Getting your website noticed online can be a difficult proposition. Beyond choosing a catchy domain name, what tools are at your disposal to increase your online exposure?
One of the best tools available for this purpose is SEO — search engine optimization. This process works by creating web content that contains a certain number of keywords. When you’re content is properly saturated with these keywords, the chances of your website popping up in relevant search results is greatly increased.
Here are eight SEO tips that will boost your websites online exposure:
1. Keyword Selection
Keyword selection is the most important aspect to increasing your websites SEO. Make a bullet point list of 5-10 words that best describe your site. Then pick the three most relevant. These are your keywords and you should include them in your content, headers, titles and meta tags.
2. Evaluate the Competition
Are you trying to rank high with the keyword ‘iPad’? Then your chances of success are very slim. Millions of websites are competing for this very common keyword. Try to pick something a little more specific, like ‘green iPad leather case’.
3. Target Local Businesses
Although the internet isn’t contained by geographic boundaries, targeting your SEO content towards local businesses can really help boost your exposure. Having a local mindset means that you interact with regional businesses, and hopefully they will help to market your site both online and offline.
4. Domain Name
Your domain name has a big impact on your website SEO effectiveness. It can really be the difference between a trickle and a flood of online traffic.
Say that you want to create a website about dog food. Be sure to include your keywords in the domain name. For example, www.dogfood.com. This will greatly enhance your websites SEO.
Take some time when choosing your domain name in order to ensure you make the right choice by creating one that matches your business, is easy to remember and makes sense.
5. Use Social Media
Social media is an inexpensive way to improve your websites SEO. Not only can you extend your websites reach to the social networking sphere, but you can also add a more personal touch to your content. Tailor your content for social networking just like you would if you want to optimize for Google — use your keyword in every wall post or tweet. But be sure not to overdo it.
6. Develop a Trusted Reputation
One of the fastest ways to destroy your websites credibility is to engage in spam-like SEO. Don’t post meaningless spam comments on blogs. Instead emphasize quality over quantity, choose a reputable web hosting service, and don’t let your site fall prey to cheap marketing gimmicks.
7. Quality Content
Remember, people will be the ones reading your content, not search engines. Therefore, write your content in an easy to understand and entertaining manner. If you’re bored writing the content, it is quite likely that people reading it will be bored as well.
8. Links
You can increase your websites online exposure through quality links. Start listing your site on various directories and begin to develop relationships with sites and blogs that are similar to yours.
Optimizing your site for the big search engines is a complicated affair, but with these eight SEO tips, your website will be ranking well and drawing thousands of new hits!
