Our thanks to consultant Lisa Wheatly for this guest contribution.
The virtual life is so widely spread that attracting visitors has become a really tough challenge for today’s website and blog owners. Statistics say that the number of websites online has now crossed 1 billion and grows by the minute. This is why SEO, which stands for “search engine optimization” has been introduced as the best strategy for increasing website discoverability.
If you have an author website or blog, you must understand the importance of the search engine optimization if readers are to find you and your work.
Understanding SEO
SEO is a methodology that, when combined with certain social media and content marketing strategies, can lead to increased website traffic and revenue. You are increasing the chances of ranking higher in the search engine results pages; when a site is ranked higher, people can find it more easily.
Additionally, SEO is used to bring the right audience to your site. Employing good SEO strategy allows readers to find exactly what they are looking for when they visit your site. And that translates to more book sales
As the internet advances so must you as website or blog owners. Making sure that you’re up to date with the latest trends in the SEO world is the only way to claim the best possible ranking for your website.
If you are ready to start the SEO journey and take your website to a new, improved level, you must pay attention to:
Keywords
The first step for a successful SEO strategy are the keywords. If you want to attract more audience to your blog or website, you need to determine who your audience is and find keywords that they may look for when in need of what you have to offer.
People use the search engines daily to look for products and information. Understanding what they are searching for is the best way to pick the keywords for your website. Make sure that the keywords you use for your blog or website are something an ideal customer of yours would look for on your website. Otherwise, you may experience an increase in traffic, but low profitability.
You can start picking your keywords according to your experience or use tools that will help you in the process. Google AdWords Keyword Tool is a great source where you can see whether your potential keywords are good and what the competition does to succeed.
Meta Tags
Google has its own way of checking your website and the strategies you use for optimization. Therefore, they will look at the page title and description and check for its relevance with the keywords you used. Yoast SEO is a great tool to help with this, helping you analyze tags, content, titles, and optimize each post or page for a keyword of your choosing.
Content
We’ve all heard what Bill Gates once said, “Content is king.” That still remains an undeniable truth. Search engines are now focusing on quality content that both ranks for keywords and creates positive user experiences.
If you are bad at writing SEO content for your website, you may want to turn to professionals for help. The content of your website is one of the most important things when it comes to its optimization, so spending some money on content is a great investment. Check Top Aussie Writers to find potential helpers for your website or blog content.
Backlinks
Many people think that website linking leads to great SEO results when you connect to as many websites as possible. This is not true. Backlinking is an amazing strategy that is crucial for the success of a website, but it is not about which website has the most links. What is needed here are quality links that point back to the blog and websites.
Look for backlinks that are related to what you have to offer. You can do this by contacting popular blogs and website in the same niche and offering them linking. Additionally, make sure that every website or blog you link to is valid.
Social Media
Social media also remains an important part of the optimization of a website. The fact is, websites are now more often community-oriented which makes the communication with the customers a big prerequisite to becoming successful.
Establish a strong presence on the social media platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest to give Google signals of authority and consistency, and regularly let those readers know they can visit your site for more info, to read a post, or sign up for a sample of your writing.
Images
Even in cases where one does not have a product to offer, images are known to attract attention and keep people interested in a site’s content. Additionally, websites with quality images are known to rank better in search engines.
When choosing your website or blog’s images, make sure that they are of high resolution and that you have the right to use them. You can always purchase the right to choose a photo or download one from free high-resolution sites, such as Pexels.
When you upload those photos, make sure to include captions and “alt tags” (descriptions of images) that include your keywords as well.
Australian Lisa Wheatly believes analytical thinking and an enquiring mind are her strongest points, and she does her best to put them to good use as a consultant of young entrepreneurs.