Search engine optimization (SEO) is a complicated field and if you want to stay ahead of the competition, your SEO skills need to be constantly reevaluated and updated. This article contains some SEO tips and ideas that will help you beat your competition’s rank in search engine results pages (SERP).
Avoid using AJAX for your most critical content. Search engines only “see” what is in the site’s code. If an AJAX call retrieves something from the server, then it will be completely invisible to search engines. If you must use AJAX, one alternative is to create a no-frills, AJAX-free version of the site that search engines can index.
Always use SEO-friendly URLs for your websites. If you use keywords in your URLs then your website will show up in a higher position in search results. Remember, hyphens in URLs are treated as spaces, but underscores or not, so for search engine purposes it is preferable to use hyphens in URLs and file names.
The importance of linking out can not be overstated. Creating a resource page that carries weighted links to related sites that are rich with keywords and phrases carry extra weight with search engines. Make the extra effort to garner these resource links to increase the weight and improve the ranking.
Don’t use hidden text or links on your website to optimize your site for search engines. Some webmasters will try to make text or links invisible to visitors but visible to search engine spiders. One way they do this is to use white text on a white background. Search engines can now easily spot this sort of behavior, so it will not help your site rank at all.
Keep your page simple. The more time it takes to load your page due to huge, time-consuming graphics or oddly styled coding, the less likely it will be for a search engine to recommend you. Keep your readers in mind as well. You do not want to drive anyone away from your site because it simply can’t keep up in a fast-paced world.
Choose an easy to remember domain name relating to your product line. For instance, “widgetsrus.com” works well for a site selling widgets. Not only will it be easier for customers to find your website, but search engines will pick up on the related words to direct a lot more traffic your way.
Bold your keywords to allow search engine crawlers an easier hunt. Crawlers are intelligent, but sometimes they may have difficulty recognizing what your keywords are. To alleviate this issue, highlight your keywords by putting them in bold. It will make them easier to find, take less time for the crawler, and put you higher in the rankings.
An important rule to remember with regards to search engine optimization, is to select a keyword phrase that is ONLY two or three words long. Studies have shown that nearly 60% of keyword phrases contain two are three words so this will allow you to achieve the highest possible results.
One trick you can utilize to make your website rank higher in search engines is choose a keyword phrase which is popular, but not the most popular one. Since the most popular keyword phrases are highly desirable, they create a high level of competition and your site might end up on the bottom of page 45 of search engines. By choosing a phrase which is popular, but not super popular, you will get more page views when you’re on the first few pages of the search engines.
By following the advice above, you can stop wasting time and money on SEO methods that don’t work and be on your way to becoming a SEO expert. Also, by using some of the SEO techniques mentioned, you can increase your website’s SERP rank and start receiving more organic, targeted traffic to your website.