Having the best looking site or most compelling content on the web does not mean much if you are not able to attract the attention of the major search engines. For most site owners, the trick to earning significant web traffic is not as much about the web design as it is about understanding the technical aspect.
This knowledge includes understanding the technical items that search engines are looking for when the site is indexed. In a nutshellle source of information. This optimization is accomplished by adhering to the algorithms that the major search engines seem to be using. This optimization allows the website owners to communicate exactly what a site is about and why it is a credible source of information.
Often there are SEO things that are overlooked by developers. This oversight is likely unintentional. The following list is a list of ten SEO tips. This list is not intended to be an exhaustive list but should provide a handful of natural ways to start optimizing the website without the need for additional technical expertise.
- Content is still king.
Remember, you are creating a website for real people, not for search engines. Concentrate on offering high-quality content that is centered around the keywords most relevant to your market.
- Provide relevant names for your image files.
Search engines rely on the names and alt tags of your images in order to know what they reference. This practice is also considerate to those who have vision disabilities and use screen readers to provide the context of the image.
- Use “pretty” permalinks.
Keep the permalinks on your site short and to the point so that both visitors and the search engines will understand what your pages and posts are about.
- Provide an XML sitemap.
This sitemap is one of the easiest ways to ensure search engines index all of the main sections or areas of your website.
- Choose a theme that has been designed with SEO in mind.
Some designers place a bigger priority on being SEO-friendly than others. Do your research to find the one that fits your SEO needs.
- Use heading tags to draw attention to key content.
Highlight important concepts and keyword phrases by using the <h1> and <h2> tags to make them stand out.
- Avoid black hat SEO strategies.
When it comes to lasting results, there are no shortcuts to SEO success. Using unethical or unfair techniques is a great way to get your site removed from the search engine results entirely.
- Avoid using Flash.
Those fancy graphics and animations might look appealing to some users, but they’re gibberish to the search engines.
- Distribute your content using social media.
Take advantage of your favorite social media platforms to let your audience know about your freshest content. This social media marketing strategy is an excellent way to build buzz online while providing SEO benefits.
Unless you are particularly interested in learning all of the finer points of effective SEO for yourself, you might consider using one of the many great SEO plugins that are available, such as the Yoast SEO plugin. This highly recommended plugin is simple enough for a beginner to use. It also includes enough advanced settings and options to allow more experienced developers to get as detailed as they like in their SEO campaign.
Above all, it’s important to remember that it is ultimately the quality of your content that will make or break your campaign, at the end of the day. Concentrate on creating content that your target audience is going to love, and view the SEO side of your online presence as icing on the cake.
Joe Hall has been doing SEO for 8 years and loves everything about digital marketing. Lately hes been having fun promoting his new client CubicleConcepts.com but when hes not doing that, hes creating an amazing new piece of software.