If you’re an entrepreneur of an internet based business, you need to find a way to make yourself visible to new customers on the internet. But how? The answer is simple: Your website needs to rank high on search engine results pages. How to rank high on search engines, however, is not so simple.
First, it is important to understand what having a high ranking website entails. It means that when people search for a given term related to your website/business in a search engine, they will see your website before they see others, whose rankings are lower. About 210 million U.S. adults use internet search engines to find products and services. Considering that there are 312 million people in the U.S., this usage demonstrates just how important it is for your website to rank high on search engines. Search engine optimization is a complex endeavor; people devote entire careers to it. However, there are steps that you can take without the help of a professional with a little bit of patience, research, and time. Here are some of the ways to increase our web visibility:
Your Website
Obviously, you must actually have a product or service that is in demand. If you do, then making your website visible is only possible if you have an effective website. Your website should be:
Professional.
It must be so for people to take your business seriously. The simple fact is this: many times, the first impression you make on your customers is through your website. A badly designed website will say to customers that your business is not only unprofessional, but not legitimate. People aren’t willing to risk forfeiting their money for a service or product they don’t entirely trust. If you have the skills to create your own, then by all means, do it. However, if you know nothing about building a website, the chances are that you need to hire a service to do it. .
Easy to use.
There’s nothing worse for potential and current customers than a website that is difficult to use. Make sure your website:
- Is fast.
- Is unique, simple, and to the point, but not distracting.
- Has a navigation bar for easy customer usability. This is a navigation bar:
Raise Your Website’s Search Engine Ranking: Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
SEO is a means to make your website more visible on the internet. A highly visible website will generate more traffic and, thereby, more business. The general idea is that a person takes steps to ensure that their website is at the top of the list, i.e. high ranking, on search engine result pages. There are several ways to boost your website’s search page ranking:
- Use common key words and phrases.
Search engines have tools called, “crawlers,” which crawl through webpages’ visible and invisible content to find websites to include on their result pages. Using key words and phrases in your website’s content (i.e. product descriptions, articles, etc.) and metadata gives your website a better chance of being included in search results. “Metadata,” put simply, is hidden data about your website’s content; crawlers, which can interpret this data, scour it as part of their search. Check out our keyword ranking report earlier this month about utilizing key words to boost your website’s ranking.
- Update your website’s content often.
Because your content is one of the most important factors is SEO, you must update often. When crawlers scour webpages, they’re looking specifically for new content. Thus, the more you update, the more likely your website is to get put into search engines’ algorithms often.
- Get indexed.
Search engines have tools called indexes, which are different subjects with collected and stored relevant data for easy retrieval. However, it is difficult to get indexed by submitting your website to search engines because of the amount of submissions they receive.
- Use cross linking.
The best way to get indexed on search engines is to get other websites to host your links on their websites, which increases how often the search engines’ crawlers encounter your website and its content. Using cross links also generates increased traffic to your website.
- Use social media.
Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are further means for website traffic; utilize these free resources.
This guest post was written by Gina Williams an article writer bringing to us tips for SEO beginners. Gina also writes about motorcycle accidents.
