Most online businesses live or die on their search engine rankings. Getting listed in search engines is easy, almost automatic. Showing up on that first page of results is difficult. Your website will be ranked according to dozens of factors. Here are a few to keep in mind.

Content is King

Make sure that the terms your intended audience is likely to use to find you appear on your site. Furthermore, those keywords must be in text and not contained in images. Search engine spiders can't read graphical images.

Provide your reader with meaningful information. Search engines will take notice.

No Keyword Stuffing

Search engines know when you are including words just for the sake of a search engine. Such stuffing will reduce your ranking.

Freshness

Search engines will reduce your ranking for stale content. Revise your copy or add new content often.

Site Longevity

The earlier you obtain a domain name, the better. Search engines know when you registered your domain name and grade you accordingly.

Unique Page Titles

Use descriptive and unique titles for every page on your site. Make sure that the name of the site also appears in the title.

Paragraph Headings

Provide clear navigation and help the search engines categorize your site. Use hierarchical headings often. That helps your users too. People don't read Websites; they scan them.

Consolidate Site Addresses

Point all your website addresses to one domain name. Don't dilute your ranking. For example, redirect https://mysite.com/ to https://www.mysite.com/.

Avoid Linking Schemes

Don't associate with link spammers. The link farms will drag you down.

Avoid Comma-Separated Keywords

Search engines watch for long strings of terms separated by commas. Fold your site's keywords into natural text. Address your human readers with appealing text. The search engines will notice.

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