While there is no surefire recipe that will yield guaranteed high rankings (search engines are mum about how they determine rankings), there are a handful of techniques that can help set your website apart from competitors and thus, boost your search engine rankings.
Choose Highly Relevant Keywords
It is typically far easier to rank on niche, tail terms than it is on broad, head terms, especially if you are just starting out. So choose tail terms relevant to your website to target. For example, if you sell laptop bags, consider targeting terms such as “pink laptop bag” or “brown leather laptop bag.” The more relevant the keyword is to your website, the better chance you have on ranking on it. Research your keywords extensively to ensure your target market is actually using them to search for your offerings.
Utilize the Title Tags
Many websites make the mistake of not utilizing their title tags; instead of placing their chosen keywords, the title tag will have their name or read something like, “Welcome to our website!” Title tags give search engines and users a snapshot of what your website is all about.
Write Unique Site Content Based on your Keywords
Posting duplicate content on your site means not only are you competing against sites with the same content, search engines will actually penalize sites with duplicate content. A prime example of duplicate content is using the manufacturer’s description of a product. You and every other site that sells the product is likely using the same description so write your own. That being said, while your content should have relevant keywords, don’t stuff the content – search engines can penalize for that as well.
Make your Website Crawler-Friendly
Search engines can’t read flash or Javascript or view graphics or search your site, so it’s important that you have HTML links on every page that links to the main navigation. This gives the search engine spiders a way to navigate your site and index all of its pages when they crawl the web.
Use SEO Software
One of the best ways to perform search engine optimization and improve search engine rankings is to use do-it-yourself SEO software – especially if you don’t have any prior experience with or knowledge of search engine optimization. SEO software can walk you step-by-step through what you need to do to choose the right keywords, make your website search engine friendly and subsequently boot your site rankings.
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