How To Improve Website SEO

409 followers

6 years ago

So you have a website created but are not showing up in the search engines for any of your targeted keywords. You are not alone. There are many things Google and other search engines look for when trying to determine the best sites to put at the top of their list. The number one thing is writing good quality content. The cheap tricks that were once popular such as dropping your own backlinks on other people's forums or stuffing keywords in your text are coming to an end. Google is not catering to website creators. They are catering to the users - the people that are searching their platforms and they want to keep those people by providing them with the best quality sites they are searching for. There is however some things you can do to help that are not against Google's guidelines. Let's take a look at how to improve website SEO also known as search engine optimization.

Make Sure Your Keyword is in the Article Title

Not to be confused with the Meta title, which we will be going over in a minute. This is the actual title of your article that will be at the top of the page. This is where you add it in your Wordpress post.

Have the Keyword in the URL

There is some debate about this. Should you have the keyword in your URL or come up with a more catchy brandable URL that people can easily remember. The answer is that you can do both.

I actually prefer to have a catchy title that people will remember. One thing to keep in mind if you choose the catchy route is that your article title will be at the tail end of the URL for that specific post. See the screenshot to give you an example of what I'm talking about from one of my other sites - Debt Houdini.

HI Headings

All this means is basically your font size. In Wordpress you have a standard paragraph text and then it can be increased from Heading 6 to Heading 1. H1 is just an acronym for Heading 1. When you use this format for headings throughout your text Google will scan through the article and think it is relevant with the keyword people are looking for. Make sure to have a keyword in one of your H1 headings.

Don't Keyword Stuff

Back in the day you could have every other sentence containing the keyword you are targeting. This is called keyword stuffing and since then Google has made multiple updates to their algorithms and will penalize your site by not ranking it well. This update really does make sense because would you want to read an article that is obviously jamming a keyword down your throat to the point where the text doesn't even make sense? Just mention the keyword one time in your text (preferably the first paragraph) other than your H1 heading and you will be good.

Internal Links

There are three different kinds of links that will help your site in the rankings and internal links are one of them. An internal link is a link on your site that links to another page on your site. The best way to do this is to make sure it is relevant. Give your audience an enjoyable experience. If you talk briefly about a topic but go into more detail in another article. Let the reader know that you can read more about this topic here and link the article. This is done through the following icon in Wordpress.

External Links

The second type of link is called an external link. This means that you have a link from your article to a site you do not own. Authority sites are the preferred kind to do this. I personally like linking to Wikipedia. It is a good informative site and is widely known. As an example, I found an article on Wikipedia on internal links that can be found here. Don't be afraid to link away from your site. If it shows that you are trying to provide quality information even from another site, Google will reward you in the rankings.

Social Sharing and Backlinks

Backlinks are the third type of links that will help improve your site's health and a great way to get them is through social sharing. The problem with backlinks is that people try to manipulate them and get as many as they can by adding links to their sites through other people's forums or through comments on Youtube. Google is starting to crack down on this. Nowadays you don't even need a lot of backlinks. Just one will be good enough.

As far as getting a backlink through social media you only need to share it once and you got your link. If other people share it then you will get more links naturally and this is a good thing. Use whatever platform you like. I personally don't like Facebook as all people like to do is look at other people's pictures.

Try Google plus. Since it is owned by the biggest search engine in the world they will know immediately if your article is well liked through social sharing.

Image Alt. Text

This will help your rankings especially if people are looking for images. The screenshot above shows where you put the alt text or alternative text. Do this for all images on your site.

Add a Video

Sharing videos whether you make them or you use someone else's is a great way to bring even more quality information to the reader, but it will also keep them on the page longer. That's right, Google will be starting to rank sites better by seeing how long someone is on the site. This way they won't rank sites if someone clicks on it and quickly backs out because it is not what they are looking for.

Here is a Youtube screenshot of where to get the code to copy into your article. You need to be in the "text" tab of Wordpress not the "visual" tab when you copy and paste. Also, don't worry about copyrights as there are blocks set up by the person uploading the video to Youtube. If they don't want it shared the screenshot below will not be there. So share away!

Comments and Engagement

Comments and more importantly engagement are very important. Interaction with your audience shows Google that people are interested in your content to the point that they want to let you know about it. Or they have some questions and need help. It shows that there is good activity to a quality site.

Keyword Tags

This one is easy. It helps a little but is worth doing. On the right side of your Wordpress dashboard, put the keyword in the tag section. See the below screenshot.

Meta Title

Not to be confused with the article title. This is what everyone will see when they search for your site. You not only want the keyword in the Meta Title but you also want it to get your audience;s attention.

Meta Description

The Meta description is a description below the Meta title that explains in more detail what your site is about. Try to get the keyword to the front of the description.

Below is a screenshot of where you add this in Wordpress.

Final Thoughts on How to Improve Website SEO

This is a lot of information but is good to have in your arsenal for building out your website. Take the topics I discussed and make a list as it is easy to forget some things. When you are about to publish you can go through this checklist to ensure you have done all you could do to get the most SEO juice injected into your content as possible. If you have any questions on the information above please leave a comment below so I can get back to you.

Thanks for reading

James