Have you ever tried visiting a major landmark like say… the White House, and had to give up because you just couldn’t find it?
Of course not. And why?
Because of things like GPS, maps, and a general knowledge of the public as to where these locations can be found.
Well search engines serve a very similar purpose when it comes to finding your website. Because of sites like Google, Yahoo, and Bing you can find almost any site you want with a few keywords and clicks of the mouse.
Here’s the problem tho…
If your website doesn’t register or rank with these primary sources of information then very few people will find you. (Insert frowny face ☹)
Of course all hope is not lost.
There are many things you can do to increase your search engine visibility. Now admittedly, the deep and mysterious dark magic world of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can intimidate even the bravest of online entrepreneurs, but there are some actions you can take today that will help your rankings without having to go hire an expert.
Here are 8 not so obvious tips for improving your website’s search engine visibility:
1. Improve your site speed.
Google and other search engines are particularly concerned with user experience when it comes to the sites they recommend. This is a concept we will keep revisiting, but a key factor in a good user experience is a website’s speed.
If your site takes more than a few seconds to load there’s a very high probability that your visitor will leave. Understand that today’s internet user is somewhat fickle and wants instant gratification, so if they have to wait for the information they are looking for too long they will simply move on to somewhere else.
One area to pay close attention to is your site’s speed specifically on mobile since that is often considerably slower than desktop speed and the majority of your traffic will be coming to you via mobile users.
2. Don’t stuff keywords.
When it comes to SEO content is king! If your site’s web copy is not good or relevant to your products and services then it will not rank very well for those searches. This means that you need to be sure to incorporate targeted keywords into your headlines, page titles, and text.
However, don’t make the mistake of stuffing keywords everywhere you can believing that the more keywords the better. This is a notorious “black hat” SEO tactic that search engines frown upon severely.
Why?
Well it comes back to user experience.
If your keywords don’t fit naturally within the context of your website content and don’t add value to your post then visitors (and search engines) will see your website as irrelevant and a poor representation of the industry you represent.
Translation?
No one wants to read poor awkward content and search engines know that, so they won’t be sending visitors your way.
3. Secure your site.
What’s the difference between HTTP and HTTPS?
Well HTTPS is secure and HTTP is not; but more importantly than that… visitors are far more likely to enter personal or private information on a site that has the HTTPS designation due to the inherent security those sites promise.
Why does that matter for rankings?
Because security breeds consumer trust and rapport, and those are two key factors that search engines like Google value immensely which influences their ranking algorithms.
4. Remove and/or redirect duplicate content.
Check your site to make sure that every URL has unique content because if not, your rankings will suffer due to duplication. For example, don’t use the same product description on the pages for “televisions,” “LED televisions,” or “hi-def televisions.”
The reason?
Duplicate content confuses search engines and forces them to choose which of the identical pages they should rank in the top results. Regardless of what page they choose, in the end you’ll water down each page’s authority consequently negatively impacting their rank.
The quick fix for this pretty common issue is to redirect duplicate pages to the primary original page you want to appear highest in a user’s search results.
5. Add Alt tags to your images.
Let’s be honest, websites that are text heavy and image light are pretty boring 🥱and not overly aesthetically pleasing.
However, there is a problem when it comes to images… search engines can’t crawl an image for keyword inclusion.
Or can they?
By adding Alt tags to all your images that include keywords you wish to index for, you can leverage those images in your SEO strategy. While sites like Google can’t crawl an image, they can understand and index an image’s Alt tags.
6. Eradicate broken links.
Broken links suck. We all hate getting the dreaded “404 File Not Found” error because it kills our mojo.
You know what?
Search engines know that too, and so if your site is riddled with broken links you are hurting your site’s user experience and search engines will factor that in accordingly.
7. Avoid cannibalization.
Yes, we understand that eating people is a bad thing. But that’s not what we mean here.
In the SEO world, the term “cannibalization” refers to when you have more than one page on your site that targets the same keyword because in theory they will just compete against each other for a search engine’s rankings consequently hurting the performance and authority of both pages.
However, realize that a little cannibalization is unavoidable and if each page serves a different purpose (like a product explanation page vs. a check out page) then it is ok and even could be strategic.
The key here is determining the intent of your prospective user when landing on each page and making sure that each page’s content is relevant and serves a specific purpose.
However, if both pages serve a very similar purpose then it would be better to choose a different keyword to focus on for each thus avoiding the potential cannibalization of each other’s rankings.
8. Add a title tag and meta description to each page of your site
Ok, meta descriptions and title tags lost significant SEO relevance many years ago.
However, they still provide value to your site because when your page appears in a search query a well crafted page title and description is bound to improve your click through rate (CTR).
For instance… which result are you more likely to choose from if you were given both these options?
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Why does this matter for SEO?
Well first, you don’t want your site to rank just so no one clicks through, right?
But beyond the obvious, if more people click on your page then that signals search engines to your page’s high relevance, and relevance is what we are after when it comes to romancing search providers like Google.
The bottom line here?
Search engines care about user engagement when it comes to the results they show so if someone like Google is testing your page for relevancy to a particular keyword search, and you want that test to score favorably… you want to have a great CTR.
So there you have it.
Admittedly, if you employ all these practices that does not guarantee you will suddenly start showing up as the first result in every (or any) search query. But, these are things you can do without having to hire an expert that will collectively work together to improve your site’s overall search engine rankings.
That being said, if you are really serious about SEO and boosting your site’s position in SERPs (the pages displayed by search engines in response to a query by a user) then schedule a free consultation with our team.
