Digital marketing and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the single most important aspect of growing a business online. It’s the driving force behind getting your product or service into the hands of potential buyers and clients. But, digital marketing comes in many different shapes, forms, and flavours. One of the main ones being SEO.
SEO is how search engines such as Google determine which companies web pages to place higher on the results pages when queries are made. So, how can you improve the SEO and Google ranking of your business? Here are four super quick tips!
Create Longer and More Structured Content
A lot of companies have gotten used to selling products faster and more efficiently. Gone are the days of long, drawn-out adverts. Shorter TV ads, shorter newspaper blurbs, shorter YouTube ads! However, one area where shorter advertising isn’t always better is online when you’re trying to rank higher on Google.
Google takes into account how authoritative, in-depth, and engaging website content is. This includes service pages, blog posts, about pages, pretty much everything! This means that it is actually important to really dive into the in’s and out’s of what your product does and why it can help consumers rather than trying to summarize it in as few words as possible. Longer content keeps readers engaged, on your web page, and provides a better sense of authority to your page.
Of course, we’re not saying you should post 3,000+ words per every single product item description, as this would be overwhelming for the customer. Consider using short descriptions, then longer descriptions and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) further down the page.
Certain content such as blog content and general service web page content should perhaps be stretched a bit further than you’re used to! Even if it means separating the content down into sub-sections; check out our Web Design page as a good example. You can also format the writing into smaller paragraphs for easier reading, and help improve your content in this area as well.
Utilize Internal Links
Internal links are a great way to help establish within the Google algorithm what your website is all about. In fact, internal links are one of the most important ways that Google indexes and ranks web pages. We’ve talked a little more about internal links on our blog post, here: 5 Quick Ways to Attract More Customers Through Your Website
Internal links are essentially just hyperlinks that take you to important and authoritative voices on the topic at hand. Kind of like the link used just above. This helps Google to create a kind of ‘chain’ between your webpage and theirs to establish that you are creating content that is relevant and supportive to that.
If you’re doing your website DIY-Style we recommend using AHREFs range of totally free tools. Using these tools you can check your site for SEO errors, backlinks, internal links, and even generate keywords so you know what people are searching for!
If you are utilizing internal links correctly you should see your Search Ranking improve pretty quickly over a short period of time.
Work On Your Metadata
Metadata is an incredibly important aspect of your SEO. This is small snippets of information immediately below your link that gives the reader a clue as to why your link is relevant to their search. This cannot be overlooked as a very important element of your marketing strategy.
When a user searches for a service or a product, they are not going to read the link itself. They are going to read the metadata (like below). This information is where you have a chance to ‘sell’ your product or service in around 150 characters or less. This is where you get to shine and make your website pop off the page. Good metadata will drive your traffic higher and in turn increase your SEO score.
Increase Website Speed
Finally, the fourth tip for you to consider when increasing your SEO score is the speed of your website in general. This is not related to the speed of the internet your user is reaching you with. This is actually how responsive your website is from click to full load.
In this day and age, readers and potential customers are not as patient as they used to be. If a website doesn’t fully load within a few tenths of a second, then you could lose their interest entirely. So, making your webpage faster and more responsive is extremely important.
Website speed and responsiveness is also directly calculated by Google and other search engines to determine Search Ranking and SEO score. If a website is too slow Google will rank it lower than a faster competitor and you will be very hard to find by consumers. So, have your website optimized and make it as fast as you can!
Wanting to test the speed of your website on desktop and mobile devices via Google? We recommend using Google PageSpeed Insights. Just add your URL in and click ‘analyze’!
Final Thoughts
Let’s face it, if a website link is on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th page of Google it might as well not exist in some cases. That’s why it’s important that you do everything you can to raise your SEO score and increase your Search Ranking. Following these four tips will go a long way towards improving your online business and your overall digital marketing strategy.
Need a little help boosting your digital presence? Get in touch with Athena Media!
