Tips for success in seo
SEO concept with person using a laptop on a white table

In the current digital age, access to goods and services has never been easier as most consumers have access to the internet where they can search for service providers and even complete business transactions without physical meetings. As a result, owning a website for many business owners is no longer optional but mandatory. Websites could also be created to run a blog which is essentially a website where articles are constantly uploaded for information, entertainment, financial gain, etc.

One of the aims of a business owner should be to have a visible website. Content writing agencies in India can help you with that. No sweat. SEO is the process by which the quality and quantity of organic traffic received by a website is maximized; organic traffic in the sense that it is unpaid for. SEO enables websites to rank higher in Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) thereby allowing the website to have more visitors who can then be converted to customers if the website is for a business and readers if it is for a blog.

Search Engine Optimization is a concept that every website owner or content creator should be intimately familiar with as it is a major determinant of the success of one’s business or blog.

Tips for success in SEO

1. Fast Website Speed

Sometimes, some website owners may be so concerned with using the right keywords, adding infographics to their webpages, and making it aesthetically appealing that they forget about the speed of their website. The frequency at which people navigate away from a web page after entering the site is called bounce rate. Web pages that take a lot of time to load usually record high bounce rates. In fact, the longer it takes a web page to load, the higher the bounce rate. Websites that take 2 seconds to load are said to experience about a 9% bounce rate while pages that take about 5 seconds to load experience as much as 38% bounce rates. With these statistics, a webpage that is extremely slow to load will experience 100% bounce rates. Another factor used by Google in ranking web pages is speed on both desktop and mobile sites. In other words, website speed affects website visibility. Website speed can be improved by:

  • Choosing a fast web host: While one might be tempted to go for cheaper web hosts or web hosting options, it is wiser to pay more to get better quality.
  • Avoid posting images with large sizes on your web pages: In the use of infographics, it is better to compress image sizes to reduce the time larger size images would use to load.
  • Eliminating the use of web fonts: While using web fonts might boost the aesthetic appeal of a webpage, it is advisable to reduce or eliminate the use as it slows down webpage loading time.
  • Defer the loading of JavaScript in your webpage: This means suspending a JavaScript file on your webpage from loading while other elements are loading. JavaScript files are usually larger and deferring its loading can allow web users to access a webpage quicker before the files load.
Tips for success in SEO

2. Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing involves the excessive use of target words to increase the visibility or higher ranking of the webpage in searches containing the term. Keyword stuffing could involve the unnecessary repetition of particular words or phrases or inputting words out of context in the middle of statements. An example is a page that is trying to rank high for ‘affordable women’s shoes’ using the following in their webpage:

‘If you are searching for affordable women’s shoes, you have come to the right place. We sell affordable women’s shoes of various sizes ranging from size 29-44. You can be sure that all the shoes we sell irrespective of size or color are of good quality. This is why we take pride in selling the best and most affordable women’s shoe.’   

The density of keywords is excessive in the above sample. It is generally advised to stick to a keyword density of 2%. In other words, the keywords should constitute 2% of the number of words used in the webpage. That’s how SEO services in India optimize content.

3. Use the right keywords 

Sometimes a website might not be doing well in the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) ranking not because they do not have great content but because of the use of wrong keywords hence attracting the wrong audience leading to low engagement and high bounce rates. It can be a bit difficult to choose the right keywords that will attract the right customers. As a result, a lot of research into target customers is required to know their common search terms and the ones that yield the most results. Also, it is good to monitor how well webpages fare when using certain keywords to know the best ones to use. For example:

Mrs.  X offers repair and renovation services for spoilt or defective sewing machines. Her existing customers are tailors so she expects that a common search term for them would be ‘sewing machines’ so she uses this as her keyword. Unfortunately, most of the people searching for the words ‘sewing machine’ happen to be people looking to purchase one and as a result, users who found her webpage through those keywords were not staying on her page or patronizing her.

By adjusting the keywords used, one can hugely improve their SEO ranking and how well their business does.

4. Use Internal and external links

Internal linking involves adding links to different webpages on the same website to the content of a webpage. Internal links enable users to easily access different content on a particular website and make for a great user experience. Internal links make it easy for search engine crawlers to index websites faster, which leads to a higher SERP ranking.

External links are links added to the content of a webpage that directs users to another webpage on another website that has been referred to in the content. However counter-intuitive it might seem to lead people away from one’s website, external links are usually reciprocated which means that linking to other people’s websites might make them link back to one’s website, and the more backlinks one has, the higher one’s domain authority and overall ranking will be. External links also help the search engine understand what one’s content is about and backlinks establish a website’s trustworthiness.

Seven Tips to Avoid Failure in SEO

5. Never use black hat SEO methods

Black hat SEO methods are unethical practices disapproved of by search engines’ terms of services used by some website owners to improve their page ranking in a Search Engine Result Page. Engaging in black hat SEO practices lead to penalties that can seriously damage the web presence of a business or put an end to it entirely. Black hat SEO practices include but are not limited to:

6. Quality Content

Having quality content is unarguably the most important SEO tip. This is why the demand for good content writing companies in India has quickly escalated. As mentioned earlier in the article, the main function of search engines is to provide relevant answers to the queries of users. As a result, a web page must have content considered by the search engine to be of good quality and helpful to the user.

Quality content grabs the interest of people, gets them talking, helps them out in an area of their life, gets shared and passed around. Having quality content is a way by which a website markets itself and organically grows traffic of people who are converted to customers or loyal readers.

One can develop quality content by

  • Knowing one’s target audience: Content creation and marketing are customer-based strategies. Blog posts, reports, and other content are ways to attract customers. Because of this, it is imperative to know one’s readers by finding out their interests, worries, goals, and any other thing.
  • Speaking the language of one’s target audience: A blogger whose target audience for example is Indian youngsters needs to familiarize themselves with the terms of speaking of this group of people to be able to attract them. Finding out their words and manner of speaking will help one connect with them and be able to optimize one’s content by using the right keywords.
  • Regular content: Delivering regular content on a steady basis is bound to build customer trust. The number of searches one’s content can rank for will also significantly increase. 
  • Going the extra mile: To create quality content, it is essential to go the extra mile in terms of research and thinking for one’s content to be of the highest available quality.

7. Carry out regular SEO analysis

SEO analysis involves regular auditing of one’s site to search for issues that can be addressed to improve SERP. SEO analyses involve:

  • Checking your current website visibility: It is important to start from knowing where one stands to grasp one’s overall visibility on the search engine.
  • Check your URLs: URLs must be short and match the content of the page to make it easier to come up in search results. For example, a page about learning how to study properly without forgetting the content of one’s studies can simply have a URL of ‘how-to-study-properly’.
  • Titles and headings check: Titles and headings must be eye-catching and visible to draw attention. They must also contain the right SEO keywords.
  • Investigating broken links: User experience is very important and having broken links on a site can negatively affect the end-user. As a result, it is essential to investigate and address broken links within one’s webpages
  • Analyzing the content itself: On analyzing the content of one’s page, one may discover grammatical errors, duplicate content, or any other thing which might reduce the overall quality of the content. All these should be identified and corrected.

For SEO analysis, one can also employ the use of tools such as Google Analytics to aid in the process.

SEO requires a lot of patience and research. If properly indulged in, it can make for a very successful business or blog.

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