Getting your website to the top of the search engine rankings is something that many people view as a task that is similar to scaling Mount Everest. You know that there is a way to get up there, but you don’t have the skills or equipment to make it happen. While scaling Everest is something that is out of the realm of possibility for most, getting to the top of the search engine rankings is actually a little easier than you might expect. Yes, there are a number of elements that go into making that happen, but taking care of the following 5 will help you reach that lofty goal.
- Content: The more new content you post, the more often search engines will index the pages of your website. That said, you will want to make sure that what you put up there is relevant to your niche and is something that your visitors will enjoy. Delivering fresh content that is informative and fun to read will also improve your chances of getting it shared across multiple social media sites.
- Title Tag: Whenever you land on a well-designed website, you will notice that there is a page title that appears at the top of your screen for every single page. Every HTML document is required to have a title of 66-characters or less, but too many people make the mistake of ignoring it when creating a page. What happens is that the title will default to a page number as opposed to a title that will help visitors and search engines know what the content on the page is all about.
- Headings: While title tags will help people see what the page is about, the use of heading within your content will help them find a specific part of the article they are looking for. It can be tough for people and search engine spiders to scan through content to find what they want, so make it easier on both by creating heading that help them find their way.
- Internal Links & Tags: If you create content that includes links to other pages in your site or to sites outside of your own, make sure that they are correct and that they take you to the correct spot. When using images on your pages, make sure that they all contain alt tags so that the search engines can easily identify them.
- Link Maintenance: The links contained within the pages of your site are only effective if they are actually in working order. If you have a large number of links on your site, manually verifying them all can be a time consuming task that never ends. The good news is that there are a ton of free link checkers available online that will do the job for you. Run regular checks to ensure that all of your links are in perfect working order.
Mark Ford is the Owner of Red Website Design – One of the UK’s leading Website Design companies.