16 Aug Google SEO Basics: 5 Steps for Success
Google SEO Basics: 5 Steps for Success
As a business owner, you should absolutely be concerned with how well your website shows up in search rankings. If it is not appearing near the top, then it could very well sink your business completely. Internet marketing and Google SEO can help boost it, but for many, these things seem like complicated concepts that can never be mastered. The truth is, that’s just not the case. You can have a lot of success just by following the basics. Here are 5 basic steps to get you on the road to success.
Figure Out What Search Terms Potential Customers Might Use
A lot of internet marketing and Google SEO strategy is about anticipating what customers might do. The biggest step might be in determining how people search for the kind of business you are running. In some cases it is simple. For hotels, people probably search “hotels, San Antonio,” or a very close variation of that. Record what search terms you think people would use to find businesses like yours in your area.
Create Content That’s Search-Friendly
If you want your Google SEO strategy to work, then it is all about content. Your content must be relevant to the search terms you have determined would be the most commonly used to find you. Make sure that your URLs relate to those terms, and have solid meta descriptions and tags for your photos and posts. The content on your pages must also be of high quality and not just a jumble of poorly formed sentences and phrases.
Make Your Website Readable to People and to Search Engines
There is a balance when it comes to SEO strategy. You must be cognizant of the search engine bots that will be crawling your website for information to index your site. You must also think of the actual people who will visit your site and who you want to buy your product. The keys here are that it should load quickly, and should be mobile friendly. Create a sitemap that will help those crawlers find relevant content and properly index your site.
Backlinks
Backlinks are a very strong influence on how websites are ranked. These are links from outside your website that point back to your website. You must spend time generating these links by promoting your site to others and encouraging guest blogs and other strategies. You can link to sites that could then link to yours, and you can find broken links on other sites and ask the originator to swap out the broken links for yours, among other things. Just make sure that the sites linking to you are relevant, and that guest blog posts are quality content that is authoritative about the subject.
Tracking your Google SEO success
The final step in setting your SEO strategy is figuring out how you’ll track your performance. There are many methods and metrics you can use, so it’s easy to get confused.
Google SEO Tracking
Make sure to track everything. Using tools like Google Analytics will help you monitor your traffic and where they are coming from. For successful internet marketing, you need to know what is working and what isn’t so that you can refine your strategy. You should also be tracking your rankings for several keywords to see how well you are moving up. If there is a certain keyword that isn’t improving, then you will have to adjust your tactics.
Google SEO may seem difficult and complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. Follow these steps and you will find success more readily.