If you are a small business considering setting up a new website, then you may have heard about how important SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is. SEO is vital for getting your site ranked in the search engines such as Google, and Yahoo. Having basic SEO practices set up can be the difference between having a steady stream of buyers visit your site, and having no one. This article introduces you to some basic SEO practices you should consider when building a new website.
Keyword Research
It’s essential that before you set up your website that you do some keyword research. Take a look into which keywords represent your business, your niche, and your client base. This can be based on phrases, single words, or longer length keywords. Google provides an excellent resource that allows you to analyze keywords, and see exactly how much traffic each one is getting on a monthly basis.
Keyword Placement
Once you have a list of keywords, you need to place them throughout your website. Key places to add them are in page titles, descriptions, and URL structures. Make sure they are natural and not forced looking. This is important as search engines use robots to scan your sites, and these are the places they always look at. Getting the structure of the site right from the beginning is essential.
Analyze Your Competition
Have a look into who is currently getting the traffic you want for your website. After researching your keywords type them into Google, and see what comes up. See who is targeting your audience, and what they are doing well but also not so well. This is important as it will allow you to set targets, and you will have a benchmark idea of what you need to improve to get ranked where you want.
Using Keywords in Content
Consider writing valuable content based on your keywords. Google loves fresh, and original content so make sure your content is easy to read, and up to date. One way to incorporate new content into your website is by having a blog or news page that you update on a regular basis. Try to add keywords into the content naturally, but be careful not to add them too often. As a rule of thumb 2%-3% keyword placement per article is a good target.
Create a Site Map
Sitemaps are an easy way for website creators to tell the search engines about the structure of their websites. The easiest way to do this is to set up a XML file that lists the sites URLs along with metadata about each one and when it was updated. If you don’t know how to do this you can consider adding a plugin to your website or hiring a local SEO company in Las Vegas to help you with this.
Setting up your website with these basic elements will help increase your chances of Google ranking your website. It’s advisable to look into hiring a professional SEO company if you are thinking of targeting a high competition niche so they can assist you and provide you with a custom quote and timeline.
