Nowadays, it’s hard to find a business without a website or online presence. After all, having a website is necessary because it’s currently the easiest way to market your offerings to your prospects. However, online presence alone isn’t enough because you need to engage in digital marketing to achieve this. Search engine optimization (SEO) remains the top choice among the many digital marketing methods.

SEO works by using relevant keywords to rank high in search engines. Conversely, you should also post high-quality content that’s well-researched and well-written. However, the SEO competition is tight, and it will only grow exponentially. Not all websites will be given equal opportunity to rank so it can be a pretty exhausting practice.

The good news is that there are effective measures you can take to increase your SEO rankings: these include:

#1 – Make Your Website Load Faster

Search engines determine rankings using a variety of metrics. Among these is the loading speed of your website. Most online shoppers will leave a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.

If your website has too much content and images and videos, its loading speed will be affected. To make matters worse, more content means more pages. This results in more time needed to load the page, affecting the user experience.

Most SEO consultants recommend that you aim to have your website load in less than 3 seconds. To achieve this, you need to optimize the code of your website so it can load faster. You should also minimize the number of plugins you use and offload heavy images and videos to the cloud.

#2 – Do Extensive Keyword Research

Keyword research is the backbone of successful SEO campaigns because it will inform your choice of keywords to use in your content. With this in mind, you should choose keywords relevant to your business. You can do this by researching what people are typing in the search engines when they search for relevant keywords. This will help you determine whether a keyword is too competitive or not. You also need to check whether your competitors are using the same keyword. If they are, you’ll have a tough time ranking higher than them.

Bear in mind that keyword research is an ongoing process. There’s no way to get it right the first time. Keep updating your keyword research as you learn more about your target market and what they’re interested in.

#3 – Publish Authoritative Content

This is related to the second method. One way to boost your SEO ranking is to publish high-quality, authoritative content that can help your prospects solve their problems. High-quality and authoritative content is longer, well-researched, and written with a clear message.

The content you create should be able to help your site visitors gain information about your offerings, the problems they can solve, and how you can help them.

#4 – Optimize Your Website’s Images

If your website has too many images, it’s going to be slow. To solve that, you should optimize the images on your site. The best way to do this is to remove the URL from your image to speed up your website. As a result, it won’t have to send a request every time someone accesses the image.

Additionally, you should use high-quality images that are relevant, appropriate, and useful. If you can’t do this, then use stock photos or pictures that can be found online with a simple Google search. You should also consider adding alt text to every image on your website to help search engines know what your images are about.

#5 – Optimize Your Website for Mobile

Smartphones and tablets are prevalent these days. Therefore, your website must be mobile-friendly. If your website isn’t mobile-responsive, you’re making it hard for people to interact with your brand.

If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, users might opt to visit another website. The last thing you want is to lose customers because your website loads slowly or not at all.

Conclusion

Increasing your website’s SEO ranking can be tedious, but it doesn’t have to be. It depends on how hard you’re willing to work for it and whether you’re playing by the search engine’s rules. All that matters is that you keep the above tips in mind and use them to your advantage.

If you’re looking for a Calgary SEO agency, Distinctive MS is for you! We understand the needs of businesses, so we develop comprehensive solutions and other services such as web design and PPC advertising to ensure your goals are met. Reach out today and allow us to build your strategy!

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