A website is worthless if no one ever visits it. Ranking high in search engine results for keywords related to your business or organization can get your website seen, and that can mean more customers and more revenue. It can even improve your brand’s reputation.
But optimizing your website for search can feel overwhelming if you’re not well-versed in search engine optimization (SEO) – and SEO is pretty complicated. You have to use the right keywords, keep adding fresh content to your site, use metadata effectively, and try to encourage other sites to link to yours. Before you throw up your hands and admit defeat, try some of these techniques to boost organic search traffic to your website.
Add Fresh, Authoritative Content to Your Website Regularly
The most effective thing you can do to get more search traffic to your website is to add fresh, authoritative content to your website regularly. Search engines, especially Google, prioritize authoritative, useful content above any other search criteria. They want to promote pages that entertain, or impart knowledge, or build community, or preferably all three.
A good way to ensure that your website gets fresh content on a regular basis is to write a blog. Of course, you don’t have to write every entry on your blog – you can also post videos, infographics, or other visual entries. But each entry presents an opportunity to add some new relevant keywords to your site, engage in link building, and foster a sense of community in your blog comments. Blog posts can include updates or information about your industry or business or upcoming events. You can also post how-tos, product reviews, listicles, and advice relevant to your products or industry. Make your blog the reason why visitors keep coming back to your site and elect to spend time on it.
Take Advantage of Metadata
Metadata refers to language in your website’s HTML code that tells search engines about the content of your website. Search engines don’t use meta keywords anymore, but title metadata is still important. Meta descriptions can also help bring in traffic because they give users a little previous of your webpage content. You may need to work with a Phoenix SEO company to develop meta descriptions and meta titles for every page of your site, especially if you write a blog.
Use the Right Keywords
Search engines might not look for meta keywords, but search keywords are still a very important part of SEO. Maintaining a blog gives you the chance to use new keywords on your website with every blog post. You should use keywords in your title and subheadings, but remember to let your writing flow naturally. Don’t try to shoehorn a keyword into a heading if it doesn’t belong.
You shouldn’t overuse keywords, either. Use the SEO keyword once in the opening paragraph, once in the concluding paragraph, and two to four times in the body. Remember that a page can only rank for one keyword – at best, you can rank for two similar keywords, but there’s no point in stuffing every keyword you can find into the content. Pick one and stick with it.
Attract Backlinks
Backlinks, or links to your website from other websites, show search engines that your site is authoritative and well-regarded, and that can boost SEO. How do you get other websites to link back to your website? The answer is not to buy them – in fact, that can get you blacklisted from search returns.
No, you have to build a website that’s worth linking to, and people will link to it. You can attract backlinks by increasing your audience and by linking to other websites yourself. When you reference the source of some information, for example, you should link to the relevant website. Sites you link to might come looking to see who has linked to them, and they might link you back.
Follow Developments in the SEO Space
SEO best practices change all the time, so you should keep an eye on some SEO blogs to stay informed about any changes that may occur. If you aren’t prepared for search engines to change their ranking criteria, then you can lose a lot of traffic when updates come. If you know when to expect a tightening of the requirements for good SEO, you can make sure all of your practices are above board and your pageviews are solid in advance.
Boosting traffic to your website can be a lot of work, but it’s worth it when you reap the benefits of a bustling online community centered around your cause. Use the right SEO techniques to boost search traffic to your website, and soon you’ll be getting all kinds of attention.
