Digital marketing has become a business strategy that can no longer be ignored. Technology has rapidly grown and has become a necessity in everyday life. In fact, even traditional businesses have started to adapt digital strategies in order to not get left behind. Therefore, it’s only logical to make it a part of your business game plan.

One online marketing strategy you can practice is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is an online marketing strategy that helps your site rank at the top of search engine results. Contrary to what others think, ranking doesn’t happen overnight. SEO takes time and effort. But if done properly, you can expect good and long term results.

Now if you’re wondering if ranking is really that important, then yes it is! There are certainly several benefits a site earns for getting on a search engine’s first page. One is that you get visibility, which then increases the number of your new potential stakeholders. This also means that traffic and the engagement rate goes up.

Here are the things beginners must keep in mind to get a hold of SEO:

Keyword research

Using precise keywords can attract traffic, making a site rank higher on search engines. Given the right tools, identifying popular search terms can be easy. The real challenge, however, is determining the type of keywords to use as there are plenty to choose from. Picking one should be dependent on whether it is relevant to your business, doesn’t have too many competition, and has a good amount of searches and existing search volume.

Careful use of H1 title tags

H1 or Heading One title tags are very tricky to use. Use too few and your site may get unnoticed by a search engine’s crawlers. Use too many and it may be treated as irrelevant content. How is it so powerful? An H1 is one of the first things search engines crawl after the title of a page. This makes it a vital element of a site.  So make sure you effectively use the right amount of H1 title tags in every page of your website.

Credible backlinks

Backlinks are incoming hyperlinks from another website. It’s one of the most important factors that affects a site’s ranking. A backlink can be likened to a vote—the more you have, the higher you rank. However, this should not be taken lightly as search engines also determine the quality and relevance of the backlinks to your site. Always remember to use only credible sources as your backlinks to ensure your site isn’t deemed untrustworthy by crawlers.

Unique and interesting content

While backlinks, H1 title tags, and keywords are all important, the most critical part of any SEO campaign is your site’s content. Search engine crawlers have a common goal and that is to provide the most relevant result to queries entered by users. Besides, one of the reasons why your site is visited is because of your online content.

Delivering the right information to your target reader makes your site more credible. Being consistent in your published content and its quality attracts more organic traffic, boosts your ideas to users, and can also contribute to a better search engine ranking. Quality content also has a longer shelf life, guaranteeing people will definitely return to your website again . Like social media, if viewers like what they see, they share it more and more, making it noticeable to search engines, which will eventually increase site ranking.

Maintaining a website’s content alone demands effort and time, more so when your goal is to be on top of on search engines. Need help with your website? LeapOut Digital offers digital marketing services such as social media marketing, website development, SEM, and SEO. If you’re looking to outsource for SEO services, get in touch with us now!