Your website will only be found on the search engines if the search engines know what words you want to be found for. It may sound like a no-brainer but you would be surprised how many sites don’t target keywords effectively and how many website owners don’t have an effective keyword targeting strategy as part of their SEO.
Keyword Research
New website owners should be considering terms that they realistically have a chance of acquiring a good position for in the short-term, particularly if budgets are limited. These will generally include keyphrases (with 3 or more words in), geographically specific terms (use city rather than country) and terms with low search volume (but because they are specific they will generate traffic). By strategising to target the quick-wins first but with an eye on the big value generic terms you will get more value from initial budgets, looking to re-invest your profits back in to build momentum into your strategy and begin to target the higher yielding terms.
Use the Google Keyword tool to identify the terms in your sector that will give you traffic. If you operate within a location then use the tool to view the search volumes - over 1/3 of all searches now include a location thanks to the use of smartphones. This gives you an opportunity to generate local traffic where you can be really specific and face much lower competition.
For the phrases that are key to you, ensure you tell the search engines this. Ensure that they feature within page title, page description and have a density on your page of no greater than 4%. H1 tags are vital in telling Google which elements of your content are important, use them wisely and ensure your keywords are present. Try and get a home page internal link or two that is keyword specific but don’t go overboard here, remember the importance of user experience and that avoiding duplicate content is a must. Try not to target too many terms on each page, structure your website so that you are able to create a long-tail effect through a well thought out site map.
Monitoring Your Progress
Don't forget to use analytics to generate management information. One can assume that if a less competitive keyphrase or local term works really well then the associated generic will work well also, using google analytics will help you to work out what is working for you and what isn't.
All of these recommendations are basic SEO but it is still surprising how many website owners are not aware of the basic SEO considerations. It is much better to have all of these things in place when you go live than make wholesale changes as an after-thought when search engine progress is slow.
If you want further information on getting your website ready for SEO and how Ascensor can help, get in touch with us today.