Getting maximum value from the content posted on your website means that people must first be able to find the site! The content itself can be a magnet to attract visitors who are using search engines to find the types of products and services you offer. Keeping search-friendly design in mind and employing approved methods when structuring your website can advance your online visibility. In particular, the mechanisms behind SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) enable people to find your site organically.
Factors that contribute to appearing on the first page of search results include relevance and quality ranking. Performing well in these areas results from a mix of site content, targeted keyword usage, number of visitors, how long users stay on the site, site indexing, and more.
Keywords, Tags, and Descriptions
Once people get to your site, you can dazzle them with your content. But first they must get there. Attracting new and returning prospects to your page involves leveraging your content to have the most effective site and page architecture, titles, keywords, and tags. Use terminology your users use to search. Considerations should include whether your business is a service, a local brick & mortar shop, strictly online, B2B, or B2C, as there are different nuances for each. Make sure pages are named correctly in the title tag, meta description and URLs, and properly use headers, subheads, phrases and terms.
Staying Effective as Search Engines Evolve
SEO and SEM are complex and rapidly changing areas of online marketing. Major search engine algorithms evolve – Google Hummingbird, for example, represented a significant advance in search dynamics – and businesses must adapt their strategies accordingly. Related trends such as the impact of social media, also play a role.
Important: If users search a specific term, see your site in the results, then go to your site and stay for a while, search engines see this as a successful match for user requests. This, along with repeat visits, helps build your site’s trust, relevance, and authority as search engines continually aim to provide users with the most useful results. Sites pegged by the search engines as having strong trust, relevance and authority rank better organically than less content-rich sites.
Note that paid advertising has a major impact on a company’s search results – it’s no surprise that companies who employ paid strategies (advertising directly via Google, Bing, etc.) often get stronger results than those who rely solely upon organic strategies.
While some businesses have the resources and knowledge to handle the nuances involved, make updates, and keep abreast of search engine changes, others may turn to a company like Harris Web Works, who specializes in implementing SEO and SEM processes for clients. We can handle all the strategic and tactical elements of creating a search-friendly website so you can focus on providing what you specialize in, without wondering if people will be able to find your website.
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Related Information
SEO, Content and Blogging – Organic Marketing Strategies
Hummingbird: How Google Has Made Searching More User-Intuitive (Including Semantic Search)
Inbound Links and How to Get Them Organically
How to get Strong Search Results: Does SEO Matter?
February 14, 2018
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