Back when SEO (search engine optimization) was in its infancy you could rank #1 for your specified terms by doing some very simply things such as adding title tags to your pages. As the Internet has grown exponentially, that simply won’t cut it anymore (Though title tags are still important!)
While your site used to be able to get by with a couple of keywords and title tags, they are now just one of SEVERAL factors that go into getting your site found when someone does a search.
And while search algorithms (Google, Yahoo, etc.) are quite possibly the greatest kept secret on the web there are several “low hanging fruit” items that you should consider when optimizing your site.
Some SEO Factors
- Hosting – Does your site have down time? How much? Are you utilizing caching?
- Domain Name – Do you use the www or non-www version of your domain?
- Broken Links – Are you handling broken links properly? Are you using 301 redirects where appropriate?
- Sitemaps – Does your site have a sitemap.xml that lists all of the pages you want a search engine (and your users) to find? When was it last updated? Do you let search engines know when it’s updated?
- Robots.txt – Do you use your robots.txt correctly? Do you have one?
- Page Speed – Are you checking your site’s page speed? Did you know that it’s one of the ranking factors in search results?
- Mobile Friendly – Is your site mobile friendly? This is becoming more and more important. Google recently announced BIG changes coming for mobile ranking.
- Content – Is your content informative? Do you create unique & relevant content on a regular basis?
- Analytics – How often do you check your site analytics? Is your site healthy?
- Social Media – Engaged customers make loyal customers. Engaging with them via social channels such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can have a huge impact not only on search rankings, but overall customer satisfaction.
Lost? Now What?!?!?
If you’ve read over the above list (which is by no means exaustive) and you feel a little lost, don’t worry. We’re here to help. As a site owner, you should know how SEO works or at the very least understand the SEO services you’re receiving. If you don’t, you could be one algorithm change away from a penalty that will drop you in the rankings or worse yet OUT of search engine results completely.
Contact us today for a SEO audit and we’ll make sure your site is up to speed when it comes to its search engine rankings!