Tips for Strengthening Your Search Engine Optimization

You have your website built. It is designed exactly as you like. You're pumping out content on the blog, but the traffic is still barely more than a trickle.

The problem may be as simple as weak SEO, and here are some tips for making it stronger.

With a few tweaks to your website or blogging habits, these tips are a sure-fire way to blast an uptick in your website traffic.

Make your visitors want to stick around.

The amount of time a visitor spends on your website matters. One way to make someone want to linger a little while longer is to make your content easy to read. If your website or blog is messy, cluttered, and annoying to navigate, the reader will click right back out and go find another website that doesn't stress them out. Don't underestimate the magic in bullet point lists in a blog post. It's clean and easy to read, which will make your visitor want to read a little more. There is also a special kind of magic in using plenty of subheadings, like the one just above this paragraph. It makes it easy for a visitor to scan over the information and decide if it's worth their time. 

Use keywords in all the right places.

Using keywords are one of the top ways to make it easier for people to find your website. It matters, however, how and where you use them. It's pretty fun to come up with a small handful of catchy keyword phrases that align with your brand, and use them generously on the website. It's kind of like creating a unique social media hashtag that you slip into each of your posts ... it creates a great opportunity for people's Google searches to lead them right to you. Use relevant keywords at the beginning of your blog posts and in the meta description of each post and page.

Lighten the load.

You would be surprised how badly "dead" pages and dusty blog posts drag down your website. Delete anything that isn't really being read, used, or visited. Be a minimalist with your plugins (if you're a WordPress user), which can make your site slower to load. Slow load time is an absolute traffic killer, because 40% of your visitors will click right back out if the site takes longer than 3 seconds to load, according to eConsultancy.

Share the wealth.

Many website owners have the idea that including links to other blogs or websites are bad for your traffic because it sends your visitor away from your own website. Linking out to other sites can actually strengthen your SEO. One example is linking out to an influencer who is relevant to the topic you're blogging about. You can let that influencer know about the link, and they're likely to link back to you, as well. Backlinks and link building is essential for pulling in more traffic.

Keep it quality.

Don't you just love it when you click a link based on a Google search, only to find that it's bloated full of empty paragraphs of words that aren't helpful at all? Nope. Keep your content high-quality and you'll earn their respect and gratitude for not wasting their time. You'll probably even land a second date on your website when they return for more quality information. Remember, you're reaching out to people, not statistics and numbers. There is a person attached to those clicks who are searching for information. Give them a reason to sit back and stay a while with good, interesting, high-quality material.

Make it pretty.

Don't shy away from using nice photos in your posts! Visual appeal goes a long way. Make sure to have an attractive image to represent your blog posts, and if you're feeling creative, include a couple more in the post itself. Professional photos can be found free on websites like Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay, and more. These sights are full of gorgeous images, all created by gifted individuals who deserve their name to be included with the photo. Credit the photographer whenever possible, and I like to take it a step further by sending the photographer a link to the post where their image is used. Use a handy, free online site like Canva to edit the photo as needed, and don't forget to add your logo or web link on the photo. Be sure to fill in the "Image Alt Text" box along with your photo, so that Google will know what it is. Nice images also make potential visitors more likely to click your link when you post them on social media. 

Hopefully these tips will get you rolling with improved SEO, and will have people flocking to your site in no time.

Happy posting!