How to create SEO strategy for your website

Businesses need a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy because otherwise it takes a long time to rank up the Google (and other) search engine results pages. If you maintain your website well, and you drive people to it, then your ranking will climb very slowly. However, since most businesses need traffic from search engines now rather than later, an SEO strategy is required.

Overhaul The SEO On All Your Web Pages

Despite people’s claims that Meta data is of no use, you should still run through your web pages to be sure you have a focus keyword for each, to be sure each has a Meta description, Meta title, and tagged keywords. Make sure your focus keyword is in your page title, in at least one header, and in the Alt text of at least one image.

For example take a look at this page about buying a car. It has an average of 400 hits per day from search engines and apps. The focus keyword is “Used Car,” and it appears in the title, the first paragraph, it appears in the alt text of the first image, it appears occasionally in the text on the page, it is in the Meta description, the Meta title and it appears in the second H3 header. Also, the writer has responded to comments, which has helped encourage further comments (which are always a popularity boon).

How Important Are Keywords?

Some online articles still claim that keywords are vitally important for your on-page and off-page SEO, but the Google Hummingbird update severely limited the usefulness of keywords. It is true that you should still have and use a focus keyword/key phrase for each web page, but there is no longer a need to research and build a big list of keywords for each web page you create. The truth is that relevant keywords change on a daily basis depending upon what is popular. Today, the keyword “High School Musical” is popular because of a movie, and tomorrow it is popular because an angry Muslim extremist shot up a college student’s High School musical production.

Define Your Audience

Your aim is to attract as many potential customers as possible. Figure out who they are and what they use the Internet for. Link from the websites that typically attract your target consumer. Create page keywords that your typical customer/viewer types in to the Google search engine. For example, if you write essay writing service reviews, then you need to aim for keywords that struggling teenage students would enter in to Google, not words that writers or academics would type into Google.

Link Up Your Website Good And Proper

Having your website correctly linked up helps rank your website up the Google search engine results because it improves the usability of your website. It makes navigating your website easier, and it helps the Google search engine crawlers get around your website more efficiently.

Sign Up With Google+

The developers of Google+ originally said that people who sign up for their social media network will not receive extra SEO benefits from being a member. They said it because they didn’t want to appear to play favorites over Facebook and Twitter. Nevertheless, if you have dabbled with Google+ recently, you will notice several benefits. For example, have a few people share your new web page on Google+, and it suddenly appears on the Google search engine results within fewer than 24 hours in many cases.

Keep Your Website And Content Useful

Google has its own set of rules and guidelines, but the primary aim of the search engine is to give its search engine users a few relevant and useful links. If your website has a use, if your target audience needs what is has, then Google has plenty of reason to rank you up its search engine results. Even Google themselves say that the most important SEO factor is a useful website.

Copy What Your Competitors Are Doing

If your competitors are running a big Twitter campaign and they are ranking highly on Google, then consider doing something similar. If they have numerous guest posts on popular websites, then try the same strategy. If your competitors have dynamic and responsive websites, then you should consider doing the same.

Continuous Testing And Measurement

Do not slow the process with too much analysis. You can experience paralysis by analysis if you make your SEO strategy a purely numbers thing. Nevertheless, test different ideas to see what works, and measure your results. Try to replicate your positives results, especially if they result in more traffic. Just remember that there are going to be times when your website jumps up the search engine results, or when your website receives a surge of traffic, and you will not be able to figure out why it happened. Accept the fact that strange things happen upon occasion, and you will never know why they happened.

Stop Affiliate Advertising

We all know that affiliate advertising is a nice way to make a passive income on your website, but many websites go too far and damage the popularity of their website because of their ads. For example, the Escapist Magazine used to be popular, but they put ads before every single video on their website. Their user numbers dropped so heavily and so hard that their website isn’t even on the first page of the Google search engine results for gaming videos anymore.

Use What Works And Try To Scale It Up

Focus much of your energy on making your website popular. The areas that draw the most visitors and most converters are the areas you should concentrate on. All the SEO tricks in the world are no substitute for the search engine friendly effect of having a popular website.