Living in the digital era is a unique experience. Everything we wish to know and share is approachable through the digital media which makes lives easy. The digital era has also positively influenced and changed the fate of marketing. Brands that once required papers, flyers, banners, and various other media to reach their target audience are all shifting to harness the power and outreach of social media. Today no matter how small or big your business is there are various ways of getting closer to your audience. A study shows the impact of this shift into the digital era. This is applicable even for small or focused customer base and digital medium enables you to deliver your offer in creative ways. Animated videos, digital banners, ads, infographic outreach etc are impeccable ways of placing what people require through the digital medium. In fact, today businesses have the power to customize and create what people are looking for.
One of the most popular digital mediums used for trade, marketing etc, is through websites. Through captivating designs, vibrant colors and smartly crafted words every company is looking forward to connecting their vision to the customers. But the tricky part is to keep the audience engaged and curious. It’s all about making your presence felt. And the way of making your presence felt through websites is to make sure you are listed in the top of search engine results.
Being positioned at spot “zero” on your search engine page is the ideal option. But that would need authoritative content and high ranking for answers.
Can you get to place “zero” without having to spend a large amount of money? What does it take to top the listed?
Here are 7 ways you could make that happen.
#1 The key is keywords:
To understand the right way to get your website noticed you will have to observe and analyze what people are actually looking for. Unless you can create what people are looking for you are not creating a website that will attract or please your audience. This is where keyword optimization comes to play. Keywords refer to the words or phrases that are in your content that will get you noticed. These are usually the words that are commonly input by a user during a query to the search engine. By including a number of such keywords which are relevant to your content your website gets closer to the target audience.
A well-optimized website will include these keywords and be approachable to its potential customers. For example, if the business website is for a cupcake shop common keywords that could be included are cupcakes, bakers, catering, desserts etc. There are various tools available online to understand the search patterns of users across the world. Choose from the list of the top keywords relevant to the business and include them.
Google’s keyword planner is a great choice for finding the top keywords. By adding the keywords in a natural tone to the website it can appear on top of the list and becomes visible. Another important note about keywords that can promote and help business websites is including location along with the keyword. For example, if the keyword cupcake tops the keyword list the best way to include this keyword would be to attach a location. So, the keyword now becomes for example cupcake in Brooklyn and this is useful for directing your content towards the right audience.
#2 Enhance the user experience:
There are various factors that contribute to the algorithm that ranks websites. The top 4 are the number of visits, time spent on site, pages per session and the bounce rate states a study. These 4 factors are directly or indirectly related to how much the user actually enjoys the website. The colors, animation, designs are ways to create websites that increase likability among the audience. A study from the University of Melbourne in 2011 states that visually appealing websites are perceived to be more trustworthy. A dull and boring website may not attract the audience even if it contains good content. People tend to spend less time on websites that are too wordy. But the best way to present the content is to use creative designs, catchy phrases, quirky motion etc, and create a website that is more interactive. Using these we can improve the number of visits as well as the time they stay on the website.
Also, the website must be easy and flexible to use. Presenting the attributes and important information in a simple and easy ways makes it approachable for everyone. This means the animation and other design creations need to be appropriately placed and used to create a smooth and enriching overall experience that delivers the message well. Create the content using simple words to take the message to the audience easily. Also, given that we live in the era of smartphones, a website must also be flexible or responsive to adjust to smaller screens and work elegantly without causing hassle. These factors will enhance user experience and promote the factors mentioned above to give website top ranking in the search engine list making it visible to customers.
#3 Keep them content flooding in all the time:
Increasing the frequency of visits of a user completely depends upon the content in the website. First visits can happen through good marketing strategies and then through advanced designs and styles, we can ensure they enjoy the experience. But to keep them coming back to the website needs to have an active space filled with new content more frequently. Today top businesses use blogs as a way of keeping in constant touch with their customer base. Blogging is an easy way of informing users about the latest information related to the business as well as capturing their attention in the process. This is also an effective way of introducing high-quality keywords into the website to increase the ranking in the index. Websites that post often have higher search engine index and this will be a valuable asset for your business.
Similar to keywords including location specific content will also help get closer to the target segment. Case studies, stories from local newspapers, the user experience of new products, etc, can be actively included in the websites to stay close to customers and trigger the curiosity in them to visit the website regularly.
#4 Improve and optimize your page:
There are various elements to creating a website that includes titles, images, URLs, descriptions, keywords etc. Increasing visibility in local search results is all about creating the perfect balance of all of these to get noticed by your search engine. Starting with the headings, using <h1> and <h2> heading tags for the content means marking them header tags. Content marked under header tags are usually given higher priority. Header tags increase the readability of the content for the search engine and find the right match for user searches faster. The content in the tag have a strong correlation with Google search ranks and by scoring high here you are increasing your visibility.
With respect to images, it is important to remember that they are an essential element in creating an interactive space with the user. Hence the quality of the images used should be high and also compressed and optimized to load fast and easy on any platform. It should also be available in common formats and should have alt text or image in case there is a problem with loading the image. Use alt tabs in the right places to place alternative text descriptions to make sure the search engine can spot the content. These small optimizations will help create a well-designed website that is organized and easy to use. This will also help bring better search engine results directed towards your website.
#5 Customize website based on location:
Increasing local visibility is all about providing specific requirements of the region rather than generalized content. If the website operates in more than one location then customizing the pages for different regions with relevant and targeted content could be a great way of increasing traffic and appearing on the top of the list. While the product or service might remain the same, the content weaved around the same can be individually customized to suit the keywords that top the charts for these particular areas. Most people look for a solution “near them” and using location as an important factor can help increase your search engine ranking.
#6 Fix the flaws and increase the speed:
If a website is taking up more than a few seconds to load then no amount of creative designs can increase ranking and visibility. This will also cost the loss of frequent visitors. Also, small problems such as broken links can discourage users to continue using the website as well as visit again. Hence pay attention to broken links and errors such as 404 to make sure the user has a good experience. This will also increase ranking and visibility. Similarly, work on the website speed can help offer a rich user experience. This will also boost the search ranks.
#7 Harness the power of backlinks:
Sometimes the best way to direct users to a website is to place or link the content to other websites that also gather a good level of traffic. Backlinks are a heavy factor for Google ranking and hence optimized placements can increase a website’s overall rank. Linking to high authority sites can improve rank and influence business positively says a study. It is important to note that backlinks need to be created smartly and only through relevant content to make sure the users have a good experience.
These simple tips will help improve the website and help rank it at the top in search engine rankings.
