You have a killer website design, your content is right on point, and you’ve managed to secure some top subjects to interview - so why is your site still not getting the clicks? Three words - “Search Engine Optimisation,” or SEO.
A solid SEO strategy can be the deciding factor between having a successful website and having it fall by the wayside. With most traffic driven to websites by search engines such as Google and Bing, SEO is about tweaking your headlines and content to rise your site’s ranking.
“Following SEO best practices is important as, if done well, it helps to increase your chance of ranking in search, meaning there is more chance of people being exposed (and clicking through) to your site,” explains beautyheaven marketing manager Carly Taber.
“If you’re not coming up in Google’s search results, then it makes it almost impossible for people to find your site unless it’s via social media or paid methods. Ultimately, organic traffic is free traffic to your site... and who doesn’t want free traffic?!”
Search engines use an algorithm that ranks each webpage by relevance to the keyword or phrase a user has typed into the search box. Though the algorithm changes frequently, there are certain things businesses can do to ensure they get - and stay - on the first few pages of search results.
SEO has never been more important, so to help you to start driving maximum traffic to your site, here are some quick tips and tricks for nailing it…
Keywords
Try to include commonly searched keywords in your page title, meta-description, and headings. For example, “organic beauty products” is a popular phrase searched for by users, so including these words in your title will give your site a better chance at ranking highly in search engine results.
To work out keywords, think about the words and phrases your users would type into a search engine, or use a site like SEMrush.com to discover the current status of keywords and phrases. Google’s keyword tool [adwords.google.com/o/KeywordTool] also shows the keywords that would attract the most traffic to your specific site. Simply enter your website details and associated words, and Google will come back with the best phrases to use that are related to your business.
It is also a good idea to use the primary keyword or related keywords in the first 200 words of your body text. But don’t give into the temptation of saturating your copy with keywords - users are far too savvy, and the first priority is for your content to be readable.
Linking
Both internal and external linking help to boost SEO. Including internal links in your articles confirms to Google that a page is important, and the practice will also bring your bounce rate down. The lower your bounce rate, the more reputable you are in the eyes of search engines.
A seamless way of going about this is to create hyperlinks in the body text to a relevant topic you previously wrote about - for example, when discussing “make-up brushes”, link back to an article you wrote about make-up brushes.
Search engines also place value on external links to your websites, as long as they are from a reputable source, such as a popular website or blog covering a similar topic. To build opportunities for external links, it’s a clever idea to let people know when you have mentioned them on your site. This means they are more likely to share your webpage.
While you can purchase links, this is definitely not best practice as search engines are excellent at determining what has been paid for.
Analyse
Have a look at what has historically driven traffic to your site by using an analytics tool (such as Google Analytics - google.com/analytics). You will be able to see where your traffic has come from, as well as what keywords were used to drive users to your site. Then, use this knowledge to build content. So, your post on CC creams proved popular? Try doing another post on why CC creams are a beauty must-have.
Unique content
Make sure you are continuously coming up with fresh content - and regularly update it. If your content is copied from another source, it will be pushed way down in search results, so writing unique copy is crucial to success.