Improving your SEO ranking can play a huge part in whether your small business is a success or a failure!
Having an online store can open your potential growth to a huge global market. But, in order to benefit from this global market, you have to make sure your site is seen by potential customers.
There are a number of ways to do this, primarily by taking advantage of search engine ranking factors utilised by your site. In theory, this is no different to imagining how a physical store might draw in visitors to their shop.
The more relevant or attractive this shop is to passers-by, the more likely they may be to visit. This would be no use, however, if your shop was in the middle of nowhere! Like the physical location of a store, the online presence of your business is incredibly important.
This online presence is determined by your SEO.
What is an SEO ranking?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, refers to improving where your site will appear in the results of a relevant search. For example, if you sell tennis equipment and a user searches for ‘tennis rackets’ in Google, search engine optimisation is the process of getting ranked as highly as possible in the results. By ranking higher, the user is much more likely to click on your site and, consequently, is more likely to buy your products.
Your SEO ranking is determined by various different considerations known as ranking factors. Algorithms written by the developers of the search engine will analyse all the information on your internet. Through this analysis, the algorithm will decide where your site should appear.
For a more in-depth guide on SEO, check out our other articles!
So, how can you improve your SEO ranking?
Improving your SEO ranking is largely down to adhering to as many SEO ranking factors as possible. Here are five ways you can make sure your website appears high in the rankings:
Update your site regularly
One thing that many algorithms look for is the activity of your site. Think about it: you would be much less likely to recommend a business that you know has been closed for months or doesn’t regularly engage with its customers.
A good way to get around this is to make sure you’re regularly updating your site. Whether that’s posting new products or just letting your customer’s know upcoming deals, regularly updating your site lets your potential customers know you’re there, ready and waiting for them!
Keep it relevant!
One of the main things that a search engine’s algorithm looks out for is the relevance of your site to potential searches. A good way to get ahead of this curve is to make sure the service or product you provide will be considered relevant to a broad range of searches.
Whenever you’re making a new page for your site, or posting a new listing, consider what a potential customer might search in order to bring up that post. Think about what the keyword for that page might be. Algorithms are unlikely to rank one page highly across multiple keywords. So, select one keyword and focus on crafting your page around it.
Avoiding ‘keyword stuffing‘ is just as important as including the keyword at all! Keyword stuffing is when you overuse a selected keyword. This could flag to an algorithm as suspicious. Keyword stuffing is often associate with clickbait or scam websites as those sites are desperate for visitors, but not for the right reasons!
Google themselves suggest that a key way to improving your SEO is by having a website that directly benefits your user. Always keep this in mind: provide a good service and customers will come!
Tag your photos and videos!
Having a varied and visually satisfying page is incredibly important. Nobody wants to be greeted by a big wall of text – but tagging the media you use is just as important as having any in the first place!
This is where an alt tag comes in. Alt tag – or alternative text description – helps a search engine find your page. It provides another medium for keywords to flag the relevance of your site!
It’s called the ‘web’ for a reason
Linking between other sites is integral for improving your SEO ranking. It demonstrates to potential visitors that you’ll go out of your way to provide them with specific research and information to help them.
Linking directly to other sites, either your own or relevant sources, using specific keywords rather than ‘click here’ helps give value to your potential reader. The keywords can boost your SEO ranking but, more importantly, your use of relevant sources demonstrates to your user that you’re a trusted site and have put the effort in to provide a meaningful service.
Be mobile friendly!
Many website developers ignore a huge demographic when creating their site: mobile users.
It should come as no surprise that the number of mobile and tablet users browsing the internet is increasing. In fact, according to statista, more than half of all internet users are browsing on mobile!
Make the most of this market by optimising your website for mobile users. Having a site that is streamlined and easy to use is really important, so why shouldn’t this be the case for all users?
Keep an eye on how your site performs for mobile users by testing it out yourself. Get a sense of what the website feels like and ask yourself some important questions: does the text fit the screen? Are images in low resolution? Do menus appear streamlined or clunky?
It’s not a particularly difficult task, but it can make a huge difference to where your site appears in the rankings!
Our Final Say on SEO Ranking
Improving your SEO ranking can be a huge help in getting your business off the ground. More site traffic increases your chances to convert these visitors in potential customers.
The intention of these SEO ranking factors is to make sure that you’re providing a user-friendly, relevant service to whatever it is that you sell or provide. Providing the best possible experience for your user should be top priority – so abiding by these ranking factors can demonstrate to potential customers that you have their experience at the forefront of your mind.
Floodmaker created their business to help you optimise the online presence of your store. If you feel ready to outsource the online management of you store, take a look at the services we provide.