SEO strategies for Growing your Online Business

Want to know how companies grew their online business with the use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Today, in this era of technological advancements–businesses may be big, small, a start-up, or not, needs to be exposed on the internet. Now, why is that you may ask? I can tell you two reasons why.

First, with the advancements in technology, everything is now online, and if you don’t catch up with this trend then your business may get left behind. Secondly, Because of technology more than half of the population in the world are now online. And the best way for a business to engage with their market is to connect through them using the different social media platforms.

Now it may sound easy at first, but the tricky part comes in when you realize that there are tons of similar websites, pages, and posts about the product or service you are offering. Therefore the real question is– How can you make them come to you? And that my friend is where the magic of SEO comes in.

Business building with SEO — Photo by Campaign Creators

WHAT IS SEO?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a set of strategies used to help increase your business’ visibility online. Specifically on the search engine result pages (SERPS). Increasing visibility and brand awareness are key points that can help your business grow. Why is that?

The more visible you are online, the more organic followers visit your website which could turn into possible leads, and we all know that leads can turn into sales.

By increasing your visibility, more customers get to know your company, your service/ product thus more customers can avail of your services. One of the best ways to increase your sales is to make your customers know you exist.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? However, you must always remember that to achieve that, you MUST increase web traffic first to increase your ranking on the results page using different search engines like Google.

May I still making sense? Let me first define the terms that I’ve been using.

Organic- An act of getting customers without the use of paid advertising and other paid promotions.
Web Traffic- The number of users that have visited your website/webpage.
Ranking- This is your website’s position on the search engine results page.
Search Engine- A platform where users can search. (examples: Google, Bing, Yahoo, Firefox, Safari)

Since Google is in charge of ranking websites, we have to look at it through their parameters. Google likes to focus on the content quality and structure of the site itself. It’s not just about the content, if you want to increase your traffic you need to ensure that your website is well-structured.

HOW DO WE USE SEO?

The most basic strategy in SEO is by using a keyword search. Keyword search is used by searching words synonymous with the product you are selling.

Let me give you an example.

Let’s say your business was selling a footwear brand. You need to identify words or terms synonymous with “footwear” and find out which of these are most commonly searched in Google. So as you can make use of that keyword throughout your website. Most often than not people search these terms (Shoes, Sneakers, Rubber shoes) when looking for footwear, rather than these terms (Footgear, Cleats, Footwear).

To be able to know the trends of these words which are commonly searched by users, you can go ahead and make use of Google trends. Google Trends can help attract more organic search traffic through its keyword search feature.

Aside from using the right keyword throughout your website, you also need to make sure that your webpage is user-friendly.

Your optimization efforts should start with making sure that your visitors are enjoying the user experience (UX) your website provides. Importantly, use design and typography that makes it easy to consume your content, and remove any unnecessary elements such as pop-ups, opt-in boxes, etc. that can annoy your readers.

I know this looks like a lot, let me discuss the tricks and techniques one by one.

1. Use short descriptive URLs

URL structure should be as simple as possible, constructed logically, and in a manner that is most intelligible to humans.

In other words, don’t go for domain.com/56945602_86587356.asp

When you could go for something descriptive like this domain.com/Abdielapps-guide

The web address of your page sends a signal to search engines about its topic and getting this right is recommended because you should avoid changing it, if possible.

2. Make your website accessible to bots and humans!

Remember that you’re working for two separate customers—your human readers, and the bots search engines use to index your website when doing SEO.

While bots are becoming more intelligent and human-like, many differences still exist between the two. Therefore, your goal should be to create a positive experience for both humans and bots.

3. Link Building

Link building is critical for the success of your SEO strategy, so if you’re prepared to spend resources (time, money, etc.) on producing content, you should also be prepared to commit at least as much time to promoting and generating links to your content. Backlinks are one of the factors with a strong influence on Google’s ranking algorithm.

To have an idea, backlinks are links from a page on one website to another. If someone links to your site, then you have a backlink from them. For example, these words link to YouTube, so they now have a backlink from us.

Sounds difficult? Don’t worry you’ll get the hang out of it. Or you can always send us an inquiry/ message on our Contact Us Page

Let’s go on ahead and discuss some techniques for improving your on-page SEO

TECHNIQUES FOR INCREASING YOUR SEO

1. Optimize Image used in the Website

Make sure the image is optimized properly, the file format and size can improve your SEO ranking.

However, using huge images can slow your page loading time, which can hurt your ranking. Resize or compress your images to optimize them. You can also use your images to sneak in keywords by naming them accordingly.

Instead of naming an image something like “Bicycle1,” or “Bicycle2” you could name it “High standard Mountain Bike.”

2. Add Videos/ GIFs

Text and Pictures can help improve the user experience but consumers need more than that. Absolutely, putting audio or video to watch it’s much easier for them than to read the whole article.

These features can dramatically improve the amount of time someone spends on your website. Therefore, depending on the length of your videos, people could be on your page for several minutes.

3. Improving Readability

Keep your audience in mind when you’re writing content on your website. If you want people to visit your site and spend time there, speak in terms they can understand.

Don’t try to sound very professional, use simple words that can easily be understood. Your content should be written in a way the majority of people can understand.

4. A clear and concise Meta Description

The meta description is the next element you must optimize too. If you view the source code, the tag looks like this:

Here are the three most important tips to create a good description:

Make them descriptive – Front-load keywords that are relevant to the article. If you like formulas, ask “Who? What? Why? When? Where? How?” That’s a formula journalists use to report. It works equally well when writing descriptions.
Make them unique – Each meta description should be different from other pages’ descriptions.
Make them short – Google limits meta descriptions to 160 characters or fewer.

Now that we’ve discussed a few techniques for improving your on-page SEO, let’s move on to how you can keep track of your SEO efforts!

TRACKING YOUR SEO EFFORTS!

The final step in setting your SEO strategy is figuring out how you’ll track your performance. There are many methods and metrics that you can use and focus on the basics is the best one.

The most important metrics when it comes to SEO are, organic traffic, and the average ranking position for the keywords you’re targeting.

1. Measuring Organic Traffic

You can quickly view your organic traffic in Google Analytics with these steps:

Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels > Organic Search

You can also visit and use Ahrefs Site Explorer to keep an eye on your organic traffic along with the number of keywords your website ranks for, the organic positions it holds for various keywords, and more.

2. Keeping Track of your rankings

You should measure in your SEO strategy is how your content ranks on Google over time and you can do this by using Google Search Console where you can find data about the average position, impressions, and clicks you get for various keywords.

These are just some of the techniques for improving your website.

Remember, that all successful entrepreneurs started by researching, and continually applying different strategies.