Organic search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important digital marketing tactics available to businesses. It doesn’t matter if you own a dental practice, a car repair shop, a small manufacturing business, or a roofing business; the better your organic search engine optimization, the higher your website will appear in search engine results, and the greater the likelihood you’ll get clicks and visits to your website – resulting in leads or sales.
But how do you keep wooing Google (and other search engines) when they keep changing the algorithm, that mysterious formula used to calculate precisely where your web pages appear in the search engine results?
No Tricks Can Outsmart the Search Engines
People who chase the latest SEO trick are like those who believe in get-rich-quick schemes. Instead of saving a little each week from their paycheck and saving it in a bank account where it can accrue interest, people who want to get rich quickly throw their money into some scheme or another and hope it pays big dividends. It rarely does. Instead, they lose everything.
Business owners who try to trick Google into ranking their sites higher in organic search results often find themselves losing traffic over time instead of gaining it. An example of an SEO “get-rich-quick scheme” is paid link building. There are many small business owners who have paid SEO firms thousands of dollars to “build their site’s link profile,” only to find their sites drop like a stone in the search engine results after the “link building authority” finished their work. Seeing the sudden rise in links into the site from low-quality sites, Google knew they were trying to game the system, and thus it hurt their rankings rather than helped them.
Focus On Long-Term, Proven SEO Tactics
Saving your money in a bank account may seem old-fashioned, but it’s both a safe and proven method of increasing wealth.
The same goes for SEO. There are proven tactics that we know work well over time to improve organic search engine results.
Proven SEO tactics include:
- Publishing high-quality content: Content is the backbone of all good organic SEO. Content published on your website should be well-written, engaging, and present a unique perspective.
- Internal links: We read so much about trying to get links into our websites that we forget to ensure that all of the pages on our site are interlinked. Search engines use on-page links to find new content. Adding links from one page to another on your website is always safe.
- Encouraging natural links into your site: Search engines love it when third-party websites link to your site, especially third-party sites with high domain authority. However, such links should occur naturally; you should never pay other sites to link to yours. To get natural links to your website content, consider creating free, downloadable assets, like robust case studies, white papers, infographics, and other materials filled with informative content. These so-called “linkable assets” naturally attract other site owners who want their readers to share in them, too.
- Improve the user experience: Make sure that site visitors can find exactly what they need when they reach your website. Make lead forms and contact information straightforward and easy to see. Ensure that navigation elements like menus are easy to understand. Work with a professional web designer who understands good user experience to ensure that your site appeals to people as well as search engines. The more it appeals to people, the longer they stay on the site, which sends powerful signals to the search engines that the site is worth ranking higher in the results.
- Good website best practices: These include making sure you don’t have broken links on your site, missing images, or “page not found” errors. Site speed plays a vital role in organic search engine position, with Google and other search engines rewarding websites that load quickly (5 seconds or less). Work with your webmaster or digital marketing agency to improve the technical aspects of your site.
Build a Robust Website From Start to Finish
There are no tricks to ensuring your site ranks well with Google. Like putting money in a bank account, investing in proven SEO tactics builds interest over time – Google goodwill, so to speak.
Always keep in mind that your website plays a vital role in your business’ success. Like good signage by the road to attract traffic, a beautiful, well-designed, fast website ensures that ‘road traffic’ from search engines reaches your site and converts into leads and sales.
But great websites don’t happen by accident. They require time, planning, and attention to detail.
Dashboard Interactive Marketing has built effective, lead-generating websites for small and mid-sized businesses for over a decade. With our experienced team of SEO experts, WordPress experts, graphic designers, content writers, and more, we build effective websites and help you continually maximize your online presence.
Call us at 763-242-2454 for more information about building a new website or updating an existing site so it ranks better in Google.