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6 Basic Tips to Improving Your Website’s Search Rankings: Part 1

Sikich

Aug 30 2012

2 min read

Although it’s easy to say you’re going to start optimizing your content, it can be difficult to make the first move if you’re unsure of what actually qualifies as effective SEO. There are plenty of ways to optimize your content, but we’ll start you off with six simple ways:

Format your URLs correctly. If you need to separate words in your URL, use dashes instead of underscores (i.e. www.cars-for-hire.com, not www.cars_for_hire.com). A search engine sees a dash as separating words, while it perceives an underscore as being part of the word. People probably aren’t searching “cars_for_hire” but rather “cars for hire.”
Write concise and focused Meta descriptions. The Meta description is a tag in the HTML code that describes the page’s content. It also appears as your page description in search results, so using keywords is imperative—though search engines will flag your site for keyword spamming, so don’t overdo it.
Stop using Meta keywords. Competitors can view your Meta keywords if you use them, so it’s better to just stop using them altogether. These days, search engines ignore Meta keywords, anyway. Your time is better spent perfecting your Meta description!
Use heading tags correctly. Search engines look at heading tags to determine which keywords are more important than others. For example, a heading with the H1 tag is known to be more important than a heading using the H2 tag. So, when you use the tags correctly, search engines will take the right keywords into account when ranking your page.
Use alt-text attributes. Alt-text is the written description that lives behind page elements, like an image. The alt-text is not displayed on the page, but it is coded behind the image so that search engines can pull keywords from these elements, thus enhancing your SEO.
Write better page titles. Along with the Meta description, search engines look at page titles to determine what your page is about. The most important keywords should be placed at the beginning of your page title—within the first 60 characters. Additionally, if your company or brand name is well known, place that at the beginning; if it’s not, place it at the end.

Are you ready for even more SEO tips? Check back with us next month for five more!

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About the Author

Sikich

From accounting, tax and assurance to technology and advisory, Sikich offers a unique formula of professional services to businesses and organizations across the country. By pairing subject matter expertise with the real-world experience gained as entrepreneurial leaders, we provide clarity to your complex challenges and solutions to strengthen every dimension of your business.