Want Your Business on Google’s Home Page? Learn Search Engine Optimization

It sounds complicated, but it doesn’t have to be.

Only the desperate scroll to the second page of a Google search. So while social media and other kinds of marketing are important, getting onto that front page can make a huge difference for site and in-store traffic.

Search engine optimization (SEO) makes that possible by increasing your visibility. But looking up SEO lessons can lead to hefty paragraphs with a bunch of undefined words.

Don’t let yourself get bogged down by the jargon. SEO really just boils down to two things: understanding search keywords and maintaining a site people actually want to use.

So, what is it?

SEO is all about increasing traffic without paying for ads and other promotions. In other words, it helps your business “rank” well on Google and other search engines.

This can be pretty intuitive – to an extent. When uploading content to your website, there should be a spot to insert SEO keywords. If you, don’t want to pay for extra tools, you can figure out some decent keywords by doing a few Google searches of your own.

When you’re publishing a post or page on your site, Google a similar topic. Take a look at what websites pop up and the kind of content they’re covering. Ideally, you’ll want your content to have a leg-up over theirs. Yours should be better written and more on-topic for whatever people are searching for.

Google also has a suggestion feature. There might be a drop-down menu for different search recommendations, you can get keyword ideas from those.

However, if you’re able to, it would be smart to invest in a software that can identify good keywords for you. My personal favorites are Semrush and Ahrefs. They’ll make it super easy for you to search up potential keywords and see how much they might help you.

But while it can be intuitive, there are some aspects that are particularly annoying. The best optimization tactics revolve around the current algorithms (how Google or other apps decide what material to promote) which are constantly changing.

Google Search Console is one of the more convenient ways to keep up with those algorithm changes. Using Google Business Profile is particularly helpful for smaller businesses. But unfortunately, algorithms are always a bit of a mystery – only Google knows all the ins and outs of its algorithm.

What you really need to know

SEO sounds complicated, and to be honest, the ins and outs of it can be. But there are a few basic things you should know that can make a difference in how your content ranks.

Use more than just home or product pages – landing pages are a great tool for marketing. They’re independent web pages that your audience finds by clicking an ad or some kind of link. Landing pages are also one of the best tools for conversion.

Use landing pages to urge your audience to make a purchase or use your services. Limit the number of extra links on this page, you don’t want to distract any visitors. Make it very clear where on the website you want them to go next.

Not only are landing pages great for your conversion, Google also appreciates them when considering your SEO ranking.

If you publish blog posts of any kind, length can be an important factor to pay attention to. But don’t overthink it. Google appreciates posts that are at least 500 words long. None of that matters, though, if you’re clearly writing longer posts for the sake of writing a longer post.

You’ll also want to integrate your keywords into the content you’re publishing. Just don’t stuff the content with keywords unnecessarily.

Keep keywords and length in mind, but never go over the top. Search engines can recognize when you’re just keyword stuffing or if your content doesn’t actually provide anything valuable for people who visit your page.

Any real SEO expert will tell you that at the end of the day, just set up your website and write your content in a way that is easy and enticing to your audience.

Next, make use of meta titles and descriptions. This is what people see on the page when they make a Google search. Meta titles and descriptions should be short and concise, otherwise, they’ll trail off and anyone scrolling through a Google search might not get the full picture.

Meta descriptions are especially important to do manually. If you don’t, Google will find something from the website to put in instead – and it might not be the most enticing information for your potential customers.

These are just the bare basics though.

If you want to know more about SEO, and you probably should, websites like Hubspot provide free training and courses.