Search engine optimization (SEO) has become a household term in the small business world. It’s no secret that appearing higher in search engine rankings can mean the difference between getting found by customers and remaining invisible.
If you want your small business website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), you need to optimize it for both search engines and users. SEO is the process of improving your website’s visibility, relevancy, and authority so that it can attract more organic traffic from searchers who are looking for businesses like yours.
It’s especially important for small businesses to optimize their web presence since they often don’t have the brand recognition or budget of larger businesses. By optimizing your site, you can improve your chances of ranking higher in SERPs and driving more traffic (and sales) to your business.
Tactics To Improve Search Engine Rankings
These are some tips and tricks to improve your website’s search engine rankings:
Boost Page Speed
Page speed is a ranking factor for both desktop and mobile searches. In fact, Google has stated that they are “working hard to make the web faster for everyone.” You can accomplish this by compressing images, minifying CSS and JavaScript files, and using a content delivery network.
Compress Image Size
One way to improve your website’s load time is by compressing the size of your images. By reducing the size of your images, you can make your website load faster, which will improve your search engine ranking.
Maximize Alt Tags
Alt tags are descriptions of images on a web page. They are also used by search engines to index images for relevant keywords. You can improve your website’s ranking by adding more and better alt tags to the images on your site. It also improves accessibility for visitors who are using screen readers to browse the web.
Get Backlinks
Link-building is getting other websites to link back to yours. The more high-quality links you have pointing back to your site, the higher you will rank in search engine results pages (SERPs).
To get backlinks, you can reach out to other website owners and ask for a link. Make sure you have something on your site that would be worth linking to, such as high-quality content or helpful tools and resources. You can also participate in link-building campaigns, such as guest blogging or directory submission.
Optimize Titles and Tags
It’s important to have descriptive, keyword-rich titles and tags on your website. This will help your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Make sure you’re using the right keywords for your business and products/services. Once you have a list of relevant keywords, you should include them in the title of your website and in the tags of your blog posts. This way, you’re more likely to rank for those keywords.
Ensure Mobile-Friendliness
If you want to improve your search engine rankings, one of the most important things that you can do is to make sure that your site is mobile-friendly. In other words, you need to ensure that it can be easily accessed and used on smartphones and other mobile devices without a hitch.
The reason this is so important is that more and more people are now using their mobile devices to access the internet. In fact, recent studies have shown that nearly 70% of all internet traffic now comes from mobile devices.
One way is to use responsive design, which means that your site will automatically adjust to fit the screen size of any device. Another way is to create a separate mobile version of your site.
Be Indexed on Google and Bing
Make sure that your website is indexed on both Google and Bing. You can check this by doing a simple search for your website name or domain — if it doesn’t appear, then you need to take action!
Add your site to Google Search Console: This is a free tool provided by Google that allows you to submit your website for indexing.
The same goes for Bing. The platform provides a free tool that allows you to submit your website for indexing on their search engine. Simply head over to the Bing Webmaster Tools site and add your website.
Publish Quality Content
When creating content, be sure to include relevant keywords that you want to rank for. However, don’t stuff your content with too many keywords as this can have a negative effect on your rankings. Instead, focus on creating quality content that is both informative and enjoyable to read.
Conclusion
SEO is a complex and ever-changing puzzle but there are a few simple things you can do to make sure your site is well-positioned for search engine success. No single one of the above can claim to have the golden ticket, but by following these tips, you can give your site a better chance of ranking well.
Our team of SEO professionals at Connection Model can provide you with a comprehensive approach that will take into account all aspects of your website, from the technical to the creative. Get in touch today!
Written By: David Carpenter
