SEO or search engine optimisation can seem like a bit of a mystery. If you’ve just started an online business, or a website to promote your offline endeavours, you’ll have probably have heard about SEO. You might have read guides and articles on what it means and how important it is. You might have tried to research as much as you can. But, there’s a fair chance that if you are new to running a website, it’s still a bit of a mystery. Here is what you really need to know about SEO when launching a website.
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With so many elements and so much to learn, as well as the fact that SEO changes and grows all of the time, it can be hard to know what you need to do to get your website noticed and found by search engines. But, the good news is, you don’t need to be an expert. With just a little knowledge of the right things, you can start to boost your sites SEO and climb up the search engine results. Here’s what you really need to know.
It’s Okay to Invest In SEO
When you start a small business, you find yourself trying to do everything. You find you need to know about everything and do as much as you can yourself. You’ll want to save money on hiring freelancers or recruiting staff. When it comes to SEO, you don’t need to spend money. You can absolutely make the improvements needed yourself. But, spending a little cash, to get help from Herdl, your website and business can start growing much faster, straight away. This can be a very worthwhile expense, especially if your own knowledge and understanding are fairly limited.
Keywords are Still Important
If you’ve done some research into SEO, you’ve probably heard that keywords aren’t as important as they once were, and that writing informative content for your readers is much more beneficial than stuffing a piece with keywords. While this is true, and readability should always be a primary concern, that doesn’t mean keywords shouldn’t factor in your SEO plans.
However, the way that people search has changed. People no longer go on to Google and type in a word. They are more likely to ask a question. This means that your keywords should be longtail, and made up for three or four words. These give you a better chance to stand out from the competition and are more reader-friendly than single words.
Fresh Content is Essential
If you want your website to do well, you can’t just publish a random post when you feel like it. You need to publish quality, easy-to-read content, regularly. A good SaaS SEO strategy for software companies will be to publish articles on hot topics like getting a remote software developer job, software developer earnings, and how to hire developers. These articles will attract your target audience to your site for answers, boosting your web traffic and chances of getting quality leads. However, remember that your content doesn’t always have to be new to be effective. Therefore, you can overhaul or repurpose existing content to freshen it up. It is also crucial to note that search engines love frequently updated sites. As such, its main crawler is always searching for new or updated web pages to add to the index, so frequently uploading new content is key. Try to post something new at least once a week and stick to a schedule as much as you can.
Off-Site Optimisation
On-site optimisation is all about making sure your posts look and read well, and that you include appropriate H1 H2 and H3 tags, as well as things like alt text on your photographs. This is very important but easy to manage. Off-site optimisation is about getting your site out there. Do this by making sure quality websites are linking back to your site, and by using your social media profiles to gain traffic and grow a following.
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