If you don’t know what local SEO rankings are, you’re not alone. It’s a term that gets thrown around quite a bit but most people don’t truly understand what it means.
Put simply, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and refers to the process of affecting the visibility of a website or web page in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Why do you need SEO?
Potential customers looking for your products and services are ALREADY searching online, and if they can’t find you then someone else will happily take your potential customer.
If you don’t have a website where people can find you or relevant information about your business in the SERPs then chances are that any marketing or advertising campaign that you undertake is wasted money with little to no ROI on improving the visibility of your business’ presence.
And why do you need SEO?
A good place to start would be getting a well-designed website optimized for mobile phones as most internet users prefer to make their research decisions from the palm of their hand, rather than clumsily inputting data on desktop computers or laptops. Remember – today’s technology-savvy internet users are browsing the web with smartphones, tablets, and other devices!
There are many things that go into having good rankings including keywords and meta tags but this guide will focus on 10 key points provided by a local SEO company.
1. Target Specific Keywords
The first thing to do when working on your site’s rankings is to identify which keywords are most relevant to your business and target them accordingly with content throughout your site so Google knows about them too.
2. Provide Useful Content
Next, providing useful content to your site’s visitors will help improve rankings. If users are coming to your site and getting the information they need or staying for a long period of time then it is likely that you will be rewarded with good SEO results.
3. Optimize Your Site For Mobile Devices
Mobile optimization is becoming more important as more people use their smartphones and tablets to access the internet. Make sure your site is mobile-friendly or you will be missing out on a good amount of traffic from search results.
4. Use A Responsive Web Design
One more step that has been found to help improve rankings is having a responsive web design that adjusts based on the size of the browser. This means if someone is viewing your website on their laptop, phone, or tablet it should adjust according to screen size so content isn’t too small or cut off.
5. Be Sure To Use Schema Markup
Adding schema markup to your URLs can also help boost your SERPs because this helps search engines display information about specific pieces of content in a better way for users who are looking for that topic.
6. Properly Use Canonical Tags
Canonical tags are used to help prevent problems with indexing by allowing you to identify which pages are the original versions and which ones you would like Google to treat as copies of the originals. This helps prevent duplicate content so you don’t have multiple versions of your site all showing up in search results for one keyword or phrase.
7. Be Sure To Add An XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap is a file that tells search engines about all of the pages on your site, how often they’re updated, and when they were last checked for any changes. This is another ranking factor that can boost your SERPs because it’s letting Google know about important aspects of your site.
8. Get External Links From Other Relevant Websites
A well-placed link from another website can help improve your rankings and external links are important for boosting your authority within the search engine results pages. The more quality links you have coming to your site – whether paid or unpaid – the better you will rank in search results so be sure to get as many as possible!
9. Make Use Of Google+ Profiles And Pages
Google recently announced that they will begin showcasing Google+ profiles and pages at the top of SERPs when users are searching for content related to those entities which means it could do a lot of good to create one (or both) if you aren’t already using them as part of your business.
10. Write Good Titles, Descriptions, And Metas
Last but not least, the search engine optimization tips that are most important are writing good titles for your site’s pages and posts, adding lasting descriptions to everything you publish, and filling out meta tags completely so that Google knows how to describe your content.
Final words
These are all things you need to do regularly in order to achieve good rankings because it’s what tells search engines about your content.
If done correctly SEO can help improve your site’s rankings significantly which could lead to more traffic coming through the online doors of your business!
