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Search engine optimization normally abbreviated as SEO has become a key focus area for most of the businesses that have online presence. There are many facets of SEO but the most prominent end result that has been given much attention has been the notion of ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). However in order for a website or particular webpage to rank high on SERP ultimately there are a number of strategies and tactics that will need to be applied

How To Increase A Website Search Engine Visibility

It must be noted that SEO is not a quick fix, there are agencies, consultants and software providers that mention that they are able to get a website ranking instantly. From our own experience it is dependent firstly on the website mainly on what issues need to be resolved. In order to uncover particular issues that hinder a website from ranking high on serps, the best practice is to undertake a SEO site audit as this will give insights into the  sections of the website that are broken and  need to be resolved

Undertaking site audit involves plugging in some SEO tools that are able to crawl  and analyse the website to reveal areas that need urgent attention. There are a number of tools that can be used for crawling a website with the popular being Screaming frog ,DeepCrawl , 80legs and Dyno Mapper just to mention.

After a website has been crawled there are results that can be accessed which will highlight sections of the website that need attention.The SEO issues can be grouped under technical and on the page issues .Best practices involves grouping the results into categories mainly high, medium and low impact and there is need to prioritise the issues discovered into actionable items for resolution.

On The Page Issues

It must be noted that nothing beats having great awesome quality content on the page as this is the key differentiating factor. Publishing high quality content goes a long way in ensuring that a website is known for high levels of expertise,authority and trustworthiness. However some common on the page seo issues are missing title tags, meta descriptions  , header tags , alt tags for images and page load speed.

Description of On The Page Issues

Title Tags: these give more information about the subject of a respective page. Their role is to inform visitors and search engines what the page is all about .Just to note these title tags get to be displayed on SERPS.

Meta Descriptions
This is an HTML element describes and summaries the content on the web page in a concise manner

Header Tags 
HTML tags are used to differentiate the headings from the content. The most important heading is known as the H1 with the least being the H6. Just to note only use  one H1 per page 

Alt Tags For Images
These are  known as alternative  texts or alt attributes which are used  to describe the appearance and function of an image.

Page Load Speed 
This is a calculation of  the amount of time it takes a page to load.Pages that have a longer load time usually have high bounce rates and this is bad for rankings. Most of the time image sizes make page load speeds to be long.

Technical SEO Issues

These relate to the technical aspects of a website which when improved will enable webpages to rank on search engines.In order for a website to rank crawlers or spiders need to be able to crawl and index  the website.Most of the common issues that render a website not be crawled and indexed include missing xml sitemaps , url structure, robot .txt file  and internal linking

XML SiteMap
This acts as a roadmap which helps the spiders or search bots understand which pages  and files are important to be crawled. 

Url Structure
Best practice is to keep the urls as simple and easy to read as it is often the first thing search engine bots and customers will see.

Robot .txt file
The purpose of the file is to inform the search bot crawlers or spiders which pages or files can or cant be  requested from your website .

Internal Linking
Good practice is to strategically use internal links (hyper links) that point to other pages on the same domain as this aids in enabling a website to rank.

SSL Certificates
Google chrome browser users have come across websites which are flagged as Not Secure and this is usually attributed to the lack of a SSL certificate.A site that has an icon of  a  padlock or start with HTTPS are considered to be safe and secure

Implementing on the page and  technical SEO attributes will enable  any website or  webpage to rank high on search engine result pages.However getting started  with the basics of  SEO is a bit daunting as  there are new concepts to grasp. As previously mentioned earlier on search engine optimization is not a  once off implementation nor does it yield instant results. However if its implemented correctly a website can benefit from getting qualified traffic that will positively influence revenue.

We have the expertise to help improve the rankings of your website.Let us help you attract qualified traffic to your website. Our SEO consultants are eager to help you grow your SEO traffic contact us