Deep dive into the world of SEO and create easy changes that will boost your website and its offers. Try incorporating these simple, time-saving SEO tips into your association’s website and see what they can do for your web traffic.
The world’s internet user rate just passed 4 billion users in January. That’s right- 4 billion users. With 7.6 billion people in the world, that’s over half of the entire population connected to the world wide web.
So, with that many eyes peeled onto the screen, it’s important your association reaches them. But with 4 billion internet users comes a vast sea of content creators looking for a chance to be noticed. So, what if there was a way to ensure your association’s content gets pushed right to the top of search engines? What if you could ensure your content had the best chance of getting viewed? There is, and you can. If you’ve ever seen a killer blog post rise to the top of the ranks, chances are it’s because of a great Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. In fact, without a great SEO strategy, even the best website can fall short when it comes to views.
Your association needs to know about the power of strong SEO for attracting audiences to your website. Without SEO, your audience could miss out on some seriously valuable information in a sea of web content. If you can create a successful SEO strategy, you can ensure your content will be viewed by current and new members alike.
You’ve probably heard the term SEO before. But do you know what it means and how it works? If not, here’s what you need to know. Search Engine Optimization- or SEO - is the action of increasing both the quantity and the quality of internet traffic to your website, blog content, or any other web page through organic search results. So, SEO is the practice that can make or break your association’s web traffic. But how does it work?
Think about what you’ve searched for before. Whether it’s a recipe, a question, or a DIY fix. Once you type those words into a search engine, a long list of results pop up for you to choose from. While this may seem like an automated response (and it is for the most part), a lot of this is influenced through SEO. Most search engines have a tool known as a “crawler”. A crawler is an automated program or script that searches the internet for specific factors in web content in order to provide search results. With the information crawlers find, they build an index of results that are then processed into data that will answer any question you might have. This is where the O in SEO comes into play.
Optimizing your content through keywords, title tags, internal links and meta descriptions help crawlers pick up your content and push them to the top of search engine results. Once your association figures out the optimal content strategy, it can see a higher ranking in search engine results. There’s a lot of information that goes into SEO, and it can be extremely overwhelming for anyone looking to optimize their content. However, getting started with SEO doesn’t have to be a struggle. Your association can see real results just by starting the process towards optimal content. Let’s go over some simple ways your association can boost its SEO and increase its chances at audience engagement.
The first place you should start when diving into SEO is your association’s own website. An SEO-friendly website is essential for prime web traffic. Your association spends a lot of time making sure its web site is user-friendly, so you want to make sure your target audience is able to find and enjoy it. Here’s the best part: optimizing your website for SEO can be done at anytime. You don’t have to create a new website or web page in order to have killer SEO. You can improve any website’s SEO whenever your association is looking for an audience boost.
To start, make sure your URLs are user friendly. Did we lose you there? Don’t worry, it’s easier than it sounds. You want to make sure your association’s URLs are easy to read, organizable, and target a specific keyword. For example, if you have a web URL followed by a chain of letters and numbers, it can be confusing. You want to make sure your URLs are recognizable and memorable for audiences. If you’re looking for more on how to create a user friendly URL, OnCrawl provides a few tips. Looking for more ways to stand out? Optimizing your website images is another great way to boost SEO.
Chances are, your association’s website is filled with interesting and valuable images. Since it’s a known fact that visuals are more engaging than text, your association has probably caught onto the visual content game. That being said, the images you produce on your website can also be optimized for higher web traffic results. How is this done? Essentially, you want your images to be both easy to find and easy to view. Downsize your images and use the proper image format to ensure that images have a reduced load time for audiences. Don’t make people wait for your content. You can also add keywords to your images through alternative text known as an alt tag. An alt tag is another form of data that can be picked up by crawlers to push your association’s images to the top of search engine results. Starting with your website can give your association a push in the right direction when it comes to future web content.
Have you ever read a blog, seen a specific keyword, and wanted to know more about it? With linking, that problem is easily solved. Linking is the process of including a hyperlink to additional pieces of information. This way, readers who are looking to find out more can click a link and be directed to more research. It’s an easy way to provide more value to audiences. Linking can strengthen both content with links included and content that has been linked in other work. In other words, it’s a win-win to include relevant links in any content. There are two forms of linking that matter most when it comes to SEO. The first method is internal linking.
Internal linking is the practice of including a hyperlink in a post that leads to another page on the same website. It’s a way to promote more of your association’s content on similar topics.
You can use internal links when and where they feel appropriate. (for example, now would be a great time to tell you about Web Scribble’s job board software!)For instance, you wouldn’t add a link to content where it doesn’t make sense. A content link to marketing features on a post about membership satisfaction could leave readers confused and annoyed. Another valuable linking process comes through backlinks.
A backlink, otherwise known as an “inbound link” or “incoming link”, are similar to internal links, but offer very different features. While an internal link connects a web page to another web page on the same site.
However, with a backlink, a website can link a web page on a different website. The site that does the linking has an external link, while the site that has been linked to has a backlink. So, why is this important? Well, receiving a backlink from a reputable site can boost your credibility and reputation among audiences. It also brings a new source of traffic to your website, and with that, the chance at new potential members.
Create content that other websites will want to share with their audiences. Or, better yet, you can reach out to other website owner’s you have a relationship with and create a mutual backlinking experience. There are tons of other ways to optimize your association’s web content.
You can deep dive into the world of SEO and create easy changes that will boost your website and its offers. Try incorporating these simple, time-saving SEO tips into your association’s website and see what it can do for your web traffic.
