SEO Tips to Boost your Website
Choose the right URL
Before your website goes live, you need to select a URL. Also known as your domain name, it’s the address that visitors will type in to find your site. Domain naming is so important to your overall foundation,so as a best practice you’re better off using sub-directory root domains (example.com/awesome) versus sub-domains( awesome.example.com). Like the giant sign above a storefront window, it’s one of the first things visitors see when they come to your site. That’s why it’s also the first place Google looks to understand what your site is about and decide how to rank it.Some other best practices with domain names are:
- Consistent Domains: If you type in www.example.com, but then your type in just example.com and the “www” does not redirect to www.example.com, that means the search engines are seeing two different sites. This isn’t effective for your overall SEO efforts as it will dilute your inbound links, as external sites will be linking to www.example.com and example.com.
- Keep it Old School: Old domains are better than new ones, but if you’re buying an old domain, make sure that the previous owner didn’t do anything shady to cause the domain to get penalized.
- Keywords in URL: Having keywords you’re trying to rank for in your domain will only help your overall efforts.
It’s also important to make sure your URLs are clean. This doesn’t mean dusting off the old ones but rather making sure the end or your link is as simple as the text on your site. No special characters.No page ID.The age of your URL is a factor in your site’s search ranking, so be patient.If you’re launching a new blog every six months, you’ll never see your site get the value it deserves.
Create titles and descriptions for each page
Did you know that you can write a unique title and description for each page on your website? These are brief texts that accurately and clearly describe what your business does, ideally with a few keywords and phrases mixed in. Include words that reflect your site topic in the image title, description, and alt attributes. Your content on your site also should have title tags and meta descriptions.
- Meta keywords are pretty much ignored by search engines nowadays, but if you still use them, make sure it talks specifically to that page and that it is also formatted correctly.
- Your meta description should be unique and also speak to that specific page. Duplicate meta descriptions from page to page will not get you anywhere.
In fact, the title and description are among the first things Google uses to determine your site’s rank. Plus, once your site does show up in a search results page, web surfers will read your title and description to learn what your site is about and decide whether or not to check it out.
Have other websites link to you
This is really, really important, when it comes to SEO. The bummer is that it’s not something you can necessarily control. Other than creating excellent content, the only thing you can do is ask (which occasionally works).My counsel is to spend the time you would trying to convince somebody to link to you on just writing great content. And, start guest posting on other blogs.Regardless of what you do, know that inbound links are essential to SEO. Keyword strategy is not only important to implement on-site, but should extend to other off-site platforms, which is why you should also be thinking about multi-channel optimization. These multi-channel platforms include:
- Offline, such as radio and TV ads
Being consistent with keyword phrases within these platforms will not only help your branding efforts, but also train users to use specific phrases you’re optimizing for.
The PORTMAN Education Group
