Optimizing your website for search engines is an important tactic if you’re looking for a competitive edge over your competitors. Search engines, such as Google, are constantly sending out web crawlers, sometimes referred to as spiders, to index website content and data. You must ensure that your website is built to feed them the information you want to be found for on the search engines. Even if your website has the SEO basics covered (keywords, titles, meta descriptions, etc.) it might not be enough to get the edge over your competition.
Here are 5 SEO tips to help you gain a competitive edge:
- Content is Still King in 2017
Good content is still the best way to engage your customers. It answers questions, establishes thought leadership, encourages loyalty, and sells products and services. And content will continue to be one of your most effective marketing tactics moving forward. So be sure to keep it fresh. If your last blog entry was in 2015 you’re basically telling your clients that you’ve got nothing new to say. Sure it may be tough to find the time, or the manpower, to update your website but it’s a must if you want to get found on one of the search engine result pages (SERPs). Google and the other search engines also love fresh content. If you simply don’t have the time, we can help. - Ensure the Overall User-Experience is Positive
•Make certain that everything on your website is operating smoothly. Any error pages or broken links must be taken care of immediately as they will negatively affect the overall experience and SEO simultaneously.
• Your visitors should easily find the information that they’re looking for; because If they can’t, a competitor is only a click away.
• Confirm that your site is mobile-friendly. According to Search Engine Watch, 61% of users will leave your website if it isn’t optimized for mobile browsing.
• And verify that your site loads fast, something we see many companies over-look. In this age of instant gratification, we’re all impatient and if your page doesn’t not load quickly (less than three seconds) many will look elsewhere. Use tools such as GTmetrix or Pingdom to track your average page load time and change accordingly. - Build Quality and Relevant Backlinks
Backlinks are an important element of every successful SEO campaign. Focus on getting backlinks from sites with high standards. Google bases the relevance of backlinks on the following criteria:
• The overall content “theme” of the linking domain
• The actual content on the linking page
• And the relevancy of the backlinks hitting the domain
Look for Authority Sites to link from, as the stronger the site, the better the results. And while Google doesn’t update PageRank anymore, you can source third party metrics to help you. - Protect Yourself from Negative Backlinks
Unfortunately, it’s becoming quite common among competitors to initiate negative SEO attacks on others. If you see a spike in backlinks it might be already too late as Google will penalize your website and it will plummet down the search rankings.
Here’s some tips to help prevent negative SEO attacks:
• Set up Google Webmaster Tools to send you alerts when your website is being attacked by malware; or your pages are not indexed; or you have server connectivity problems; or you get a manual penalty from Google.
• Keep Track of Your Backlinks Profile. This is the important as spammers will build low quality links or redirects to your website. Tools likeAhrefs, Open Site Explorer, or MonitorBacklinks.com can help.
• Protect Your Best Backlinks as spammers will often try to remove your best backlinks. Again, Monitor Backlinks can help solve this issue.
• Secure Your Website from Malware and Hackers. Security is extremely important to prevent spam on your website. We utilize Sucuri to protect our site and our clients:https://sucuri.net/
• Check for Duplicate Content as they will also hurt your SEO efforts.
• Monitor Your Social Media Mentions. Beware of spammers that create fake social media accounts using your company or website address. Be sure to report them as soon as possible as you try to get the profiles removed. Tools like mention.net can help you find out who is using your brand name - Use Every Google Tool at Your Disposal Google offers so many tools to help you gain an advantage on SEO that it would be a shame if you haven’t employed them already. Here are a few you need to explore:
• Having a Google+ presence will boost your search engine rankings
• Google Search Console allows you to keep track of everything that goes on your website
• Google Trends show you what keywords are currently trending, which you can incorporate to your blog posts or any other content.
• But the tool that will help you the most on the road to better SEO is Google Analytics. You can get all sorts of feedback for content, campaigns, user experience, etc., that you should use to adjust your strategies for better results.
Looking to improve your SEO Strategy? Don’t hesitate to contact us as we would love to help you and your company improve your online profile.
BARIS OZMORALI
Social Media Marketing Coordinator
Mystique Brand Communications
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