Business
TechnoMedia offers both On-Page and Off-Page SEO services. Need SEO? Let us know.