Ultimate Guide to SEO | 6 Ways to Improve Your Website Rankings

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. This is a method of helping your website to rank higher within search engines such as Google and Bing. Taking SEO courses online could be a helpful tool to gain all the knowledge you need to increase your traffic. Higher traffic and better rankings will help a company in the long run. It will help to promote your reputation and as you gain a better ranking you’ll become known as a trustworthy source of information and/or products.

SEO Techniques

- Do Your Research!

Research your website keywords, find your website’s niche and find words that are related to your key topics and branding. This will bring in visitors by association of your topics and lead consumers right to your business. Using online keyword explorers such as Ahrefs and answerthepublic will help you to find related keywords to bump up your rankings. There are many other keyword tools out there; have a browse and see which ones work for you. It’s important to then add these keywords into your posts in order to rank them within search engines.

- Internal and External Links

Internal and external links are important to engage your reader and send them to more of your website pages that may be of interest. It helps with user experience to ensure lots of information is available on your website for visitors to read. External links help to build reputation with authoritative sites; showing you are linking to authentic sites such as .org, .edu and .gov websites builds faith in your content through factual linked sources.

- Speed Up!

Making sure your loading speed of your website is up to scratch is an excellent way to improve SEO. Visitors are much likely to stay on a page that loads quickly and effortlessly, rather than one that lags and is slow to respond to activity. Making sure your photographs and images are compressed so they load quickly is key to making your website smoother and more efficient.

- Make Your Images Work For You

As well as compressing your images so they load quicker, you need to optimise them for rankings with alternative text. The alternative text of an image should be named the keyword you are trying to rank within your content. This will help to optimise your page to load quicker and rank better.

- Optimise Your Site For All Devices

This goes hand in hand with speeding up your website. Not only does your website need to be optimised for computers but also tablets and mobiles. Making a website responsive makes it much more appealing and functional to your visitors, no matter what kind of device they are on.

- Use Short URLs

Using short URLs is another sure-fire way to make your context more accessible and easier to link to. Make sure when you create your webpage or blog post to keep your ‘slug’ or, URL link, short. This makes it not only look more appealing, it makes your keyword clearer. Make sure if you have more than one keyword to not have a URL that is too long – try and keep it below four words if possible, separated with hyphens. Just-like-this.

- Meta Description is Important

Your meta description is the first taste of your work that readers will see on their search engine. This little snippet of writing must be compelling enough to lure your readers in. Your meta description is supporting your title, which should be punchy and inviting, the meta description is what does that extra bit of convincing for those clicks.

Why is SEO Needed?

SEO is an excellent way to boost your website’s ranking in search engines. This will make it easier for your target visitors to find your brand through blog and content posts. Increasing your organic traffic in general will increase your sales, engagement, subscriptions or views. A high stream of traffic will also imply that you are a trustworthy source of information and you are therefore reputable.

Digital Marketing

SEO is just a small branch of a larger tree of digital marketing. Digital marketing is a broad term used for the development and brand building of a company that is largely based online. Social media is an important part of digital marketing and with huge companies consistently active on social media it builds a loyal relationship between business and customers. It is this level of interaction that gives personality and a human-touch to a usually digital and simply corporate world.

SEO Courses Online

SEO courses online are an excellent addition to anybody who is looking for a career in digital marketing, SEO consultancy or social media management. The College of Contract Management’s Digital Marketing and SEO course is provided through live online lectures which are delivered by industry professionals. By providing live lectures you can ask questions and interact with others as you would in a traditional classroom environment. This makes all the difference to a learning experience as many people learn through discussions and the ability to ask questions and feedback. The College of Contract Management pride themselves on their innovative online learning and would love to have you on board.

Careers in SEO

With many businesses looking to expand or open shops online, more and more SEO consultants are going to be required as content is needed throughout the web. Often, SEO consultants and those in digital marketing can work remotely. This is something that many employers find appealing and is something to consider if you’re pursuing a career in SEO or a similar discipline, taking SEO courses online is a great first step. It’s an important skill to have for you career but also if you’re planning to create your own business. Taking a course such as Diploma in Digital Marketing and SEO will help your own business endeavours to market your brand.