Top 5 Things To Improve Website SEO Rankings

The keys to having a website rise in the search engine rankings are no secret. But it does require a little dedication and the adoption of good habits when adding or updating content to the site. Here are five things to keep in mind for improving SEO.

1. Content is King

A familiar phrase because it’s true. Quality content – content that truly is unique and informative – is something that both human visitors and search engine algorithms appreciate. Better content created specifically for targeted traffic is just what users are looking for, not stale, generic articles or viral videos they can find anywhere.

2. Update Content

Every site wants to keep visitors coming back. Adding new content, or updating old content, keeps people interested and tells the search engines that a site has new information to share.

3. Always think Keywords

Keywords are what users type in to find what they’re looking for, and what search engines use to index sites. Text content should have the highest keyword density possible while still keeping text natural. Good writing should never be less important than more keywords. Website designers should not overlook using keywords in the alt=”” and title=”” tags for images, or in text links. “Keyword stuffing” should be avoided as many crawlers will penalize for it.

4. Optimize Metadata

There are three meta tags on every page that should be checked (and keywords used in).

Title – This is the page title that will show in the browser window. It should be relevant, natural, and brief.
Description – The description of the page showing up in listings. It should always be interesting, and let users feel the site is just what they were looking for.
Keywords – A variety of keyword phrases should be used, but limited to 8 or less. Excessive keywords might be ignored by search engines.

5. Use Links

The quantity and quality of back links are one of the ways search engines gauge importance. Links mean more if they come from authoritative sites. Part of SEO means getting back links on as many quality sites as possible. Often visitors will post back links if they like a site. Outgoing links should lead to sites visitors can really benefit from.

The more important, informative, and search-engine-friendly a site is, the higher it will rank. It takes diligence and patience to get there, because there will always be room for improvement.