SEO Strategies

With the new year fast approaching it is important for all web site owners to ensure that their site is utilizing all the resources possible to stay ahead of their competition. I can tell you from many years of experience that the most effective and successful websites are those which are designed properly, are engaging to visitors, and once online are analyzed, tested, and adjusted over time.

An effective SEO strategy consists of a varied assortment of tools and techniques, and while perspectives vary about how to optimize a website for prominent ranking, the reality is that your website can come up #1 in a search yet the site only has value if it appeals to your visitors.

First and foremost you need to ensure that your web site has the following:

Attractive Design – The visual layout (design) of the pages has to work on a number of levels to achieve a sense of balance and attractive composition. A good layout utilizes effective colors (colors that work together, be it as harmonies or compliments). The header design needs to be engaging either by the use of an attractive graphical masthead or slideshow of representative images. The typography needs to be styled consistently and easily read. Images, both page accents and photos/icons, need to be professional inclusions that engage yet aren’t over done. The structural layout needs to present content in mixed formats (full width and columnar content), and provide enough spacing (padding/margin) between content blocks. And the sidebars and footer should be utilized to effectively provide supplemental content in a professional manner. Moreover, there should be consistency across pages in the use of the aforementioned. A good design will increase the likelihood that your page content is read, that your web site is explored fully and revisited, and that your business is perceived as trustworthy and professional.

* An attractive design will decrease the “bounce rate” of new visitors, increase the duration of time spent on a website, and increase the depth the pages are explored.

Accessible Navigation – One of the complaints many have when visiting a website is that it is difficult to find what they are looking for; beyond this, the navigation needs to be “accessible” which means that it has to work for adaptive technology and can be read fully by the search engines. In addition, the navigation labels need to be easily understood, and the sub-menu (drop-down) links listing needs to be kept relatively short. I note this since I have seen websites where the drop-down list is so long that one needs to scroll to see all of the menu items (under 8 links is best). Beyond this concern if you have a top-menu navigation link such as “about us” you need to place content below it that fits this category – possible inclusions would be company history, mission, vision, board, etc. Just ensure that the content beneath a category heading relates to that category. If you do have a large number of pages it is best to utilize supplemental navigation systems (sidebar navigation, search engines, site-maps, and hyperlinks to related content). I also recommend the use of XML Sitemaps, .htaccess and robots.txt files.

* A good navigation system will enure that your pages are fully indexed and will increase the likelihood that more of your web site pages are visited, and desired content is found.

Keyword Optimization – Every page needs to be optimized for the targeted keywords in relation to the specific page content. This optimization – for page titles, meta-description, and text headings needs to be individualized for each page and there needs to be a good keyword density relationship between the keyword inclusions. I have written a great deal about SEO optimization in my blog and website if you have questions on this – the tools that follow will provide you the means to evaluate your own site in this regard.

* Keyword Optimization is necessary to ensure that the search engines are able to index your web site pages effectively.

Visitor Engagement – When you have a lot of competition in your industry you need to ensure that your visitors are interested in what you have to say and provide them a reason to want to return. Some of the best options for engagement include Blogs, Forums, Newsletters, Polls, Questionnaires, Contests, Videos, and Games. Where possible try to make your website a useful resource for your visitors, and fun! Encouraging feedback and asking questions will help ensure that your visitors feel important and will increase the likelihood that they return.

* Visitor engagement helps to ensure repeat visitors, and content shares.

Social Media and Inbound Links – In line with “visitor engagement”, Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and LinkedIn can help your primary website by providing inbound links, company/brand interest and loyalty, and visitor engagement.

* With Google’s latest “panda update” Social Media follows and shares have been noted as the #1 ranking criteria.

Once all of the aforementioned has been done your site will improve in the organic search engine rankings. At this point it is necessary to fine tune your site to ensure that your site is reaching your target audience, and that your visitors are engaged. To do this you need assess all of the aforementioned by employing an SEO strategy wherein you research, analyze, track, test and repeat over time.

Utilize the best Google SEO Tools:

I’ve written before about the value of Google Tools. When it comes to analyzing, tracking, testing this is where I always start; some of the best options are:

Once you’ve analyzed your own site you need to compare your web site with your competition and then make targeted corrections over time based upon traffic patterns, changes in the industry, changes in web design standards, and with regard to “what’s new”. Note that there are lots of SEO tool options, yet many of these provide results which are not accurate or of little value. The following tools were selected since I have found them to be of the better options, and believe they can be of benefit to your SEO efforts.

Ahrefs : This tool will show you the number of backlinks attached to a URL.A good way to learn who has linked to your competition.

SEO Book: This site has a large variety of effective “free” tools, and links to the best browser plug-ins. Recommended, especially for the web master.

WooRank: There have been a few ranking sites that have become popular. Alexa is one of them, yet I have found that WooRank provides the most accurate and useful information when I need to really test my site’s performance.

Microsoft SEO Toolkit: Microsoft released its SEO Toolkit as Bing’s answer to all of Google’s comprehensive webmaster and keyword tools. It analyzes websites based on Bing’s search engine algorithm.

getRank: This site has a big list of tools that covers most facets of web site analysis.

Search Engine Genie: I haven’t checked out all of these tools, but “wow” so many that this page boggles the mind. Basically there are tools for Google, Yahoo, Bing, and more. All categories are covered.

If you need assistance please contact us.
https://www.ecurtisdesigns.com