To improve a Search Optimization strategy is hard work and dedication. For that reason, I will give you some tips that will help you in this task.
Publish Relevant, Authoritative Content
Quality, authoritative content is the number one driver of your search engine rankings and there is no substitute for great content—this is especially true when doing SEO marketing. Quality content created specifically for your intended user increases site traffic, which improves your site’s authority and relevance. Fine-tune your web writing skills and present yourself as an authority on the topic you are writing about.
Keywords
Identify and target a specific keyword phrase for each authoritative content page on your website. Think about how your reader might search for that specific page with search terms like:
- Online masters in engineering management
- What is biomedical engineering?
- Title IX education resources
- Photographing northern lights
- How to apply for scholarships?
- When is the FAFSA deadline?
- What is the difference between engineering and engineering technology?
- Multiple Keyword Phrases
It is very difficult for a webpage to achieve search engine rankings for multiple keyword phrases—unless those phrases are very similar. A single page may be able to rank for both “biomedical engineering jobs” and “biomedical engineering careers”. Ranking for “student affairs” and “dean of students” or “gender discrimination” and “violence reporting procedures” with a single page is unlikely.
If you want to rank for multiple keyword phrases with your website, you will need to make a separate webpage for each keyword phrase you are targeting.
Placing Keywords
Once your keyword phrase is chosen for a given page, consider these questions:
- Can I use part or all of the keyword phrases in the page URL (by using keywords in folders)?
- Can I use part or all of the keyword phrases in the page title?
- Can I use part or all of the keyword phrases in page headings and subheadings?
Answering yes to these questions can improve your search engine ranking. Be natural and user-friendly, though. For instance, you do not want the word “engineering” to show up three or more times in the URL or have the phrase Northern Lights repeated in the page title and also every heading. Readability and usability still trump search engine optimization.
Content
Beyond page URL, title, and headings, content is most influential on search engine rankings. Repeat your keyword phrase several times throughout the page—once or twice in the opening and closing paragraphs, and two to four more times throughout the remaining content. Be authoritative. Strategically link to relevant sources and additional information—both within your organization’s broad website and even to other websites which are useful.
Don’t forget to use bold, italics, heading tags (especially an H1), and other emphasis tags to highlight these keyword phrases—but don’t overdo it. You still want your language and writing style to read naturally. Never sacrifice good writing for SEO. The best pages are written for the user, not for the search engine. Read more about SEO marketing to help you find new content opportunities.
SEO website audit.
If you want to find out the best ways to increase search engine optimization for your website, you’ll want to start with an SEO website audit.
An audit will help you identify your site’s strengths and weaknesses.
That way, you will be able to play to your strengths while making strategic improvements to the weaker areas of your SEO.
An SEO website audit involves looking at:
- Your website structure
- Information architecture
- Existing content
The point of the audit is to identify areas that need attention so that you can begin to develop a strategic plan for improvement.
Though the audit itself won’t help you improve SEO, it’s a vital first step in effectively and efficiently boosting your SEO efforts.
A technical SEO audit requires you to use a number of tools to help identify how different areas of your site are contributing to your SEO.
The average small business doesn’t have access to these types of tools or the experience in-house to run them and interpret the results.
For this reason, many brands will choose to work with an experienced SEO agency that can complete a technical SEO audit and offer strategic recommendations based on what they find.
Our team at LYFE Marketing actually provides a free preliminary website audit for our website visitors.
It’s a great starting point for identifying what you need to do to improve your SEO.