Organic SEO is an online marketing strategy made up of smaller sub-strategies, like keyword research and link building, that help your website rank at the top of organic, unpaid search engine results pages. Users rely on search engines to find what they need. Over 90% of online experiences begin with a search engine, like Google and 75 percent of searchers don’t even click past the first page of results. If you don’t appear at the top of organic search results, your website won’t get any traffic, causing your site to struggle to bring sales and leads to your business. In fact, organic traffic captures more than 40% of revenue. Not to mention, search engines deliver a close rate that’s eight times higher than traditional marketing. Search is a valuable marketing channel that’s waiting to drive revenue for your business.
You just have to start optimizing your site for organic SEO.
Here are some tried and true SEO tips and tricks that will get you started with your business’ Organic SEO:
Meta Tags – A description of your page which includes keywords for the search engines descriptions.
A meta description is an HTML element that summarizes a webpage’s content. This short description shows up in the search engine results page (SERP) below the page title and URL. Meta descriptions can influence click-through rate (CTR). Which means they can influence whether a user decides to visit your page.
Location – Use your location information on your website!
It’s important to put your business address including your phone number and email address on your website. You may be the only business of your kind in your hometown, but there could be thousands like you across the country all fighting to rank on the first page of a Google search. Google algorithms will show a local company more prominently than they will an international company. By including your location, you have a better chance of being found on the first page of a Google search when someone looks for a business like yours in your hometown.
Title – Incorporate your Primary Keywords into the title of each page.
Your website should include that main page’s primary keyword in the title of each subsequent page – both the “slug” – or name of individual pages in a website URL, such as https://www.fullexposuremedia.com/blog – and the content on the page. That keyword should also appear as part of the slug. This method will improve your rankings with Google’s built-in preference for keywords in titles.
H1 Tags – Use only one H1 Tag per page that includes your Primary Keyword
Think of your webpages as chapters of a book. Each chapter title should only be shown once and Google searches for this when it looks at your website. That title should be enclosed in an H1 (or Heading 1) tag. If there are more, then it will negatively affect your search ranking as Google tries to figure out what should be the focus on your webpage.
Optimize images for mobile responsiveness
Not only do your customers want to get to your content as quickly as possible, so does Google. And, if Google can read your site quickly, it will improve your search ranking. While a fast site is great, a fast site that is mobile responsive is key to organic SEO success. Google recognizes that about 60 percent of all website traffic is generated via mobile devices and now uses your mobile site speed rather than desktop speed to either boost or lower your ranking.
Sitemap – so nothing is missed by the Search Engines!
Every website has a structure that should be clear when navigating the website. Depending on the complexity of your site, your clients should be able to determine where they want to explore and how many pages are on your website by the navigation menu at the top. And, while Google algorithms are smart and will crawl your entire site, it is best to have a guide, known as a sitemap, so that nothing is missed.
Check for broken links
Links on your website should always connect to the right locations. Few things are more frustrating than the experience of clicking on a dead link. Likewise you want to avoid the scenario of an old client who clicks on a link they found on Google and receives a dreaded 404 error page – Page Not Found message. You need to push the new sitemap back to Google as well as use 301 redirects to point older clients who may have bookmarked a page to the new and improved site.
Use Alt Text to Describe Images
Many people in the world who use the internet require special-needs assistance. Whether they have a visual or hearing impairment, a website should provide built-in accessibility features. For example, screen-reading programs use the code in a website to describe what a picture is about through the Alt Tag, which can be viewed as a caption for the photo. While it is highly recommended for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, it is also useful for photos on your website as you can put a keyword in the text. Doing this will boost ranking for the page and the image itself.
Use Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs are those words that appear at the top of each interior page and say something like, My Business > Services, where My Business is a link to your homepage. Improved search ranking you achieve by adding these to your interior pages similarly boost the search ranking of your homepage. Breadcrumbs might seem annoying and unsightly from a design standpoint, so consider ways to make them unobtrusive. Your efforts will be rewarded by higher Google search rank.
Most importantly – Stay Up to Date!
It is important to note that it’s very important to stay up to date with new changes and best practices in SEO. As you can see in the example shown below, Google and other Social Media platforms are constantly improving themselves in order to understand how people are using the internet and to be able to give relevant information to their users. They are always sending updates to its algorithms, so it is very important for us to understand. The more you keep yourself up to date in terms of SEO, the easier it will be for you to move ahead of your competitors.