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5 tips that are critical for seo success

February 28th, 2015

In the ever expanding World Wide Web, which grows dramatically every day and in a world where any individual, organization, or company can easily create and post a web site, blog or article it is imperative that a site be optimized for search engines. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine” (Google, 2014a). Through the correct SEO strategies an individual, company or organization can increase its visibility in a search engine thus leading to increased web traffic, which should ultimately lead to increased profitability. Below are 5 simple and easy to use strategies to help increase site visibility through search engines.

  1. Create original, high quality content to ensure visibility. No reader, not even Google’s bots, wants to read the same thing over and over. In addition to this stuffing an article or webpage with endless keywords or keyword phrases will most likely result in readers turning away from the page and could possibly lead to penalties from Google’s search algorithm (Viswanathan, 2014). In addition to this creating high quality content will lead to readers wanting more, thus prompting return visits in addition to increasing a site’s SEO.
  2. Use Keyword phrases in lieu of single keywords as these tend to perform better, particularly phrases with high volume searches and low competition (Simon, 2013). When creating content ensure that your keyword phrases show up early in your article, appear in your title and if at all possible in the URL. Doing these things will maximize the potential for showing up in a search for the content that matches the content of a site. However, as mentioned above avoid over usage as this may seem repetitive to readers and could potentially cause penalties with Google’s search algorithm.
  3. Add images to the article or webpage. Everyone knows the phrase that a picture is worth a thousand words; the same is true on the web. In fact a picture can sometimes portray the point being made better than the longest article. However, it is important to remember that when adding images to a website that the Alt Tag contains the keywords that the article or site is about. This helps increase the visibility of the site.
  4. Research and utilize SEO checkups and tools that can help point out areas of weakness on a site. A quick search on Google for SEO checkup tools shows over 6 million results (Google, 2014b. Utilizing these tools can help improve areas that an individual may have overlooked in the original content design of the article or page. Making the changes these checkup tools suggest can add to the visibility already built into the site through the initial SEO strategies.
  5. Use Google Analytics to monitor site traffic and other critical usage data. Google Analytics is a free tool that Google provides for web designers. Through the usage of this tool an individual can determine the amount of traffic on their page as well as where the traffic is coming from.

    6. Utilizing this data individuals and companies can redesign and improve their site to increase the amount of traffic that is coming to their site. Overall these 5 SEO strategies can help increase the visibility of a site. However, it is critical to remember that these strategies are just strategies and are not a replacement for high quality original content. Through a combination of high quality original content and these strategies an individual, company or organization can dramatically increase their visibility and return visits.

    References

    Google. (2014a). Search engine optimization definition. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=search%20engine%20optimization%20definition

    Google. (2014b). SEO checkup tools. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=SEO%20Check%20up%20tool on 7/29/2014

    Simon, D. (2013). 10 SEO tips for 2013. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/dansimon/2013/05/09/10-seo-tips-for-2013/ on 7/29/2014

    Viswanathan, K. (2014). SEO tips and tricks for 2014. Retrieved from http://www.bestseoideas.com/best-practices/seo-tips-and-tricks on 7/29/2014