An optimized, responsive website is a must for any business’ online presence and Inbound Marketing strategy. Businesses recognize the importance of having a website, and it’s difficult to find a business in today’s world without one. That said, the quality of a website is even more important.

Business and Brand

First of all, a website represents a Business and their Brand.  A website should reflect what is important to a Business and properly promote their Brand.  It should be organized so that a visitor to the site can find information and navigate quickly and easily.  And, it should have current and updated content.

Website Optimization

What good is a website if nobody visits it?

Right. Dig deeper, and you’ll find that the foundation and infrastructure of a website needs to be optimized in order to be found by search engines and attract visitors.  For this, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an essential part of website design, from keyword research to the coding to the content seen by the visitors.

SEO Tips

The tips below describe SEO techniques that will help you achieve higher search rankings and enjoy more online traffic by optimizing your website.

• Keywords

Choosing the best keywords and phrases, that represent your Business and Brand and that your customers or potential customers will use to find you, are essential for your website’s focus and will always be a crucial part of effective SEO and high search rankings. Keyword research is the first step in building an optimized website. A primary keyword with 10 supporting key phrases can typically generate results for hundreds of related search phrases when used correctly.

• Meta Tags and Titles

Meta and title tags are also important in an effective SEO strategy, though their role in search rankings varies as search engines continuously modify their search algorithms. Meta tags are HTML code found within the header of each website page. Not all search engines understand the same meta tags. Google, for instance, completely ignores the keyword tag but reads the description and title tags to determine a web page’s topic.

• Navigational Structure

An optimized website should include clean code, search friendly meta descriptions, as well as, a logical way to navigate through the various pages of the website. Search engine robots are becoming increasingly similar to human online traffic when they crawl the web. Most SEO experts recommend simple navigation menus at various levels of your website that integrate important keywords into the links. A site map is also beneficial for SEO purposes.

• Internal Links and Backlinks

Linking strategies are one of the most misunderstood and misused elements of SEO, but are extremely important in determining search rankings. An internal linking structure is a good way to make the best use of keyword friendly anchor text, but inbound links from other websites play a bigger role in determining your website’s search popularity. Article marketing campaigns are an excellent way to improve backlinks while also building your brand and online presence.

• Optimized Content

The most important component of any worthwhile SEO strategy is original, informative, and well-written content. Search bots analyze all of the words within a page, including their frequency and how they are used in relation to one another, to determine a page’s topic and its relevance to specific search phrases. Always remember –  content that educates, entertains, or enlightens the reader will earn the respect of your site’s visitors and search engines as well.

• Regular Updates

Today’s search engine users want the most recently published and relevant results when they enter their key phrases. Websites that are regularly updated with fresh high-quality content are often favored by the search engines. A higher number of relevant indexed pages can boost your SEO efforts as well. Adding a blog to your site is the best way to do this and will also provide excellent opportunities for keyword-friendly links between your blog posts and web pages.

Other Internet Marketing Strategies

Website optimization techniques include other internet marketing strategies as well. A search friendly, optimized website is the key to generating more online traffic, but implementing a comprehensive SEO strategy isn’t always easy. To best accomplish this, a business should strongly consider hiring an SEO expert or outsourcing the design/re-design of their website to a capable SEO / Internet Marketing Company. It will make a difference!