What is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the practice of including content on your site that has the potential to improve your site’s visibility to search engines and their users. In other words, SEO can help your site show up more often in relevant searches.
There are a number of things to look for when trying to improve your site’s SEO. Here are some tips to get you started:
- Make sure the writing on your website is clear, helpful, and descriptive.
- Explain your topic in simple, easy-to-read language.
- Include relevant keywords, which are words you think a user might search for when looking online for what you offer.
On the topic of keywords: while it’s a good idea to include search terms in your site copy, make sure you’re not cluttering your page with too many search terms, or putting up fake pages you don’t intend users to see. Doing this may lead to Google considering your pages deceptive and ignoring your site, so think about what will be easiest for a user to navigate and understand.
There’s no cost to appear in organic search results like Google’s, and making changes to improve your website’s SEO, can greatly impact your search rankings over time.
Crawling
The first step is finding out what pages exist on the web. There isn’t a central registry of all web pages, so Google must constantly search for new pages and add them to its list of known pages. Some pages are known because Google has already visited them before. Other pages are discovered when Google follows a link from a known page to a new page. Still other pages are discovered when a website owner submits a list of pages (a sitemap) for Google to crawl. If you’re using a managed web host, such as Wix or Blogger, they might tell Google to crawl any updated or new pages that you make.
Once Google discovers a page URL, it visits, or crawls, the page to find out what’s on it. Google renders the page and analyzes both the text and non-text content and overall visual layout to decide where it can appear in Search results. The better that Google can understand your site, the better we can match it to people who are looking for your content.
To improve your site crawling:
Verify that Google can reach the pages on your site, and that they look correct. Google accesses the web as an anonymous user (a user with no passwords or information). Google must be able to see all the images and other elements of the page to be able to understand it correctly. You can do a quick check by typing your page URL in the Mobile-Friendly Test.
If you’ve created or updated a single page, you can submit an individual URL to Google. To tell Google about many new or updated pages at once, use a sitemap.
If you ask Google to crawl only one page, make it your home page. Your home page is the most important page on your site, as far as Google is concerned. To encourage a complete site crawl, be sure that your home page (and all pages) contain a good site navigation system that links to all the important sections and pages on your site; this helps users (and Google) find their way around your site. For smaller sites (less than 1,000 pages), making Google aware of only your homepage is all you need, provided that Google can reach all your other pages by following a path of links that start from your homepage.
Get your page linked to by another page that Google already knows about. However, be warned that links in advertisements, links that you pay for in other sites, links in comments, or other links that don’t follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines won’t be followed by Google.
Serving (and ranking)
When a user types a query, Google tries to find the most relevant answer from its index based on many factors. Google tries to determine the highest quality answers, and factor in other considerations that will provide the best user experience and most appropriate answer, by considering things such as the user’s location, language, and device (desktop or phone). For example, searching for “bicycle repair shops” would show different answers to a user in Paris than it would to a user in Hong Kong. Google doesn’t accept payment to rank pages higher, and ranking is done programmatically.
To improve your serving and ranking:
- Make your page fast to load, and mobile-friendly.
- Put useful content on your page and keep it up to date.
Your business’s website is your initial opportunity to make a good impression on potential customers, make sure you don’t waste it! Making a solid first impression is important for business owners who are looking to broaden their audience and reach more customers than ever before. Marketing to an online audience relies heavily on having a superior, well-formed web design.
When designed properly with SEO principles in mind, your company’s website can have a huge influence on establishing and growing your online presence. On the converse, businesses that fail to put time and energy into their website’s design- an undeveloped, lackluster website, can have a catastrophic impact on your bottom line. If you are unsure how you rank among your competitors or wish to improve the first impression you are making on local users who visit your website, contact Houston Small Business Marketing today!
At Houston Small Business Marketing, we have an experienced team of digital marketing experts that are devoted to specifically providing your company with a web design that not only looks amazing but works within Google’s forever evolving algorithm to bring in more customers to your company’s website.
The SEO marketing team at HOUSBM can help you come up with an online marketing campaign that pairs you with the right clientele without breaking your budget. Keep your business on top by incorporating a wide range of different factors in your design will help you stay competitive. This can improve your search engine rankings drastically. Using specific and relevant keywords on each page inside of your website is useful. Using keywords strategically can drastically improve your SEO placement. Let us help you maximize your online presence today.
Houston Online SEO Company
If you are not putting resources into optimizing your website, you will quickly fall behind your competitors that have already implemented SEO strategies to their online presence. As the gap expands between how much effort your competitors are putting into their online marketing and how little work you are putting into your website, the harder it will become to engage with customers online. The team at Houston Small Business Marketing works hard to help your business stay relevant in this online-focused world by tracking the latest strategies in online marketing for businesses.
Do not allow yourself to miss out on potential customers and become a force within your industry! From excellent web design to social media management, the team at Houston Small Business Marketing is here to help you broaden your reach and grow your audience! If you are tired of giving away potential customers to your competition, contact us today! We dedicate ourselves to working closely with business owners to come up with a marketing plan that helps them succeed. We provide each customer with a free consultation for your website and social media to let you know how you can improve your placement online and grow your engagement with local potential customers looking for your services.
Houston Small Business Marketing
713-492-0025
1415 North Loop West #950
Houston, TX 77008
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