If you’ve been doing business for years, you know how important a website is. It’s an investment which allows a business owner like you, to reach out to potential customers, convince them that your business is the best out there and maintain a professional relationship with a lot of people. It’s also one of the most convenient mediums for communication which means that even if your potential customers live in another country, you can still do business with them. However, a website can only bring you that kind of benefits if your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is optimal.
Whenever online users need something, they would immediately use the internet. They usually click on the websites which are located on the first page of the search engine results. If your website isn’t found on the first page, you’ll have a low chance of being a major competitor business online. To ensure that your website will end up in the top results of search engines, consider the tips below:
Produce useful and relevant content: Dwell time is the amount of time online visitors spend on your website. The higher the dwell time, the better it is for your website’s SEO rankings. As a business owner, you should look for ways on how you can make online visitors interested and hooked on your website. A simple solution? Produce useful and relevant content. This should be original, informative and updated as well. This will keep them glued to your website while learning how your offering can help with their problems.
To help you decide what to write about, think about your target audience. Are your products and services for single moms? Or are they for the entire family? Once you’ve determined who your target audience is, it’ll be easier for you to come up with topics which can be useful to them. You just have to make sure that your contents subtly tell your online visitors how useful your offerings are in their respective lives.
Consider readability: Sure, you might be able to determine who your target audience is but you shouldn’t forget that their level of understanding is still different. You might be writing for single moms but how one mom understands certain information will be different from how another mom takes it. Make your content easy to read and understand. You don’t want to lose potential customers just because they came across jargon in your content. Everything in your page should be concise and direct to the point. Don’t run around the bush, immediately tell your online visitors what you want to tell them using the simplest terms.
Layout and formatting: Everything in this world is fast-paced. Online visitors doesn’t have the time and ability to read long texts, especially if they don’t know what the topic is all about. With this notion in mind, always think about the layout and formatting of your content. This can affect your dwell time. If online visitors are bombarded with a page full of text without it being formatted in bolds or italics, they’d probably hit the close button immediately. However, if you format your content using bullet points and numbered list, they might change their minds. When you choose to do the latter, online visitors can easily scan through the pages and be able to determine important points. Proper layout and formatting can give your online visitors a user-friendly experience.
Page load speed: How long your website loads affects Bing and Google’s algorithm. If your website loads fast the moment online users click on it, you’ll have better chances of earning a top spot in the search engine results. Aside from your rankings in different search engines, your website speed can also affect your dwell time. When your website takes too long to load, online users might opt to browse through other websites instead. This can hurt your efforts to gain more customers and earn more profit.
Optimize images: There are many reasons you should include images on your website. First, it can help break the monotony online users get whenever they read too much text. Images can also help in explaining certain topics to online users and once used carefully, images can also inject humor to your website. All of these things can have a positive impact on your dwell time and SEO rankings.
Header tags: Regardless of how informative and updated your content is, if you weren’t able to couple it up with a killer headline, your attempts to improve your SEO ranking are useless. You should always keep in mind that high-quality content goes best with a good headline. If you weren’t able to grab the attention of your online users through your headlines, they wouldn’t continue reading through your content. Your headlines should excite online visitors to read more.
Broken links: For sure, you also browse other websites. And once you arrive at a 404 page, you’ll be frustrated especially if you’re looking for important information. Put yourself in the shoes of your online visitors and never let this happen on your own website. There shouldn’t be any broken links. Not only can broken links hurt your SEO ranking but this can also create a negative brand image for your business. No one would want to buy from a website that always redirects to a 404 page. Related Tool: Broken Links Checker
Outbound links: Most business owners think that they’re already experts in the products and services they’re offering. This is the reason why it’s very easy for them to come up with content which talk about topics in your business niche. There’s nothing really wrong in having this mindset but it also doesn’t hurt if you use outbound links to drive points home. This can give teeth to whatever you’re claiming while proving that your content is reliable. When you use outbound links especially from authority sites, your SEO ranking can improve. But in this phase, less is always more. Use authority links to a minimum and don’t overdo it.
Mobile optimizations: With the advent of technology, not all of your online visitors will browse your website using a computer or laptop. They can now do the same with the use of smartphones and other gadgets. And since the latter works on a different resolution, mobile optimization is something which you should prioritize. You should make sure that regardless of what online visitors are using to browse your website, they can get the same user experience and website features.
You’ll Need Professionals
Regardless of how unique you think your business is, there’ll always be other businesses which have been offering the same for years. These competitors might already become a household name in where you’re operating. Aside from innovating your products, services and customer service, your website can also help you level the playing field. Once you’ve set up your website properly, you can attract more online visitors who can eventually become your buying customers. Aside from the tips from this article, it never hurts to tap professional help from sites like Studio 56.
Tristan Gray
Tristan is a digital marketing specialist and the founder of Studio 56. With years of experience in the digital marketing field and business world, Tristan prides himself on delivering high quality marketing services to clients in the Allied Health sector. S56 specialises in partnering with Allied Health practices to boost their overall ROI. He has a loving family and enjoys traveling in his free time.