Take advantage of these five EASY things you can do today to improve your ranking in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs):
1. Extend your domain name registration
Instead of renewing your domain name yearly, purchase it for 5 or 10 years. This tells search engines that your site is not likely to be full of spammy content because you have invested in registering it far into the future. Domain renewal is typically not expensive, and by extending your renewal you may even receive a multi-year discount.
2. Claim your Local Listings
Take advantage of free business listing sites. This will increase your overall Internet presence, which translates into better SEO for your website. (It also has the added benefit of driving additional customers your way). Examples include:
3. Fix Broken Links
Make sure that all links on your website are alive and well. Use the W3C Link Checker to determine if you have any glaring broken links. Even if you have to have your webmaster fix them, providing a list will make this easier and less expensive for you.
4. Find Your Primary Keyword Phrase
The first step to writing content that is search engine optimized is to determine the primary topic of the page. The goal is to write a full page of content centered around ONE keyword phrase.
Spend some quality time doing keyword research to ensure that the right words will be on the page, not just industry jargon that normal people will never type (unless you are targeting technical industry people!). Even if you need your webmaster to help you optimize your page, knowing what these phrases are will make it faster.
Here are some tools that may give you ideas about possible keyword phrases:
- Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Enter the keyword phrase you have in mind, and Google will tell you how many searches are conducted monthly for that phrase. Google will also give you an extensive list of similar phrases and their popularity. You may be surprised that the phrases you thought were relevant were not really the phrases for which people actually search. Your goals is to find keyword phrases with lots of monthly searches but with low to medium competition.
- Want to learn what others in your industry are doing? If you enter a web address into SEMRush.com, you will learn what keywords that website is using. Enter your competitor’s websites to get keyword phrase ideas.
- Think like your potential customer and search. Where does your website rank?
- Use your keywords to develop your HTML title, META description and content. How to Put Your Keywords to Work — Four Basic SEO Components Every Site Should Have In Place
5. Use Social Media More.
With the most recent Google algorithm, Google began penalizing ‘Unnatural Linking Patterns.” Links to your site from social media sites help establish a varied and natural linking pattern. It also makes sense that Search Engines would consider social cues such as “Likes” and “Shares” when evaluating popularity of content.
Some parting advice from a Google Engineer
“If you want to rank highly in Google, be relevant for the user currently searching.
Engage him in social media or email, provide relevant information about what you’re selling, and, generally, be a “good match” for what the user wants.
If you aren’t building a site that’s worth reading (and that’s therefore worth sharing in social media, and worth linking to), the most brilliant shortcut in the world will take you away from where you want to go.
Because you aren’t serving search engines. You’re serving readers and customers. Put them first and everything else will start working for you.”