There was a time, and you might remember it, when experts recommended stuffing every possible keyword into a website to improve search engine ranking.
Titles, body copy and meta tags were filled to the brim with pretty much any word that could be remotely connected with the topic or product on the website. This technique, along with other black hat tactics could make a website rank higher in Google’s search results. Now, not so much. Here are some things to remember when considering your website’s content as it relates to search engine ranking.
Seven Tips for Better Search Engine Ranking
- The most important thing to search engine ranking is good content. Writing content for your website and integrating keywords, naturally, into each page will do wonders for letting the spider bots know what’s on your site.
- There is no optimum keyword density. The right occurrence of keywords on your site is dictated by how many times the keyword can be used naturally. Use the keyword (or some variation) in the headline, page title, in the content…wherever it fits best.
- Proper use of headings, or “H-tags,” improves search engine ranking. Think of your website like a term paper. Each section needs to have a heading and subheads to let the reader know what is there. They may only be looking for one specific thing, but if you have it, they’ll find that one thing a whole lot easier if you guide them to it.
- Page titles and description tags are important. When you perform a search, the big links you see are the page titles. The few sentences below the link is the page’s description. This is your opportunity to pull people in and get them to visit your site.
- Links – it’s about quality, not quantity. Search engines like it when other sites link to your site. It lends credibility to your website, especially when those other sites are also highly ranked. You should focus on requesting links from a number of relevant yet diverse sites. Oh, and you can go ahead and cancel your subscriptions to sketchy blog-spinning services and overseas link farms.
- Use social media — wisely. Not every network is right for every need, but find the one or ones that best suit your needs and match your audience’s habits. People search social media for answers these days. Make sure you’re there when they look.
- Make sure you include your location in your content. Someone may search for t-shirt design, and you may do t-shirt design in Poughkeepsie, NY, but if you don’t tell the search engines where you do your designs, it won’t know to serve up your website when someone searches for t-shirt design in Poughkeepsie.
All right, that’s all we have for you this month on search engine ranking. If there’s something you’d like us to talk about, let us know.