Putting a website together for your business? Then you’re going to want to start using SEO to ensure you can be noticed on the search engines. No website that’s currently in operation today has a hope of getting in front of the right audience without proper use of search engine optimization, and without it, your business is unlikely to find more than a few customers who won’t come back for more.
But SEO can be a tricky game. Trying to deploy it on your website can often backfire, especially if you have no experience in digital marketing whatsoever. But we can make it a bit easier to get used to; here are some of the best beginner SEO practices you should follow when building up your business’ website.
Lock Down Your Main Keyword
Your main keyword is the most relevant phrase anyone could use when talking about your business and/or its product. So, what is it you do, and what would people need to search for to be in the right place to eventually find you?
No matter what product you sell or service you provide, there will be a keyword you can use to define it overall. You’ll also want to research this keyword and see what the competition is like, as this will help you to decide how many similar keywords you’ll need to come up with as well.
Stick to Your Niche as Much as Possible
Your website needs to be relevant in your niche. It can’t suddenly start talking about a hundred different product offshoots or content topics that sort of relate but are still brand new to you. If it does, you could harm any rank you currently have and fall back down the pages until you have no visibility at all.
Of course, there are ways to expand your website without causing a problem like this. One way is to set up a microsite to complement your main business website. This will allow you to display a new product and create content surrounding it, without having to worry about how that may harm your SEO efforts.
Never Forget a Link
Linking to your own pages, as well as linking to other websites, is incredibly important. Not only does this allow your pages to be more regularly discovered by those who click through to one link, but it signals to the algorithm as well.
When you include an internal link on a page, both the text you use and where you’ve placed it give the search engine another couple of crumbs that help it figure out the context and relevance of the content you’ve put together.
Do this often enough and you’ll make it very easy for anyone to make their way through your website without ever hitting something irrelevant.
Got a new business website you need to get up and running? Follow SEO best practices like those above to set a solid foundation for your future digital marketing efforts.