HCEA Strategic Marketing Articles

10 successful tips to improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO) rankings. 

Figuring out how to get on the first page of Google may seem like a complex and overwhelming task.

Is your online store currently ranked on the 20th page of Google and you want a reliable, successful strategy to achieve higher search engine rankings?

Following these 10 simple steps will help you rapidly fulfill your objectives of getting in teir of Google's search results.

  • Register your store on free directories.

The first thing to do is to create a listing with a detailed profile of your business. This may sound odd but this is the best way to raise the ranking of your site in the results pages. Your next step is to increase its relevance on Search engines through specific keywords. The objective is to find keywords that properly reflect your business, your products or the services you are promoting. A description of 500 to 1000 characters will be requested, and make sure to provide changes and adaptations to each directory.

  • Optimize your title tags

These tags are encoded using HTML characters .They are tracked by spam-spiders of Google & Cie whose aim is to assist search engines in providing the most appropriate results to queries and find the web page you are looking for by relevance.

The use of title tags is vital in optimizing websites and getting indexed in most search engines. It contains the text that appears as blue in Google's search results and provides a source of key information for visitors but also for search engines in an attempt to optimize your website for targeted search engine traffic. It should also encourage your future visitors to click.

So the equation is simple: more clicks = more traffic = more clients = more income.

The title should be brief (5 to 10 words - 60 characters) and must include your name and keywords of your business. Each page of your site should be optimized and have its own title, preferably including the name of the company and a summary of the content of the page.

  • Write unique words or phrases that match your products and the search queries exactly.

The exact description and title of your products are an important aspects of SEO for your website. Google treats title relevancy as an essential aspect of a search result. So as long as you ensure your web page title is optimized, and contains the important keywords relevant to your content, your site traffic as well as ranking will definitely improve. Your titles should also include a detailed description of each product (brand, product type, color ...) and each of your products should have a unique description; this is a key element in your quest for higher ranking.

  • Improve the structure of your URL for better Google Ranking.

URL containing relevant keywords provides users and search engines with more information about the page. For better optimization, the URL must comprise of understandable names. Make use of the method of separating phrases with dashes instead of underscore to distinct between the key terms. Avoid using lengthy URLs with unnecessary parameters and session IDs. Remember, Google searches pages only when looking for phrases and Keywords, not whole websites. 

  • Create a blog

A blog is a safe and effective way to produce content, and search engines love new content, which signifies the site is active. The more content you add, the more often you are visited. Google spiders visit you on a regular basis if you make frequent updates thus ensuring optimization of your ranking, so try to add a page a day if possible. By inserting the right keywords in your articles, you can also improve your SEO, plus blogs are a good way to communicate with your customers. So you will accomplishing two things at once.

  • Correctly rename your photos!

The most important thing to do before you upload an image is to rename the image with a description that includes keywords you want the image to emphasize. Google cannot see the images and analyze them, but it can read the names of these images. Before loading images on your site, rename them for maximum efficiency. For example: "Ipod Nano 8GB Red" will always be better interpreted and referenced than "image7."

  • Insert new content.

It cannot be stressed enough, we highly recommend you to keep your content updated. Google's freshbots crawl sites to generally keep their indexes refreshed. This process is essential and can help determine your ranking. Generate as much high quality content as you can. Utilize multiple perspectives to discuss your products and service to give your readers insight into your company. You can do this by creating CMS pages which explain who you are, which business you are dealing with, explains your payment policy and delivery ...  More spider visits, more human visitors, more pages, more readers, more fresh content all add up to better ranking.

You can also put keywords in bold. It is important to break up your texts, to highlight them, put them in your image alt tags, your URL etc.

  • Avoid duplicate content

When the same content is located on two different URLs, Google concludes that it is a duplicate content –all new content should be rewritten, even if the message is the same, to avoid duplication since duplicate content will usually result penalization by most search engines.

  • Increase the number of links to your pages

Introduced by Google, PageRank allows the engine to determine the relevance of a site or a blog. High quality sites, with fresh high quality content will always be ranked higher by Google and most other search engines.

And to maintian your ranking, there is no secret; you must increase web traffic through the number of links pointing to your pages. Do not hesitate to form partnerships with other stores / sites that your already know who will add a link to your shop or your products. Also try to find websites related to yours to create reciprocal links.

  • Follow your progress on Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a simple yet powerful tool that generates detailed statistics about a website's traffic, and which helps en both improving your website’s performance and finding out more on which content is performing best.

Google Analytics provides you with the most accurate real hit and real search data possible by and crosschecking data, you will have a clearer idea of what your customers are really interested, and then you can adapt your site accordingly to generate more traffic.

Free of charge, Google Analytics will tell you all information related the number of visitors, page views, referring sites and browser used for a particular search phrase.

Google Analytics to work for your site to see your traffic increase. Please feel free to consult our free guide for further details.