SEO (search engine optimization) matters because users matter, and users start –  almost unequivocally – with search. While larger enterprises may hire a company whose sole focus is SEO, most businesses can manage their SEO in-house, making it a cost-effective way to indicate credibility, authority, value and build organic traffic, opening your business to a world of customers. And most businesses can implement a few simple tips today around keywords, content, visibility and linking to boost your search result ranking in the future. 

Certum now has a partnership with Shopify to help you with all of your e-commerce needs. Here’s a video Leah Swain recently recorded that goes into all of the details.

1.  Get Your List of Keywords 

The first step to driving traffic to your website is understanding the topics your target audience is interested, in and identifying keywords and phrases that optimize your content for SEO. Keyword research is easy, and free, thanks to online tools such as Google Keyword Planner. There’s a great article at Semrush with step-by-step instructions on how to use the Google Keyword Planner to discover new keywords or see metrics for a list of keywords you’d like to use. Not sure where to start? Enter the URL for a website you like, or a competitor’s site, to get a list of keywords related to that content, and build from there.

Pro Tip: Conduct keyword research using Incognito Mode.

2. Create High-Quality Content 

Once you’ve identified ideal keywords, create high-quality content around those topics. Content is king, and to be ranking royalty, you must create engaging, valuable content that drives traffic to your site on a regular basis.

Search engines will sniff out articles written for keyword stuffing and reduce your ranking, so write for your audience first. Ensure original, engaging, informative content that uses headings, bullet points, subheads and images to maintain interest.

You should aim to answer a question, and include that question directly in your content. Readable posts that ask and answer questions like “What is X?” or “How do I X?” will boost your rankings and provide direct value to customers looking for exactly what you provide.

Consistency cannot be overrated when it comes to producing content. Search engines prioritize sites that produce fresh, original content often, and customers recognize sites with stale, dated content.

Pro-tip: Include the most relevant keyword in the first 100 words of your content.

3.  Optimize for Visibility

When you have great content, don’t jeopardize its visibility with confusing or complex URLs and descriptions. Simple and intuitive URLs are easy to read, and make sense to both users and search engines, so avoid a jumble of letters and numbers without any real meaning to the end user. You can add even more value by including keywords directly in your URL. 

Meta descriptions are another crucial component to visibility. The meta description is that bit of text that appears directly under your URL on a Google results page, and it is high-value real estate for gaining the attention of customers and search engines. It should be engaging, include keywords, and be in the neighborhood of 155 characters.

Search engines can’t “see” images, so they review the filename and alt text to better understand what the image is about. Using keywords in your filenames and alt text description will often be a quick win when it comes to SEO. You can do the same for any video or audio/podcast files on your site. Descriptive, contextual alt text that is relevant to the page content will create a higher value asset to search engines.

4. Insert Relevant Links 

When authoritative websites link to yours, your search engine rankings will increase. Leverage connections within the industry to collaborate on content that links back to your site, contribute as an expert in a guest post on their site which links back, and participate in industry forums with backlinks. 

If you don’t have the equity to request inbound links, you can still connect content and topics within your site. Building clusters of posts that each explore an aspect of a broader topic is a great way to signal to search engines that you are an authority and to keep users clicking through your site, reducing your bounce rate, which is also considered in rankings.

Visualize your internal linking strategy as a wagon wheel, with each spoke diving deeper into a specific aspect of the hub topic, and linking to one another when appropriate. This strategy communicates authority to search engines and provides immense value to search crawlers and customers alike.

Using this post as an example, the hub topic is SEO, and I could explore the spokes of Keywords, Content, Visibility and Links in much more detail on separate pages, with a high degree of internal links between them.

Pro Tip: Include outbound links to trusted authorities.

Begin Your SEO Process Today

No matter what size your business is, SEO is a critical part of any digital marketing strategy. It’s dynamic, with the algorithms being updated constantly. It’s also a long-term process, but with patience and consistency implementing the tips mentioned in this article (conducting keyword research, creating high-quality content, optimizing your URLs and descriptions, and building links) you can increase your website’s visibility to users, its value to search engines, improving your SEO rankings and driving more organic traffic without breaking the bank.