Talkin’ Turquoise

You want to create or improve a website for your business, but how do you make sure potential customers will find your page?

The key is to make sure your site follows certain rules toward search engine optimization (SEO). Let’s explore how to make sure your website is communicating as effectively as possible with Google and other search engines to ensure people arrive at your virtual business front.

Research Keywords

Think about how your customers might try to find your website. What words or phrases would they be likely to type into a search bar? Putting together a list of keywords is an important step in making sure potential customers can make their way to your website.

There are many possible resources for research into keywords, including Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Ubersuggest and WordStream. Some require subscriptions for full access. You can also try doing searches on your own using keywords you think your customers might use to see how your site compares to those of your competitors.

On-Page SEO

Next, make sure those keywords are incorporated into your site in logical ways. Use them naturally in context to improve the likelihood that search engines can match relevant internet users to your site. A warning: don’t “stuff” your site with keywords in an unnatural, overly repetitive way because doing so will result in Google penalizing your site.

Also, make sure the internal structure of your site follows best practices to make it easily navigable by Google and other search sites. Here’s a few examples of rules to follow, some of which take place behind the scenes:

• Your site should be clearly organized with no dead links and with menus that are easy to understand.
• Use title tags to give each page on your site a name to represent what visitors should expect to find on the page.
• Meta descriptions are more elaborate than title tags and should concisely highlight the most important parts of the page.
• Use proper headers to designate headlines and subheads.
• Use alt text on images to provide descriptions of images for visitors who may be visually impaired. Alt text is also reviewed by search engines to give an indication of what images represent.

You must also make sure your website is as efficient as possible. Your site must be mobile friendly as the majority of internet traffic to most sites is now via mobile platforms.

Page speed is another critical factor. Most visitors will abandon a page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Make sure images are of the right format and size.

Off-Page SEO

Just as you should make sure the internal structure of your website is in good order, it’s also important to make sure your page is supported by external resources. This can be referred to as “off-page SEO.” Here are some examples:

• Make sure your Google business profile is up to date and has accurate information.
• Search out and encourage backlinks to your site from other relevant sites. Reach out to others and encourage links to your website. The more authoritative pages that link to your site, the higher your Google ranking is likely to be.
• Encourage positive reviews on Google and other sites from satisfied customers. Monitor your reviews and respond to them.

High-Quality Content

Most importantly, your website should include high quality content that will keep visitors coming back. Include information that potential customers could be searching for and that they want to spend their time reviewing.

There are three important things to keep in mind for your website to gain SEO credibility: relevance, trust and authority.

First, the information you share should be relevant and up to date. Next, the content should be accurate. Lastly, you want to identify your company as an expert in the field. In other words, your website should be clear, findable and have something people want to have an impact and motivate them to act.

We’re Here to Help

Putting together or optimizing a website can be challenging and require some under-the-hood tinkering. If you find you need help, Turell Group specializes in helping our clients in Eugene and Springfield and the surrounding area build reliable websites that are SEO friendly. Contact us to get started!