In our last post, we shared 3 practices that would be detrimental to your website’s ranking on Google’s results page. Now, we want to give you the tools to drive more traffic. Below are 5 tips from our web team that have helped us, and will certainly work for you!
1. Include Keywords Related to Your Industry
This should almost go without saying, but every page on your website should contain words that your potential customers will be searching for when seeking your products and/or services.
If one searches for “instruments in Louisville,” Guitar Center is the top organic result, and it’s not difficult to see why. The top paragraph alone does a fantastic job of using related keywords in a natural and informational way. Words such as “instrument,” “equipment,” “accessories,” “Louisville,” and of course, “guitar” all appear right off the bat, with their tabs containing other commonly searched terms for music lovers.
2. Backlinks from Credible Websites
In our last post, we explained that paying third party websites or “link farms” to link to your website is unethical and will harm your website’s reputation. The correct way to do this is to reach out and connect with people in your industry that may mention your company in an article. For example, if an electrician wants their business to build backlinks online, they should reach out to a website that talks about the best handyman and home service providers in their area.
When another website links to yours, it tells Google’s algorithm the website is well-respected in its industry and is a credible source of information.
3. Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are one or two sentences explaining what your webpage is about. These appear on Google’s results page and summarize the premise of the page. Having a brief, detailed meta description helps the search engine’s algorithm understand what industry the website is related to so the reader can preview it without clicking on it.
4. Image Optimization
Having large 4K pictures on your website may give it a modern look and feel, but these large images tend to slow down a page’s site speed, causing more visitors to leave the website while inflating your page’s bounce rate in the process. Additionally, slower loading speeds do not allow Google’s web crawler to go through as many pages, penalizing your site’s ranking in the process.
Having smaller images that can load quickly is one way to help your page’s ranking. Another method is to include alt-text for all images on your website for those with visual impairments. Alt-text is a brief description of an image, allowing users who use text-to-speech readers to hear a description of what the image is and what it contains.
5. Write for Your Audience
Rather than write what you think will look good to a web crawler, treat your website as a way of communicating to potential customers. Speak authentically, use words they will understand, and communicate your message clearly and quickly. Not only will a naturally-flowing body of text be good for your readers, but it will tell the algorithm that you are not forcing words to be in places where they don’t belong.
We hope these tips give you a good idea of what to aim for when developing your website. Always feel free to hit us up on social media or our contact page if you have any questions!