Regardless of your personal or business/professional endeavors, if you host your own website or blog the single most critical element of that site is web traffic. Without site visitors you might as well be sitting in front of a mirror talking to yourself…you will be neither seen nor heard.
I have referred initially to Google search results positioning because Google has such a dominant role in virtually every aspect of what we do online in order to establish a voice and brand that people will want to refer to again and again. Google’s frequent algorithm updates, which are the benchmark for our online presence, interactivity and ranking, demand our focused attention in terms of search engine optimization best practices and how we present ourselves in many aspects of our content development, its marketing and more.
Don’t forget the other major search engines as key components to the equation; Bing, Yahoo, Ask, AOL, WOW, WebCrawler, DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Yandex to name but a few. They all have an important role in our online lives and although each has its own search visibility and ranking criteria their principle algorithmic nuances emulate Google’s relatively closely.
So how did I achieve 8 out of 10 Page 1 search results on Google with a new website, four first page search results on Bing and more without spending a dime? For many, landing first page positioning on search engine results pages (SERP’s) would indeed seem as elusive as the search for the Holy Grail. My search terms achieving these results were local and regional search terms for ‘document editing in penticton’ where Penticton (British Columbia, Canada) is my home office location. The results are no accident.
Effect implementation of search engine optimization takes time, extensive research and exacting execution of best SEO practices. Scour the internet through targeted searches to find actionable on-page and meta description tagging practices that will get your site visible to the search engines and seen by users searching specifically for what you have to offer.
SEO Authority Sites
To say that SEO is a constant learning curve is an understatement. Search engine algorithms are frequently changing and that means that we must be informed of those changes as they occur and be prepared to implement changes to our websites and blogs, social media content metrics and more without delay. Stay informed. Easier said than done and it is a tireless, unwavering effort and if you cannot execute what leading industry experts are telling us, regardless of the reason, be sure to engage someone who will do it for you.
Over the years I have subscribed to numerous authority websites in order to learn new techniques and stay informed. Establishing a web traffic online means much more than developing engaging website or blog content. It also means effective marketing through social media, paid advertising and other means addressed in other articles here. The best way to stay up to date on all the pertinent news as it happens is to subscribe to authority website blogs through their email subscribe links or RSS feed links.
I subscribe to SiteProNews for the latest technical, social media, search engine news and more, an excellent resource site. Other such sites include Moz, Search Engine Land, and too many more to list here. Also refer to webmaster resource directories for essential sources of SEO insider information. I favor SPN Webmaster Resource Directory for a broad range of authority website listings.
Is Your Website or Blog Search Engine Visible?
If you haven’t taken effective steps to properly implement search engine optimization and updating those SEO elements on your website or blog as new algorithm updates occur you are at serious risk for total obscurity…your website invisible to users searching online for what you have to offer. High quality content is extremely important and many experts would argue that it should be your first and foremost priority. Still, effective ongoing SEO techniques and updating currently ranks first or second place depending on who you call on for advice today…and that is not about to change any time soon.
Nuts & Bolts of My Search Engine Optimization Success
I should preface by indicating that by virtue of the nature of my company services I have a global reach in terms of client engagement. I monitor very closely how each individual client has found me whether it be through online search engine queries, free and paid advertising, industry directory listings, client referrals, professional networking and more.
Once we acquire new customers it is absolutely critical to know how those valued clients went about finding us and the deciding factors that told them that my company was right for their own specific needs. There is absolutely no sense in spending valuable time, money and resources for methods that are not producing results.
EMULATE SUCCESS ~ DO NOT TRY TO REINVENT IT
Emulate Successful People & Companies
Look at award winning websites. It sounds cliché but it is perfectly true. Research through online search queries to find individuals and companies in your industry that are successful. Study their website thoroughly…the overall layout of their site, their content, their internal and external links, their visual content, textual wording and message conveyance, their subscribed following, their customer testimonials, ease of site navigation, their company name, page titles, headlines, sub-headlines and their effective body content.
Read their blogs and articles and see how they effectively present their contact page and how effective they have conveyed what they are all about within seconds of arrival on their home/landing page. Emulate researched and demonstrated successful website development…don’t wing it and expect that because the side looks good and your story sounds good that people will flock to your site in droves.
Create high quality content and implement an effective and current search engine optimization strategy.
Website Development
Keyword & Keyword Phrases: Keywords effectively placed throughout your website or blog content is critical. Research online for best search engine optimization techniques. Incorporate a keyword density of no more than 3%. That is to say that you should carefully and strategically infuse your keyword elements throughout your site content with a frequency or ratio of not more than three (3) words for every one-hundred (100) words of content. Stay as close to the 3% density as possible. Expert advice will vary to a degree with some suggesting up to 7 or 8% as a reasonably safe keyword/keyword phrase content saturation without risking negative response from search engines. Start at the 3% benchmark and gauge your results gradually.
Where to Include Keywords: Be very clear on this issue as it is a critical factor in the SEO process:
- Website Name: Be extremely deliberate when creating your site name/title. Before setting up a website, blog or business name and online entity, run searches to ensure that the domain name you have chosen has not already been taken and registered. Web domain registries can run that search for you when you register the desired domain name. Choose a site name that in a few words tells site visitors what your site is all about/what products/services you offer. Include primary keywords in your business/domain name. If your visitors have to guess at what you are all about they will click out and go elsewhere. Statistically, first time visitors who land on a website or blog will decide in 7 or 8 seconds whether you have what they want and if not, or they are unsure, they click out and never return.
- Page Titles: The first content that a visitor should see at the top of each website page and just beneath the ‘fold line’ of the page header is the page title. Make sure your page title is within prescribed character count (SEO), is engaging and tells the visitor exactly what they will find on the page, infuse keyword(s) in natural flow of words, and format the title a Heading 1 (H1) element to ensure that search engines pick up on the title, a critical and essential element of website mapping that tells the search engines what your page (and website) is all about.
- Create Heading 1 (H1) Title/Heading Formatting: (1) When editing webpage content ie an article or blog in your site editor/builder, drag and drop ‘Embed Code’ into the page title location/field. (2) Enter H1 code with your desired page title as: <H1>What Our Clients Are Saying</H1> This practice is quick and easy but takes a little getting used to. Search for H1 Title Tag creation for more information. Write down the code/title example I have provided here for quick reference when needed. Most website and blog site hosts now include automatic page/blog title H1 tagging but when you create a title click on it to check its elements to ensure that tagging is in place. This procedure can be used for sub-titles or sub-headings throughout your site using H2, H3, H4 etc. to demarcate priority of titles/headings to the search engines, H1 being the most important.
- Body Text: Make sure that all keywords and keyword phrases, regardless of their location, read in a natural word flow progression such that while reading, keywords do not stand out or read back as though out of place. Keywords must be a natural element within a sentence and they must be fully relevant to the subject matter. Use single keywords; keyword phrases; long tail keywords; anchor text linking; internal blog, page or article linking within the site; highly relevant external linking within site content or links provided in the sidebar (establishes your authority and attracts authority back linking to you site). Restrict external linking to only a few a day ie two or three relevant site links in order to avoid any impression of spamming/manipulation/link dumping.
- SEO Meta Keyword & Site Desecriptions: Again, a critical area of website optimization. In your website 'Dashboard' or 'Settings' control panel two areas are critical to site SEO: (1) Meta Keywords; Develop a concise set of keyword meta tags, each separated with a comma, insuring inclusion of your primary keywords found from keyword planner tool research. Do NOT exceed the expert advice regarding the proper length of Meta Keywords which is between 150-160 characters including spacing. DO NOT DUPLICATE keywording/keyword phrases in this section. (2) Site Description: Your site description should be clear and concise, expressing exactly what your website is all about. Leave out superfluous 'fluff' by staying with essentials in the description. Do NOT duplicate any keywords used in the Meta Keyword description. Use keyword synonyms (words of similar meaning).
- Site/Article Category Tagging: Be sure to create a set of essential category 'tags' for your articles or blogs and include keywords/keyword phrases where possible. Ensure that the tags you use are highly relevant to your article/blog subject matter. Don't add general tags/keywords to the mix, which may be related to your overall website and products/services offered but are not specific to the article or blog content itself. Avoid perceptions of spamming. Nothing frustrates users searching for relevant articles more than landing on pages where content is not highly relevant to what they are looking for...they will click out and never return.
- Effective Keyword Research: Make sure that you establish effective and highly relevant keywords to implement on your website or blog by researching with tools such as the Google Adwords Keyword Planner Tool which can be used for free to search for the most effective keywords to use whether for an Adwords campaign or not. You will need a Google account ie Gmail in order to sign in to use this tool. There are helpful guidelines to follow on the site for best keyword/keyword phrase results. There are other keyword search tools such as Bing Keyword Research, Wordstream Free Keyword Tool, Wordtracker Keyword Search and more. When entering search terms in these keyword search tools, make sure that you use search terms that people will use in their search to find what you are offering on your site – use simple, straight forward, short and highly relevant search terms for best results. Remember the search term that finds my website on Page 1 of Google, Bing (and more) search results: ‘document editing in penticton’.
- Search Metrics: Web users search using search terms that will best serve their own needs. Statistically, people want to cater to local businesses, companies and service providers wherever possible so they will use a search term that includes the city that they live or work in as in my own example shared above. If local proximity is not an issue for the user they will exclude that location parameter as part of their search term i.e. ‘document editing services’ which can also include a broader, more regional, national or international element to the search term i.e. where a product or service can be purchased and delivered to the customer from the online source site direct to the consumer.
- Website Listings: Make sure that your website or blog is registered with quality, authoritative and highly relevant industry directories and search engine directories. The exposure your site will have grows the more relevant places you can be found in.
- Website Content & Design: Plan your entire website or blog design and content in advance. Ensure that your site has a professional look and feel, is user friendly for easy navigation so that within seconds of arrival your visitors can navigate quickly to the information they want to see. Make sure that your site navigation bar links to each page on your site and that each page link button clearly identifies where the user will be taken when they click. Avoid content ‘fluff’…wording that serves more to try to impress rather than inform the visitor. Use simple language that the vast majority of visitors will readily understand. Minimize technical jargon accordingly. Be clear, concise, inform your visitors who you are, what you offer and why you are the best choice for them…they must see that on your landing/home page within 7 seconds or they will click out and never return. Make every word brief and informative/engaging…like playing tag when we were kids…either you are IT or they are OUT! Seven seconds. Also keep your site free of clutter, again relevance is key and refrain from signing up for numerous ad feeds…it all amounts to annoying distraction for your visitor and THEY are all that matters when they arrive at your site. They are doing a quick scan. Make it easy for them to find what they want fast. Keep your text font sizes consistent throughout and text color should be restricted to two or at the very most an occasional third color and use colors that tie in nicely with your site theme and logo colors. Make it look professional.
- Website/page Load Time: Make sure your website home/landing page and secondary pages load fast…two to three seconds max. Web users today are hard-pressed for time and they want information fast and highly relevant to what they need or want. Make them wait just to get on a site or page and you’ve lost them…guaranteed. Heed this well – you could have the most spectacular site on the web today, chock full of highly informative and relevant textual and visual content, everything they need but if you waste their time with a sluggish load time…you lose them in a heartbeat.
- Mobile Responsive: This is CRITICAL. Make sure that part of the website design process includes setting up your site to be ‘Mobile Responsive’. Statistics show that the majority of internet users are now doing so on the fly…on their mobile devices. Formatting specific to mobile devices is an essential aspect of search visibility and user friendly web browsing on mobile phones and other electronic web browsing devices. Your website or blog host will have information regarding this hugely important part of site design today.
FIND YOUR NICHE & DIFFERENTIATE
It is critical that you establish right away who you are, what you offer and why you are the consumer’s best choice…why should they come to you for help or a product/service they need or want? You MUST establish your own niche – what you are good at doing – AND that what you offer is in some special way unique, something that everyone else IS NOT OR CANNOT offer themselves. THAT is ‘differentiation’…setting yourself apart.
CONTACT ME TO FIND OUT MORE
For a free consultation to find out more about how I can help YOU with your website or document/manuscript content development needs, click on the link above.
LET’S TALK TODAY!
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