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Improve your companies SEO rankings on Google – Top 10

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We all want to increase our rankings on search engines, and not just on Google. Here are just a few things you should keep in mind to help you best grab your audience. Doing some research to educate you on some of the basic terms is a good way to start. When interviewing or hiring an SEO company or agency, you can speak intelligently with them about your company goals and expectations. Also, keep in mind if your web site is due for a redesign, it is the perfect time for you to rebuild your website, and from the bottom up.

1.  Blogging is a great way to reach your audience especially since each page of a website has the potential to reach large audiences. Your blog should have dynamic content and be filled with relevant keywords. Blogging is an awesome way to draw traffic and leads with far reaching potential to reach social media sites  if properly optimized. It is important the title of has Blog has keywords and has a zippy headline to help capture the reader’s attention.
2. Indexed pages – Search engines are always looking for fresh, new and exciting content. If your content is not indexed properly, the search engines will not look for it. On the other hand, if search engines keep seeing relevant pages from your site, they will come back looking for more! Seek professional help if you need to as this one is a common mistake seen on about 50% of sites.
3. Home Page - Too many images? Ouch! Images are invisible to search engines. All pictures should have an alt tag which tells the search engine something relevant about the photo content. Sneak in a few key words here and there which lets the world know about the content on that page. Too many images can also take longer to download resulting in a higher bounce rate.
4. Page Title and Page Description – Often these functions are not set up properly. Often they are left out completely. Each page of your website should have a unique title describing the content of the page and a unique description describing specific areas of the site. Without proper page titles and page descriptions, it also makes it impossible to track (analyze) how page is performing.
5. Link Building - websites that link to your site is a great thing in the eyes of search engines. You are being rewarded or penalized for it. The sites you are linking to need to be authoritative and most of all trustworthy. Sites that link to yours with .org are seen as more trustworthy.
6. GO Mobile! - .mobi is all the rage! If your company is targeting people who carry smart phones (In 5 years this will be everyone!). A .mobi site is a rebuild of your existing site with friendliness toward the size, speed and shape of a smart phone screen. When converting your site over, remember smaller screen sizes and smaller band width. You might also want to think about how much content you carry on each page (think light). Lastly, if you decide to do a .mobi version of your site, Apple icons are a must!
7. Facebook , Twitter, Youtube & Digg and other social media avenues are a vital part of creating SEO and should be included in any marketing plan you have going forward. Social media can win elections and overthrow governments. People do business with businesses they “like” and social media allows endless possibilities and levels the playing field. Video content is also gobbled up by search engines! If you do not have a Facebook page or if your 11 year old daughter set up your twitter account – you need to hire a professional to do it for you so are not left in the dust. Like us! Friend Us! Tweet us! It works!
8. Domain Names– You might need a 301 redirect. This is a common mistake, (it’s also a simple fix) and insures people who are looking for you can find you. Also, register your domain name for multiple years. Google penalizes you if your domain is registered for a year or less because it shows you are not committed. Spammers only register their names for the minimum amount of time and Google knows that!
9. Anayltics – So you get the reports…can you read them, understand them? Take the time to understand the whys of what is happening with your site and keep tabs on your traffic. The main goal to keep your traffic moving up each month. One red flag is if most of your traffic is finding you by typing in your company name or some variation of it, it may be time for you to hire an SEO consultant or an agency that specializes in Inbound marketing.
10. Bounce Rate – The goal here is to keep this number going down each month. If you have a high bounce rate it may be time for a website redesign. A high bounce rate happens when visitors get to your homepage and you either fooled them into getting there or they just do not like what they see.

Some of the main things you should remember about your website is that it is being measured by search engines, potential clients and your competition. It should be treated like an asset to the company and the ROI (return on your investment) should be measurable. Your website should be filled with interactive things for customers to do including, downloading, viewing, registering, signing-up, coupons, CTA’s (calls-to-action) and other compelling offers. Sometimes being found is only the first step!