1. Perform keyword research
Keyword research is the process of identifying and targeting the right keywords for your website. The goal of keyword research is to find keywords that are relevant to your business, that have a high search volume, and that are not too competitive to rank for. You can use a variety of tools to do your keyword research, including the Google Adwords Keyword Planner and the Google Trends tool.
2. Optimize website content for keywords
Once you have identified the right keywords for your business, you need to optimize your website content for those keywords. This means adding the keywords to your titles, metatags, and body copy, as well as using them in your anchor text.
3. Add keywords to titles and metatags
One of the most important places to add your keywords is in your title tags and meta descriptions. Your title tag is the text that appears in the blue bar at the top of your browser window, and your meta description is the text that appears under your website listing in the search engine results pages.
4. Create high-quality backlinks
In order to rank higher in the search engine results pages, you need to build high-quality backlinks from other websites. Backlinks are links from other websites that point back to your website. The best way to get high-quality backlinks is by creating valuable content that other websites will want to link to.
5. Improve website speed and load time
Another important factor that affects your website’s ranking in the search engine results pages is its speed and load time. If your website takes too long to load, users will be less likely to stay on your site and you will likely lose out on potential customers. You can improve your website speed by optimizing your images, using a caching plugin, and hosting your website on a fast server.
6. Optimize images for search engines
One easy way to improve your website’s speed and load time is by optimizing your images for SEO. This means adding descriptive file names and alt text for images, as well as using compression tools like Gzip compression.
7. Use structured data markup
Structured data markup is code that you can use on your web pages to help Google better understand the content of your site. When you use structured data markup, Google can display rich snippets of information about your site in the search engine results pages, such as ratings stars or product prices.
8. Monitor website rankings and analytics
It’s important to regularly monitor your website’s performance in the search engine results pages. You can do this by tracking your website’s keyword rankings, as well as your website’s traffic and conversion rates. Google Analytics is a free tool that you can use to track your website’s performance.
9. Stay up to date with SEO news and trends
One of the best ways to stay ahead of the competition is to keep up with the latest SEO news and trends. You can do this by subscribing to industry blogs, following SEO experts on social media, and attending SEO conferences and webinars.
10. Implement Google Authorship
Google Authorship is a program that allows you to link your articles and blog posts to your Google+ profile. By implementing Google Authorship, you can increase your chances of appearing in the search engine results pages.