#5 Tips to Help Boost your Website's SEO Ranking

Designing a good website is usually the first step when you're setting up an online business or taking your existing brand online. What follows next is even more important — using a combination of different strategies such as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and content marketing to help your brand establish a strong digital presence. Here are a few tips to help you optimize your website's SEO and content for search engines and enhance your brand's online visibility:

• Creating the Right URL

An SEO optimised page must have a URL of a suitable length;an ideal URL for SEO is neither too long nor too short, and is usually around 40-60 characters long. You don't need to stuff your URL with unnecessary keywords.They are invariably visible in the search result, as well as in the anchor text of links when the webpage is linked on another platform. Generic links with titles like "Click here' have no SEO value, while a title like "How To Become a Digital Marketing Expert For Your Business'has all the right keywords needed to improvenot only the search engine rankings of the website, but that of the linked page as well.

• Publishing Relevant Content

Content is the most important factor driving SEO rankings. Good quality content that is relevant to your brand and domain can help increase site traffic, enhancing the website's position on search engine results. This is why it is important to select the best phrasesthat convey what your content is about, and to make sure that they matchthe type of keywords usually used.

Trends indicate that search engine results are usually more favourable for long-form content; an average length of 2,300 words is considered ideal for website content.Reiteratespecific keywordsthroughout the page by including themin the body copy, the headline,and closing paragraphs to drive your message. Highlight certain words and phrases that you would like the reader to respond to throughemphasis tags like bold/italics/heading, but take care to not overdo it.

• Using Meta Data Effectively

Metadata summarises the basic information about data in any form, whether it is from document files, images, videos, and webpages. Metadata for webpages, represented through metatags, contains the description of a page's contents in addition to the keywords accompanying it. Metadata makes it easy for people to look for a specific type of content, and is critical to achieving a higher SEO ranking for your website. The right metatagsmake your website/webpage show up on search engine results, thereby promoting your content and increasing site traffic.

There are three main types of metadata: title, description, and keyword metadata. Title metadata is the most important data on the webpage and appears at the top of the browser window. Description metadata is a textual description of the webpage used by the search engine in thesearch result, and should ideally be a concise and interesting description that can persuade readers to visit your page. Lastly, keyword metadata includes the main search phrases that are linked to your content or webpage, and should include a variety of related keywords to enable better search results, ideally around 6-8 phrases with 1-4 words each.

• Leveraging Social Media Content

Content from social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn fetches huge tractionon search engine results page. Therefore, to ensure greater visibility for your content or drive a successfulcontentmarketing campaign, you can collect and curate a selection of good quality content and post it on the brand's social media pages. Since social media pagesareamongst the top results shownby search engines, these posts are today among the most interactive ways to engage users with your brand.

• Building Mobile Apps

According to Tech Crunch, mobile apps account for 52% of all time spent on online digital media by consumers. Activities like shopping, transport, networking, web browsing, or listening to music are all done through apps.You can take advantage of this trend and initiate engaging communication with consumers.Ensure your brand name is prominent on the app title to target both existing customers and new users. In addition, posting fresh, relevant, and good quality content can ensure your brand shows up higher on Google's organic search results.

While trends keep changing, these are a few strategies that can help give you a head-start in the digital domain. These simple steps can help ensure greater traction for your website,rewarding your brandwith a higher search engine ranking!