SEO—here’s how to start

Online businesses need to make sure that they appear on Google’s top search results. This guarantees exposure and a consistent flow of traffic. To do this, an online business needs a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign.

There is no formula for conquering the search engine battlefield. Unfortunately, Google does not explain how they rank pages. Fortunately, some analysts have an idea of how the system works, but the rules keep changing—making SEO an unpredictable platform.

Here are some of the basics:

Check for traffic

Check if the site has a consistent stream of traffic. And make sure that it has relevant content, assisted by appropriate call-to-action buttons.

Know your competition

Investigate the keywords that your competitors use. There are several free online applications that allow you to do this. If the competition is using the wrong keyword, then use a better one. Determine the keyword’s search volume and importance and use this information to prioritize your keywords.

Title tags

Use the title tag, which can be located on top of the page. It is important for these tags to be relevant to the keywords. Insert each page’s keyword on the title tag to boost its ranking.

Keyword placement

Each page should have at least one keyword mention. Make sure that each page is relevant for each keyword. Use the content to scatter keyword placements. Do not splatter the keyword all over the page—it would make it look like spam. Combine relevant content with ideal keyword placement to maximize the benefits.

Building links

Build many internal links on the site from page to page. If you optimize a certain keyword, link it to other pages with the same keyword.