You may have been told over recent months and years that content is the key to your online presence and strategy. Having great content will not only engage with visitors to your website, but also gain you prominence in search engines.

So how does it all work? In its simplest form, think of having a magical Google ranking machine in your living room. Place into the machine a single sheet of paper, with information about your company on it. Think of how many different key phrases your Google machine could generate from the content on that single sheet; it is likely to be very few because the content isn’t there to support a lot of phrases.

Now, think about placing a book into that same machine, and compare the amount of key phrases that could be generated.

You want your website to be a book, not a flier. The more areas you blog and write about, the more key phrases you’ll be able to rank for, and the more visibility you’ll gain from it.

This is obviously a simplified way of looking at it, so we’ve given you five tips to get your blog posts and news to more people through the power of search….

Keywords

Think of what people will be searching for when they search, and incorporate these words into the title of your posts. A latest survey showed using a keyword in the title was the strongest influencing factor when it came to ranking a blog post. Having a keyword present in content was third highest.

We’re not saying cram key words all over your webpages for the sake of it; if you’re talking about a certain topic you’re likely to include that word or series of words within the content itself.

Cramming key words for the sake of trying to rank higher will have a detrimental effect; not only for search engines but also for anyone trying to read it!

Unique page content

The second highest influence in the same survey was having unique content. It can be tempting to revise content you’ve already written, but you want fresh and interesting content; not something that has had just a few words changed because it’s quicker.

You will gain from quantity but it needs to be combined with new quality.

Always jot down ideas when they come to you or they can be lost forever; you can trust us from experience on that!

Mobile friendly

If your website isn’t mobile friendly then this will impact your rankings dramatically if users are searching from mobiles and tablets (around 40 – 60% of people for most sites these days).

Since April 21, Google has been penalising websites that are not mobile friendly in their search results for mobile users (take a look at our blog post earlier this year). All the websites we create include a responsive design, meaning they’ll now rank better than those that aren’t.

If you’re creating great content you want it to be seen. Make sure an out-dated site isn’t holding you back in this goal.

Click Through Rates (CTR)

A Click Through Rate (CTR) is when someone clicks on your site. Google uses CTR to establish the popularity of your page and eventually decide where it’s shown on the SERP (Search Engine Result Page).

The more clicks your blog posts receive, the better the chances are of them ranking higher and appearing further up the SERP.

The useful way to increase your CTR is to give each of your posts a specific Page Description. This will form the second two lines in any Google Search Result. Most blog posts will simply take the first 160 characters of your posts; you can increase clicks by making this more informative. What is the post about? Who is it for? Why would they want to read it…. In a 2 line nutshell!

Loading speed

Five years ago the speed of your webpage wouldn’t have affected your rankings, but in 2010 Google announced it would.

One of the most common causes of slow webpage load is because the images are too large. The average camera takes a picture at 124+ dpi; ideally they should be resized and formatted at 72dpi for your website.

Do your blog posts have a lot of images? If they do, then make sure you’re resizing them so they’re web ready, and the person waiting to see them doesn’t have to go and make a cup of tea before they’re ready to view!

Want to know more about SEO or to get your site reviewed and fixed so it can soar up the rankings? Find out more about our services here or our SEO audit by clicking here. You can also give us a call on 01566 232323.