Boost Your Website's Ranking With SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is key to improving your ranking and increasing your website's traffic. With the improved online visibility provided by a high search engine position, your site can fulfill its full potential and attract those much needed visitors and customers. But how can you achieve this?


Heading the list in Google, Microsoft Bing or Yahoo is by no means a simple task. Competition is fierce and a number of individual factors all need to be considered and optimized to ensure that your site is ahead of the rest. SEO is all about precision targeting and being thorough right across the site.


Defining your Keywords


Keywords play one of the most significant roles in optimizing any site. By ensuring you have the most relevant keywords for the searches you're looking to attract, you can go about implementing them throughout your website.


An ideal keyword or key term is one that is regularly searched for but has a low level of competition. Of course, this isn't always going to be possible. However, with thorough research you have the opportunity to target a real niche and make the job of topping the search engines for top terms that little bit easier.


Implementing SEO Strategy


Your website's copy is one of the most obvious places to implement keywords. Whilst you need to ensure that it's focused on selling your services and providing valuable information for visitors, it's also an opportunity to get noticed by the search engines too.


A balance needs to be struck though when including keywords. They shouldn't account for more than 5% of the total copy; otherwise it'll be overkill and undermine the integrity of the page. Likewise they do need to be included somewhere, otherwise your copy will have no direction. More often than not , you'll include keywords naturally; however just keep an eye on them to ensure they don't slip through the cracks.


Optimizing Headlines


Each page should have one headline (H1 tag) and may also include a number of sub-headings (H2 tags). The H1 headline is where you need to really sell that page. It should provide a keyword rich overview of that particular page - i.e. 'Antique Pine Doors', 'Search Engine Optimization Services'. This will inform search engines exactly what is contained within that section and help them rank it appropriately for the phrase. Sub-headings break up a page nicely and also provide further weighting for key terms.


Implementing Meta


Again, Meta tags are almost entirely reliant on your keywords. By including certain search terms within the HTML of the page, it too helps define what your site is about and instructs the search engines and their spiders exactly where to look.


But there is so much more to SEO and promoting your site. This simple list is a great place to start, but ultimately Link Building, Local Search and even Social Media Marketing can all play a part. But however you wish to promote your site and encourage its growth, at its very core it is the SEO that keeps everything together and provides that solidity that search engines look for.


If you overlook the importance of a good SEO strategy then you could well be missing out on the opportunity to allow your site to fulfill its full potential. Only through continual updates and precise SEO tweaks can you gain the PageRank and subsequent search engine visibility needed to gain swathes of natural traffic. An investment in SEO, ultimately is an investment in the future of your website.


Stephen Logan works as a Writer for leading Hampshire-based SEO Company Impact Media. They offer a full range of services including expert Search Engine Optimization.