The Importance of SEO

When people search for something on Google they trust that they are going to get results that match their query, so it is important for your site to be credible. To build credibility there are several factors that play into it including backlinks, how fast your site loads, and having quality content on your site. When these factors are optimized and set up properly, your website will rank higher and pay dividends over time.

Not many people scroll past the first page when they are using a search engine, so having a quality website with quality SEO will help your website get closer to that first page over time and can take your company to the next level.

Ways to Improve your Website

Content on a website is one of the most important factors because you can strategically use keywords to help you rank higher. Keywords should be placed in your website’s copy organically so that it flows well. A trick for this is to do your keyword research before creating the content on your website because the keywords will then flow more naturally while still ranking on Google and other search engines.

You want your content to deliver clear information to the search engines and to the potential customer on your site. Websites should be built for the customer and be able to make their experience as seamless as possible while being optimized for search engines.

Updating your content regularly is a good indicator that your website is relevant and staying on top of new trends in your industry and other outside factors. Search engines really enjoy relevant information and will rank relevant information higher than irrelevant information.

For example, in the past couple of years websites needed to update their content to reflect what is happening with Covid-19. This is a good indicator that the website is still active and relevant, which will result in higher rankings. Content should be updated about 2-4 times a year to keep the information fresh, informative, and relevant to your business.

Having fresh, informative, and relevant information on your website will help visitors learn more about what they are searching for on your website. When this information helps them they are more likely to link your website to other websites.

Having links is crucial in ranking highly on Google because the more links you have, the more authority and credibility your site will have. Being credible is a great indicator for search engines to rank your website higher on search engine result pages (SERP) due to only credible and trusted sites being at the top.

What to Avoid (Black-Hat SEO)

So far we have talked a lot about content and how content can help your site gain authority, credibility, and how it can help you rank higher with search engines, but there are some things that Google will penalize websites for. In this section, we will talk about some of those factors that will be bad for your website and some practices to avoid when implementing an SEO strategy for your website.

By now you should know content is very important for your website and the quality of that content matters. Duplicate content and spammy content however are frowned upon in the eyes of Google and other search engines. If multiple pages have the same content (duplicate content) then Google will recognize that and penalize the rankings of your website for using “Black-Hat SEO practices”.

Black-Hat SEO is the act of manipulating search engines to get higher rankings, basically cheating the system and trying to do things “unethically” in terms of SEO. Black-Hat SEO goes against search engine guidelines and breaks the rules and Google will penalize websites for this.

As stated above, spammy content and duplicate content are just some of the ways that Google may penalize your website. Spammy content can be classified as content that is filled with only keywords and no real content or information. Cloaking is another black-hat practice that can jeopardize the rankings of your website.

Essentially cloaking is the practice of putting hidden text into your website that users can’t see but the search engines would. Hidden links are also considered cloaking and are not good SEO practices and you should stay away from doing this if you want your website to be successful.

Conclusion

SEO is a very useful tool for any size business when it comes to building a reputation, developing integrity, and gaining authority. With a good action plan, research, and good practices you should see an impact from SEO within six months to a year. You will need to maintain your SEO constantly and have a set goal in mind to strive for, whether it is more customers, or simply more site visits.

SEO is a cost-effective tool that will pay dividends over time when done correctly, and after reading this article you should be able to get the groundwork for your own SEO started. Building a trusting relationship with both customers and search engines will help your business in the long run.