Are you playing Where’s Waldo with search engines?

Google and Bing tend not to play nice when websites won’t follow their rules.

So to help you out, here’s a few tips to get them to play along (nicely!):

TIP #1:

They LOVE when you have clear, concise and easily searchable URLs. What does that mean? Here’s an example:
http://thrivewebsupport.com/thinkthrive/thrive-creative-group-marketing-web-design-clarksville-tn-firm-profile/
If you leave your urls to have http://thrivewebsupport.com/thinkthrive/unrealted-keywords/ …then a search engine is not going to find your website or industry related post. Make sense? Good. Moving on.

TIP #2:

Use keywords throughout your ENTIRE website. Try to put yourself in the shoes of someone searching for your business. What words would you place in the search bar? Make a list and then place them throughout your website content, and even in descriptions, photo captions, etc.

TIP #3:

Speaking of image descriptions, be sure to use the alt tag part of them too! Image Descriptions also have an area in your wordpress media library where you can enter in an ALT tag. *Hint: This is a great way to get optimize your small business website with extra keywords. Be sure to do this throughout your entire website!

TIP #4:

Be sure to use your wordpress toolbar editor for proper styling, this is the handy tool that inserts HTML, so you don’t have too! Google (and other search engines) love H1 Headers! So use those headings tags! Those options for H1, H2, H3, and so on and so on. Be sure your main heading for a post or page is your H1. Try to get an H2 in there as well, then go into your paragraph style with a few bullet points. This will help search engines determine your relevance.

TIP #5:

Link back to yourself. See what happened up above in TIP #1? Try to link back to yourself through archives, from other websites, social media link backs, and other online profiles. Link backs from related website build a great foundation to improve your SEO rankings. Just don’t get too carried away with it, remember less is more!

TIP #6:

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE! Did we mention update? It is very important to update your website content as often as you can. Whether it’s having a new blog post that related to your industry (such as this one) or adding too your company’s About Us page from time to time. Do it! It’ll help.

TIP #7:

Share your pages (socially)!! Recycle that old content, post your location, services page, remind them your hours & if your open on Saturday! Spread the word using all the tips above.

After doing this consistently over the next 3 months you will begin to see a difference and being attracting leads and helping your customers find you easier on google! Once you’ve mastered this then make sure to check out our other post here on making sure your contact page looks spiffy as well.