5 Simple Steps to Improve Your SEO Strategy

The phrase 'search engine presents a unique opportunity for businesses' has kind of become a cliché. You will hear everybody talking about it, but no one will tell you how you can leverage those opportunities to see actual gains that can drive the growth of your business.

Leveraging on the search engines can be harder for small companies, which other than their lack of finances; they also lack knowledge hence harbor misconceptions and wrong notions. However, I'm here to tell you that this should not be the case.

Startups can fight it out with fortune 500 companies for a piece of the cake served by search engines. All they need to do is take steps to employ some top SEO strategies, and they stand a chance. So, what are these strategies?

1. Have Great Content

Content is the driver of SEO. You have probably heard this before, but I believe stressing it is key. Search engine algorithms mainly prioritize relevance and content; hence content forms the backbone of your performance on SEO. Great pieces of content often perform better on search engines. So how do you get to a point where you can say you have great content?

You have to employ multimedia. This is usually in the form of images, texts, and videos. Purely text websites are often boring for visitors. These visitors often leave the site within a brief period of time hence leave the website with a high bounce rate, which results in it being ranked lowly by search engine algorithms. However, to counter this, you can try and have your content in multimedia form. This will break the monotony and keep your sites interesting enough such that visitors often stay in it for longer periods. Subsequently, search engines will rank you highly.

Your content should also have a call to action. It can be in the form of convincing customers to pay or even to leave a review. You should encourage reviews to boost your SEO.

Your content should also reflect what I like to call the four pillars of great content that is it should be convincing, informative, educational, and entertaining. Once you ensure that your content meets these, then you can say you have started your journey to SEO success.

2. Know Your Audience

Several SEO campaigns often struggle due to this. Unless you have a clear understanding of who you are targeting, you will employ general strategies that may not be as effective as customized strategies. Not knowing who your audience is like singing to a tree, your efforts will be futile or not as effective.

Thankfully, today there are so many tools out there that can help you identify who your target audience is. You should seek to find them and find one that works for you. Just but an example to assist you in case you get stuck somewhere, try the Google Search Console to help you know what your customers are looking for and Bing's Keyword Research tool to help you understand what exactly they are looking for.

3. Do Excellent Web Design

This accounts for a very significant portion that you ought to focus on. The way you design your websites can have a significant say on whether you will be successful or you will struggle on search engines. Effectively designing your website can lead you to success. Here are simple strategies you can adopt in your web design to help you be successful in the search.

Make your site to be mobile-friendly. According to this site, mobile accounts for more than half of the searches globally. For this reason, mobile is a valuable asset for an organization. It should ensure that its websites are responsive to the various screen sizes, and people can click easily, for example, to call them.

Similarly, the landing pages should be eye-catching. Since these pages are the initial pages, visitors see once they come to your site, they can determine whether they will stay or leave.

The loading speeds of the website should also be fast. On average, a good loading speed is around 2 seconds and not more. Visitors often leave sites that load for more than 3 seconds.

4. Use Analytics and Tools

Analytics plays a crucial role in measuring the effectiveness of any campaign. For this reason, the metrics and information they provide offer an essential indicator of what is working and what is not working; hence needs to be adjusted.

Similarly, tools can be a great asset to you and your website. They can help you respond to customers in a short period, manage your sites, and even schedule posts, among others.

Leveraging insights provided by analytics and employing the various tools available is likely to lead to success on the search engine.

5. If Organic Is Not Working, Then Try Pay

While with pay, it might be a little different; money is not always the determining factor. Set your sight up for organic success, and if you are struggling, then try to pay to perform. Search engines take into account a quality score then multiplies it with the maximum cost-per-click to obtain your ad rank.

Search engines can be a great avenue to generate leads. While these strategies can work for some, for others, it might take time and require a little twitching. All you have to do is be patient and work smart.