#seoapproach

How to Work on SEO: 5 Simple Ways To Make Your Website Optimized

Whether it’s a new launch or stalled out website, find out how to work on SEO by following these 5 simple steps keep your website optimized and rocking the search rankings.

Business is changing.

It wasn’t that long ago that we were all advertising in the yellow pages and other forms of traditional media. But now, everything is digital.

It’s very rare that a business has no online presence. In fact, some businesses operate solely online. Regardless, a business’ website is of vital importance; its effectiveness in driving traffic, generating leads and boosting sales is what makes the difference between success and failure.

Consequently, many small business owners are left wondering how to work on SEO to market their business more effectively.

The one thing your website should be – above anything else – is optimized.

If you don’t optimize your site it will not be discoverable or visible online, which means no one will see it and you will lose out on business.

I know that seems obvious, but it’s not always a clear path on how to work on SEO effectively.

To ensure your website is optimized, heed these 5 simple tips right now.

1. Do keyword research

The first step on How to Work on SEO correctly is the strategic use of keywords to ensure your website is optimized.

Conducting initial keyword research and then implementing your findings in the right way will fast-track your business to online visibility.

First, create a spreadsheet of keywords that are most relevant to your business, service or product. Then, step into the shoes of your target audience – what would their search query be to find your website or service?

If you sell fitness equipment, a typical user search query may be “treadmill running machine online”.

Use keyword tools like Keyword Tool, SEMrush or Google Keyword Planner to find the most-searched-for variations of your chosen keywords, as well as long-tail keywords and phrases.

(Tip: these tools can also give you inspiration for future business strategy and content.)

Another great tool to use (that is totally free) is Google Trends.

This tool is useful if you want to check which spelling variation is more popular. For example, if you’re selling “mom” style jeans, you can check whether “mom jeans” or “mum jeans” has more traffic. You can then use the result with the highest volume.

(Hint: “mom jeans” has a higher search volume.)

2. Use keywords strategically

When you know what keywords you want to rank for, you need to sprinkle them across every part of your website.

Keywords should make up your page titles (with the most popular keyword at the beginning of your title), metadata, URLs and should be threaded seamlessly throughout your onsite content.

SEO copywriting is a skill – keywords should look natural and not forced or robotic (basically, don’t keyword stuff).

Keyword-optimized page titles will help Google determine what your content is about.

And content must also be relevant to the keywords in order for it to rank in the SERPs.

Optimizing your metadata, on the other hand, is less about SEO and rank factor, and more about enticing the user click on your page. Search engines will embolden the words in your metadata that match the user’s search query, and this highlights to the user that the content is what they’re looking for. In turn, they are motivated to click through to your site.

If you use the WordPress CMS to build your website, the SEO Yoast plugin is a really helpful tool that guides you to create an SEO-friendly site.

3. Conduct competitor research

Another way to ensure your site is optimized is to regularly do competitor research.

This will help you to inform your own SEO strategy, give you inspiration for content and marketing, and keep you up to date with trends.

A simple way to do competitive analysis is to visit the websites of businesses that are of a similar niche to yours and see what keywords they are using. Or, to find who is ranking for your keywords, simply type the keywords into the search engine and explore the top five results.

4. Track data and traffic

In your effort to ensure that your website is always optimized you should track its performance.

By using data tracking tools like Google Analytics you can keep an eye on your site activity – what pages have high traffic, where the traffic is coming from (i.e. direct or referral) and how your pages are ranking.

By monitoring your website traffic you can see the results of optimization, and if there is an area of your site that has a low volume of traffic, you can investigate how to optimize it further.

It’s important to be mindful that when you optimize SEO it can take at least a month to show results, so start monitoring now.

5. Refresh site and content regularly

Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security thinking that if you optimize your content once you never have to do it again.

I see way too many small businesses take a “once is enough” approach to SEO optimization, only to be left wondering why their site is sinking into the Google void.

Digital trends and algorithms are constantly changing and evolving, so you need to keep up the maintenance (aim to fully optimize every 6 months, if not more frequently).

From page titles to metadata, to ALT tags – conduct your keyword research and competitor analysis and apply your findings to your new SEO strategy.

When it comes to the content on your site, such as blog posts, it is best in terms of SEO to refresh existing content while continuing to publish new content for your audience.

Whereas 300 words on a page used to be considered passable in terms of SEO, Google’s algorithms have changed, and now the search engine favors content that is around 2000 words or more. This is because the long-form content is more valuable – it is typically well-researched and more informative; which causes users to spend longer on the page reading it – and so it is rewarded with a high ranking factor.

Therefore, each time to optimize your site, add another 500 words to your existing articles, as well as more images, links and value. In the end, you’ll have authority blog posts and landing pages that will gain more traction and have authority over the keywords.

Conclusion

It’s simple: the more optimized your site is, the more revenue your business will generate. By regularly doing keyword research and competitor analysis, updating and refreshing your onsite content and monitoring your site performance, you can ensure that your site is always optimized.