Includes a Step-by-Step Guide to Website Optimization
“Publish your ads and watch the revenue grow!” Sounds simple, right? While this approach can yield quick results, relying solely on paid advertising might run you aground. Easy come, easy go: as soon as you stop advertising, sales will drop. To achieve sustainable success, patience and endurance are key—especially when it comes to SEO setup and subsequent SEO optimization.
Why Isn’t Advertising Alone Enough?
Focusing only on paid ads can lead you to overlook essential aspects of your website or online store. Ask yourself, if your website is well-structured and user-friendly, and if it offers value beyond just a purchase option. These factors directly affect how long visitors stay on your site, whether they complete a purchase, and whether they return. Additionally, a poorly optimized website will struggle to rank well in search results, meaning your business might go unnoticed in organic searches.
To attract and retain customers beyond paid advertising, you also need a solid, long-term strategy—and that’s where SEO marketing plays a vital role.
SEO: Pros and Cons
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or website optimization involves a series of activities that improve a website’s structure, speed, usability, and relevance in the eyes of both users and search engine algorithms. As a result, your website gains higher-quality traffic and better visibility over time.
The main challenge with SEO is that it requires time and patience, and the results are not immediate. However, by approaching it with dedication and consistently integrating it into your broader marketing efforts, you will start to see a meaningful impact over time—one that is not only noticeable but also sustainable in the long run.
So how to optimize a website? Continue reading to find out!
How to Optimize a Website for the First Time?
1. Identifying and Integrating Keywords
To optimize your site, you need to identify relevant keywords—the terms people search for when looking for your products or services. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, StoryChief or SEMrush.
SEO analysis in these tools allows you to identify the most popular keywords based on your industry and market. From the list generated by the tool, select the most frequently searched terms that best match your products and integrate them into your website.
It’s best to avoid overly broad phrases and instead focus on keywords with high search volume but lower competition. These keywords tend to be longer, typically containing at least three words, also known as long-tail keywords.
For example, “smart home solutions” is too general and highly competitive. A more effective choice would be a keyword like “best smart home solutions for apartments,” which is more specific. This improves your chances of ranking higher in search results while also aligning better with the client’s search intent, reducing irrelevant clicks from users looking for something else.
Where to Use Keywords?
In addition to incorporating relevant keywords into your homepage content, they should also be strategically placed throughout the site to maximize results.
- Title Tags: The clickable title in search results, e.g.:
Make sure not to make it too long (up to 60 characters) and that it contains your main keyword.
- Meta Descriptions: The short summary below the title tag (150-160 characters). Include keywords and preferably also a call-to-action.
- URLs: Example: https://www.toyota-europe.com/innovation/zero-accidents.
- Headings: Incorporate keywords in H1, H2, and H3 headings of your content.
- Image Alt Texts: These texts serve as descriptions for images, appearing when an image fails to load and providing accessibility support by being read aloud to visually impaired users. It is recommended to keep alt texts within 125 characters, ensuring that they remain clear, natural, and logically structured. Avoid overloading them with excessive keywords, as keyword stuffing can reduce readability and effectiveness, just as it would in any other type of content.
2. Technical SEO
To improve a website’s ranking in search results, it is essential to ensure that the page operates smoothly, is secure, and follows a well-structured format. To achieve this, make sure that:
- The website is mobile-friendly and performs well on both smartphones and tablets.
- Content loads quickly, which can be improved using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights. Website optimization should also include compressing images to reduce their file size.
- The URL begins with https, indicating a secure site.
- Internal links connect relevant pages. Conduct a website audit using the already mentioned tools such as Google, Ahrefs, StoryChief, or SEMrush to identify well-visited pages and those that require more visibility. Add links to underperforming pages from your most popular ones to enhance traffic distribution.
- A properly configured XML Sitemap and robots.txt file are created for the website. These files provide search engine indexing bots with a structured list of links, helping them determine which pages have been updated or added, which ones should be crawled and displayed in search results, and which ones should be excluded (e.g., pages meant for internal use). This ensures that your website is consistently indexed and not accidentally omitted from search results. Many web platforms, such as WordPress, Shopify, and Squarespace, offer automatic generation of XML Sitemaps.
3. Creating and Implementing a Content Strategy
High-quality content significantly enhances a website’s value in the eyes of search engines. Depending on your business, consider what additional value you can offer potential customers beyond just product information. Would it be beneficial to maintain a blog covering industry news and trends? Could you create educational videos or guides? Perhaps sharing expert insights or user-generated tips would be valuable.
When developing content, keep in mind that both customers and search engines prioritize fresh and relevant information. Analyze your competitors’ websites to identify gaps in their content and areas where you could differentiate yourself. Explore topics from a unique perspective, incorporate quotes from reputable industry experts, utilize original data, share findings from your own research or surveys, and publish case studies.
Regularly updating your website with fresh content and revising existing texts ensures that your information remains current and continues to engage both users and search engines.
4. Off-Page SEO
Once your website is optimized, the next step is to begin driving external traffic to it.
- You can achieve this by linking to your site from other reputable websites through backlinks, writing guest posts, collaborating with other businesses, and engaging in PR efforts. When external sites link to yours, it boosts your credibility and signals to search engines that your site is valuable, leading to more frequent indexing and higher rankings in search results. This ultimately brings more traffic to your page.
- Stay active on social media platforms and forums, engaging with your audience and sharing valuable content.
- Create and maintain accurate business profiles on directories like Google Business Profile, Trustpilot, TripAdvisor, and others to increase visibility.
5. Local SEO
If your business requires physical visits, such as a restaurant, beauty salon, or other service-based business, supporting your optimization efforts with local SEO is essential.
This includes refining your Google Business Profile, which helps users find you on Google Search and Google Maps, view your address, hours of operation, website, images, videos, customer feedback, and more. It also allows them to contact you directly.
- Use the most relevant keywords in your profile to describe your business, including location-specific terms (e.g., “the most popular gym in Tallinn”). Make sure your description sounds natural.
- Upload high-quality images, as studies show that businesses with photos are 42% more likely to receive requests for directions.
- You can also update your profile with new information, such as special offers or events.
- Encourage customers to leave reviews, as positive feedback can significantly improve your website’s position in search results.
Now that you’ve completed the initial SEO setup, you’ve laid a strong foundation. Naturally, SEO includes many more options, but it’s not possible to cover them all in a single blog post.
If you feel ready to sit back and enjoy the results of your hard work, know that improvements will start to appear gradually. But remember, SEO isn’t a one-and-done task. It is an ongoing process, and this is just the beginning of your optimization journey.
When Should You Continue Working on SEO?
Given that the market, competitor activities, search engine algorithms, and even your business evolve over time, SEO optimization should be an ongoing task.
1. Analyzing and Adjusting SEO Strategy
Regularly track keyword positions and search volumes using tools like SE Ranking to update or add keywords as needed. Conduct A/B tests on title tags, meta descriptions, and call-to-action links to identify the most effective variations. If you notice a decline in website traffic through Google Analytics, it may be time to perform a new website audit and identify areas for improvement.
2. Content Optimization
Consistently publish blog posts and refresh the content on your website to ensure it remains high-quality and engaging. When incorporating new keywords, remember to update previous content as well to reflect those changes.
3. Technical Fixes
Monitor the overall “health” of your website through Google Search Console. Resolve any issues such as broken pages or links and ensure the site runs smoothly and is user-friendly.
4. Off-Page SEO Maintenance
Regularly check that your website has sufficient backlinks from authoritative blogs, partner sites, PR efforts, and more. Ensure these backlinks come from high-quality sources.
Continue engaging with social media to maintain visibility, share valuable information, and keep customers informed about your offerings.
Summary
As we can see, SEO is not a one-time task, but rather an ongoing and multifaceted process that requires continuous effort to effectively gain online attention. It is understandable that startups or even smaller, established companies may not have team members with the time or expertise to fully tackle these tasks.
Additionally, the tools needed for SEO optimization can often represent a significant additional cost. In such situations, outsourcing SEO services to digital marketing experts makes perfect sense, and this is where Hundred Agency can be the right partner for you.
Our team of specialists will work with you to create and implement a robust SEO strategy, addressing both the technical aspects and settings while also developing creative solutions and social media content. Contact us, and we’ll help your website climb the search results!