You’ve officially launched your website for your company, but notice that you are not receiving the amount of traffic that you had hoped. Maybe you have several large competitors that already dominate the market, and therefore the search. There are several off-site and on-site SEO measures that may be contributing to your low ranking in a search engine. However, there are several things you can do to increase the likelihood that the search algorithm will eventually allow your site to rank higher.
The Imporance of Key Words
One of the most important things in helping your webpage rank high is ensuring you get solid keywords. To do this, the first thing you need to do is identify your goals for your webpage; different goals will require different keywords in order to be successful. For example, your keywords for someone researching your product (i.e., what is a DSLR camera) as opposed to someone wanting to purchase your product (i.e., buy DSLR camera) will differ (Stukent, Inc.). It is important that these goals are clear so that your key word research can be as relevant to those goals as possible.
The first characteristic of your keywords should be that they are relevant to the product you are selling. Your keywords should very clearly point towards what product you are trying to sell. Second, you want to be sure to choose keywords that have high search demand. In other words, your keywords should be ones that are searched often by customers looking to buy similar products. The higher the search traffic that a keyword has, the more likely you are to have your webpage show up.
While high-traffic search words are important, another aspect that must be considered is competition. Other companies selling similar products are trying to optimize their search potential as well, thus there are some keywords that are already being used frequently by other companies. If your goal is to have your webpage rank on the first page of Google, but there are 10+ other larger companies with higher SEO using the same keywords, it will be nearly impossible for you to rank. If you are selling cameras, the keyword “camera” will most definitely be a high-traffic, but highly competitive keyword. If you are a smaller company, it is highly recommended that you use long-tail keywords (i.e., “2020 Sony DSLR camera”) as opposed to short-tail keywords (i.e., “camera” or “DSLR camera”). While these keywords may have lower search traffic, they have the potential of increasing your relevancy, thus making it easier to rank (Larson & Draper).
In summary, finding keywords that are relevant to your offering, frequently searched, but have lower competition are essential to making the ranks.
Design Your Website with Keywords In Mind
First, your predetermined keywords should be present in the webpage’s URL (Larson & Draper). For example, if your website is http://www.annascameras.com, and there is a keyword for Sony cameras specifically, the URL for the webpage displaying Sony cameras should be http://www.annascameras.com/Sony-Cameras.html. In addition to the URL, title tags and header tags for a webpage also experiences heavy weighting in calculating relevance, thus keywords should be featured in these locations as well (Larson & Draper). This should not be done blindly, however, as the specific placement of keywords within title tags can matter. If the keyword is closer to the beginning of the title, it will hold more weight with relevance (Biswas). Lastly, the keywords should be used in the webpage’s main content. However, this should be done reasonably, as overuse (known as “keyword stuffing”) can lead the search engine to negatively view your site (Larson & Draper).
Create High-Quality Webpages
While keywords are important in making your webpage show up when searches are made, having a high-quality website can be just as crucial. The search engine is less likely to display your website at high ranks if it is not user-friendly or if users seem to be unhappy with the website in any way. Simple formatting, such as font size, colors, and content placement can all affect how a viewer feels about your webpage (Bigby). Displeasing formatting may lead to a high bounce rate, meaning a user clicks on the webpage but quickly clicks out of it. For example, if the aesthetics of the webpage look untrustworthy, a user will most likely not spend much time on the page.
Additionally, providing a strong meta description of your webpage can help entice users to click on your webpage. This description can also allow users to know what to expect when clicking on your page, thus making them less likely to be disappointed and increase the bounce rate. Another very important webpage quality factor is load time. The shorter the load time the better. Since users often have a short attention span, they will not wait around for a page that takes a long time to load, increasing the bounce rate. Lastly, your webpage should contain original content. The search engine will penalize web pages that have content that is displayed on other web pages as well (Larson & Draper).
Sources
Bigby, Garenne. “How to Build a Website for Search Engine Optimization.” Dynomapper, 13 May 2018, https://dynomapper.com/blog/21-sitemaps-and-seo/484-how-to-build-a-website-with-seo
Biswas, Rintu. “How to Rank Your Brand New Website on Google: 23 Easy Tactics to Know.” Unamo Blog, 26 January 2019, https://unamo.com/blog/seo/rank-your-brand-new-website-on-google
Larson & Draper. “Digital Marketing Essentials”. Stukent, Inc, 8 February 2017.
Stukent, Inc.. “Keyword Research 101 – Part 1 – George Do.” YouTube, 21 December 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymbJmtAI7NI&ab_channel=Stukent%2CInc.
