Search engines are constantly updating their algorithms to provide Web users with the information that they are searching for. And whenever these updates are rolled out, the ability of your site to appear among the first hits of a results page can be greatly affected.
However, by learning and applying some of the integral search engine optimisation (SEO) elements, you can increase the chances of your website to be listed as a high-ranking answer to a search query.
Content
It is important that you produce articles that are timely and written with quality in mind in order to entice readers to check the rest of your site.
Furthermore, content doesn’t just encompass text. It can include other forms such as images, videos, and even audio files. And if you offer up a variety of content for your readers, you can guarantee that they will come back for more.
Keywords
If you want to achieve high rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs), then you really need to invest time in researching about keywords. These are the terms that searchers will use to find you.
In order to direct them to your site, you need to know what they are looking for that is directly related to your niche. You can use a variety of free tools available on the Net to do this.
Another aspect that involves keywords is their frequency in your content. If there is too little, you run the risk of not being found. If you put in too much, you are inviting search engines to penalise you for stuffing.
Furthermore, this is also important if you deal with white label SEO.
User engagement
This involves the amount of time a visitor spends in your website. If they do not linger long enough, it is likely that they did not find what they were looking for. Now one way of ensuring that they stay engaged is to provide them with informative and relevant content.
Title
Search engines look to this to know what your page is all about. So, it is necessary to create one that is unique and, at the same time, descriptive enough to be differentiated from the million others on the Web.
Meta Description Tag
This provides a brief description of what your website has to offer. So, it is important that you provide something informational that would entice a Web user to click on your link.
Crawlability
Search engines have “spiders” that “crawl” through sites and store what they find in an “index.” If you want to be found, you must be listed in that index.
One thing you should avoid doing is using Flash in your pages because spiders cannot crawl through these content that utilise this application. Also, you can take advantage of sitemaps to increase your chances of being listed.
Page loading
If your site takes too long to display its content, your visitors would leave to find something else. So, it is best to stick to the bare essentials and leave out the heavy stuff that slows down your page’s loading time.
Links
Getting high-quality backlinks from reliable sites and linking to other authority websites are factors that can boost your ranking in search results.
Social shares
If your content is good enough, people will want to tell others by spreading word on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn. And if you garner enough shares, you might just get to the top spot of SERPs.
Conclusion
Although it might take time for you to get the results that you want to achieve, it is possible by following a few simple concepts.