If you’re a business owner of any kind, or if you just have your own website for fun, you’re going to want to make sure that your site stands out among millions of other sites. This is where SEO, or “search engine optimization” comes in. This basically means that there are certain tricks you can use to make your website appear higher on the list in Google, so your website gets more hits than others.
Whether you want to get more people to check out the NBA picks you posted, or you want people to use your recipe for chocolate chip cookies, you’ll need to use SEO for people to actually see what you’re posting, especially if your website is new. To do that, you can follow these tips and tricks, which will leave you with a much more professional and click-worthy site.
Keywords are Everything
The first tip you’ll need to focus on for SEO is that keywords will make or break you. Your posts need to have a focus word or phrase, which is a word or phrase that you include in multiple different areas throughout the page. That way, when people look up that word or phrase, your site will use it frequently, and it will appear closer to the top of the list on Google.
After you have decided on a keyword or phrase, add it to your title. Oftentimes, it’s easiest to create your title first, and then pick a word or phrase out of it, which you can add to the rest of your content. Once you have it picked out, add it to subtitles, headings, images, and throughout the body multiple times. This will ensure that it’s used enough to improve your SEO.
Link it Up
Another great way to improve your SEO, and your site in general, is by partnering with other sites or content creators so that they will share your link and include it on their websites. This will build your site’s authority, which will bring it closer to the top of the page. There are many ways to use linking to improve your SEO. These include internal links, outbound links, and inbound links.
Internal links are types of links that you provide your readers with. When you add an inbound link, you are linking to your own site. This could mean that if you post picks and parlays, you add a link to another post on your site about NBA picks today. This gets more clicks going throughout your site itself.
Outbound links are links that take you to other websites. This demonstrates that you are partnered with other websites, and it improves the SEO of both sites involved. So, if you have a friend with a website, consider outbound linking with them.
Inbound links are links on other websites that bring people to your site. These links are often sponsored by you, or some people come up with trades that benefit both websites. Basically, an inbound link is someone else’s outbound link that brings their readers to you. It helps to build your site’s credibility because Google will recognize that other sites trust you enough to direct their readers to you.
Staying Relevant
The most important tip for SEO is to maintain relevance in whatever population you’re aiming for. For example, if you’re using a keyword often to improve your search engine optimization, you need to be sure that it’s something people will actually look up. Stay away from single words, or widely used phrases. You’ll need to get creative, because people rarely go to the 2nd page of Google, let alone anything past that.
Make sure you’re link-building with relevant sites. If a site you’re link-building with doesn’t get many clicks, they probably won’t help you get any clicks either. Although it’ll still improve your credibility, it won’t be quite enough to move you to the top of the list.
Ellen Holington