Everyone wants to know how to get more traffic and a better search engine ranking. Companies make big bucks helping business achieve better SEO (search engine optimization). While this is a service worth paying for, as a professional in this business I have seen so many people get majorly ripped off for much of what they could do themselves. I do believe in charging for what you’re worth in relation to the services you provide. Unfortunately, with changing technology and algorithms, this is an area that seems so overwhelming and complex, that many are being taken advantage of for their lack of knowledge. There is no easy button, and NO one can guarantee you a top spot in a Google search. NO MATTER WHAT they tell you! These five tips for post can make a big difference, for large and small businesses. And… you can do it yourself.
1. Name Your Images – Title your image as it is relevant to your post, like Bean Salad Recipe vs img_123.jpg, is an easy and sure way to get traction for your site or blog. This will bring your recipe, photo, or Etsy good to the top of Google images and shopping results. If you Google Mid Century Modern Art, I have prints in the first page of results, and I can see the shop views from that in my analytics. Pintrest is a huge driver of traffic for goods, more than Facebook and Twitter! You want all of your images to track back to your site so you can take full advantage of this. The name you choose for your image is what will appear in the text box when the image is pinned. You can see how Easy Modern Art DIY | by shanabeardenhome.com not only gives content to your photo, but also the source.
2. Title Your Post Thoughtfully – Step one to having your post or product found in a search engine is using proper search terms. For example, Spring Fling, sounds really fun and catchy, but customers searching for floral sundress will never find your item. There is software that you can buy and some free SEO plugins that will help, but you can always just think like your audience and try out some search terms to see how popular they are.
3. Keep Your Content Consistent – Search engine bots scan your content and compile the results. Let’s say you are writing a post about a mango salsa recipe. You want to use the words mango, salsa, and recipe in your post title, image title, tags, and separately or together in your post content.
4. Adding links – Getting the correct link with a title isn’t just good ethics for siting your sources, but also links your content with that term, product, or shop. When Google pulls all of the relevant content for the search results, it will look for any links to and from the search term.
5. Current Content – Search engines look for updated content. This is an easy one if you have a blog, and a little more work if you have a static site. This is why having news, customer feedback, or some other blog type content that is regularly added is worth the extra time to get good ranking and promote your business.