SEO is probably the most favourite word of digital marketers. Well, it deserves such limelight in the world of digital marketing for all the right reasons. A good SEO strategy can bring a website to the top of the SERPs. Your current ranking on the search engine results is an essential factor to consider when working on SEO goals. Did you know – Position #1 in google enjoys a 34.36% CTR? Apparently, it does! This statistic is motivating enough to start with your SEO strategy. Before starting SEO, you must know that:
Google ranks webpages, not websites!
Yes, it is true. You may say that SEO is all about website ranking, and Google doesn’t rank a website? If you observe the top results on the SERPs, you will understand either they have promoted webpages (linked directly to the sales page), or homepage of relevant websites, a listicle webpage, etc. But in the end, every type of ranked link is a webpage. Hence, it is vital to work on every page of your website to try your luck with a 360° approach. Companies should determine which webpages they want to rank. It becomes easier to frame SEO strategies according to the goals.
The fact that Google ranks Webpages changes the whole meaning of SEO on the website. Businesses must know how to start SEO on their business website effectively. In fact, there are many factors that you must consider before beginning SEO efforts. All your planning can go in a vein if you ignore these optimizations prior to your SEO strategies. Let’s discuss this in detail.
Things to have in place before starting SEO on Website
Make your Website Mobile-Friendly
Most likely, you are reading this blog on your mobile device. Thanks to the excellent mobile- optimization on our website. The search via mobile devices has surpassed desktop searches. It is evident that people make a quick google search on mobile more often. Hence, working on a mobile-friendly website is a must for achieving a good ranking on the SERPs. Think from the perspective of a visitor. Make sure your webpages load fast (preferably within 3 secs), has good navigation options, content is clearly visible, and users can contact quickly. When the website provides a good user experience, your mobile visitors are likely to come back to the site soon.
Plan a strong Website Structure
Making your website visitors play a treasure hunt on your site is not a good idea; especially when you are a business website. By treasure hunt we mean, easy accessibility. A website should display all major navigation options. If a visitor feels stuck in a website, they press the back button pretty fast. This increases your website’s bounce rate is not a good indicator of website ranking. Make your website structure easy, accessible, and outcome-oriented. A user should get what they are looking for easily. Then only visitors will spend time on your website, and the conversion rate will increase.
Smart Content Sells
Content is the king in SEO, and you must rule it. Content communicates your business. There is a direct impression of your website’s content on your target audience. Hence, your website should have interesting content and representation to keep users glued to business offerings. Make a fantastic homepage, answer 5W & 1 H of your business on the website. Keep the content tone on the same wavelength as your target audience. And most important, give them reasons to connect better.
Use Keywords to Unite
Yes, having the correct keyword placement in your content can unite you to your target customers. Keywords are like linchpin between your website and the people searching for similar businesses, information, offerings, and more. When a person searches a term on Google, it shows all the relevant webpages that contain the same term. This is why having the right keyword placed in your content is a very crucial factor in SEO. Do comprehensive research on keyword’s search volume, trends, and competitor’s keywords and more factors. Make sure you don’t stuff the keywords everywhere. Google can penalize your website for the overstuffing of keywords. Maintain balanced keyword density in the website’s content.
Setup Google Analytics
When you have a website, you must know how it is doing? Google Analytics is a free web analytics service by Google. It tracks your website’s traffic and facilitates easy analysis of your business website’s growth. You can determine various SEO strategies by keeping a check on Google Analytics data. Before you kickstart your website’s SEO journey, set up your Google Analytics account. Go for goals setup, funnel setup, event tracking, attribution model setup of your website. It will be very easy to determine the impacts of SEO strategies in the future. You can compare the changes in the website pre & post SEO. Just get it done asap!
Get started with Google Search Console.
Just like Google Analytics, the Google Search Console can open various ways to determine how your website is performing online. However, Google Search Console tells your website insights in detail. It is more inclined towards letting the website owner know insights & data to improve visibility and website presence in the SERPs. You can learn better about search queries, click-through rates, links from outside websites, crawl errors, links from outside websites, and HTML errors. Make sure you add and verify your website on Google Search Console before starting SEO. It will prove a beneficial step in learning better about your website performance.
Set relevant KPIs
Okay, there is no point in working on SEO strategies if you can’t determine how it is helping your business. You must set realistic, relevant, and trackable key performance indicators for your website. Your goal could be traffic generation, lead generation, sales conversion, crawl errors, bounce rate, or more. In most of the cases, SEO strategies work on multiple goals at a time. You must check your website before starting SEO and keep track of positive & negative changes due to SEO. In the end, you must be able to achieve your pre-determined KPIs. It helps businesses to stick to the plan and stay motivated throughout the SEO journey.
Final Thoughts
SEO is a basic need for business websites now. The competition in the online world is tough, and staying ahead is a must. Keep all your webpages SEO optimized as you now know ‘Google ranks Webpages, not websites’. It’s better to explore potential pages to rank rather than focusing just on the homepage. Keep these mentioned things including Keyword Research ready before diving into your SEO strategy. A combination of pre-optimized content, keywords will make your SEO efforts more fruitful than ever. Go for it!
Aarna Systems is an SEO agency in Pune. Our SEO masters know the art of keeping websites on the top of the SERPs. Get started with your SEO & Digital Marketing with us to reap the real benefits of bringing your business online. Feel free to connect to us. We would love to shoot up your website ranking soon.
