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10 ways to improve your website’s SEO and attract traffic to your site

SEO
SEO – how to improve

What is SEO? It stands for Search Engine Optimisation and refers to the various methods used to improve a website’s ranking in search results.

If you’ve spent a considerable amount of time setting up your website or blog and find that it isn’t getting the traffic you desire, don’t be disheartened. There are ways to work on improving this and attracting visitors to your site, the number one way, in my opinion, is through improving your SEO.

Your goals are to appear higher in the search results, to encourage more people to find you in the search results, and to stay on your website for longer, once on it, to improve your SEO even further.

Here are some ways in which you can tweak and improve your website to enhance your SEO.

1.Keywords

In moderation, using Key words in your content title and content itself are fantastic ways to improve your SEO. Don’t spam your articles with keywords, and use them in the most natural way possible. I like to start with the main word relating to the topic of my article and then finding similar keywords relating to it. You can use the Keyword Planner on your Google AdWord account. I also find this website easy to search: https://www.thehoth.com/google-keyword-planner/

2. Experiment with Long tail keywords

Long tail keywords are short phrases relating to your main keyword. Although these have less traffic than keywords, they are worthwhile to incorporate into your text as less competition increases your chances of being ranked higher.

Examples of long tail keywords are “white leather cross body bag” as opposed to “handbags.”

3. Inbound links

Inbound links are a key way of influencing your SEO. It is also a great way to re-purpose existing content you have.

One way is by creating list articles, also known as listicles.

Taking the handbags example again, if you have featured various handbags on your website, you could create a list such as “10 must have handbags” with a link to each one. If anyone clicks on these internal link, not only will it be recognised by google in terms of SEO, but it will also have the added benefit of encouraging people to stay on your website for longer, and in turn benefit your SEO.

4. Outbound links

If you have lots of external sites hosting links back to your site, this is brilliant for you. There are certain ways to do this such as providing a quote about your business area to a journalist for a related press piece with a link to your business, or featuring respected writers with topics relating to your product or service in a list style post. This may encourage them to re-share the article or quote it and your link due to their mention and the reach will be wider for you.

If you ask press or a blogger to review your product or service, you could ask them to include a link back to your business in the post.

Always aim to link to websites that have a higher Domain Authority than your page. You can check the Domain Authority of a page using this site.

5. Social Media Platforms

Social media is increasingly an important way to encourage traffic back to your website. Make sure you are active on it and participating in discussions, replying to messages and staying on top of trending topics.

First and foremost, make sure your bio is captivating and up to date and that there is a link to your website present.

Use Twitter to share your articles, and take advantage of scheduling apps such as Hootsuite, Buffer and Tweetdeck to schedule your posts in one go, freeing you up valuable time, as well as helping you stay organised as lets be honest, days get busy and you can forget to post things throughout the day.

Facebook is also a great place to share articles that will encourage people to click and read and drive traffic to your website. Articles with images always do better and ensure the caption and title have key words in them!

Instagram is a great way to direct people to new articles. If you have more than 10,000 followers you can also share your link in the “swipe up” feature on Instagram stories.

Pinterest is also a fantastic source of traffic. Be sure to create an account, boards and pin your images and articles regularly.

6. Image descriptions with key words

Make sure you add descriptions in your images. So instead of it being called DSC_1290 re-name it “london eye” and add a description too such as “night view of the london eye” as it will improve the chance of it coming up in the google image search and direct people to your website.

7. Quality Content with images and videos

When you write articles, make the paragraphs short, punchy and interesting and break up the text with high quality images and videos. Videos are a fantastic way of keeping people on a page for longer. If you have a great collection of video content it may even be worth adding a widget to display videos on your website. Keep your content fresh and current and ensure to replace older ones regularly.

8. Make content shareable

Add social sharing icons at the top and bottom of your article so that it is easy for people reading your posts to share them on any social media platform. These days you even get a sharing icon for Whatsapp!

9. Make content useable

Find out the types of questions people are asking in forums/Facebook groups etc relating to your product or service and try and write additional helpful content addressing these types of questions. For example, bringing it back to the handbags example, “where to buy the best dupes of a Chanel bag” or “Where to buy the best cross body bags” or “how to clean stains off my leather handbag” are just some ideas.

10. Make sure your website is optimised for mobile

Websites that have a friendly mobile interface rank higher in google, which is hardly surprising as a huge chunk of website browsing is from mobile devices.

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