Being positioned on the first page of Google is undoubtedly the dream of every website owner.
To achieve this, some choose SEA or Search Engine Advertising, a paid search service from Google Adwords.
Although this option delivers convincing results very quickly, it’s expensive and its effect is limited in time. Others, on the other hand, throw themselves wholeheartedly into SEO or Search Engine Optimization.
While this method is free of charge and has a long-term view, it is nevertheless highly complex and requires a great deal of patience.
So, if you’re not an expert, but want to boost your online store, here are 10 tips for optimizing your SEO yourself.
1. Adapt your site design
Long gone are the days when you needed a computer to access the Internet.
Today, it’s almost the opposite.
More and more people are using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The fact is, Google’s algorithms recommend sites based on screen size.
That’s why if you want to attract maximum traffic, adopt responsive design, or adaptive website.
This technology enables your site to adapt to all types of device: smartphone, TV, tablet, watch, etc.
2. Always think “keyword
Keyword management is without doubt one of the fundamental elements of SEO.
Ideally, you should already be thinking about keywords when you launch your project, in order to create a niche.
For example, if you want to launch a business selling lighting fixtures, in the blog section, write only about frequently-searched themes on the subject by analyzing long-tail keywords.
To do this, consult keyword research platforms such as 1.fr or Google Trends.
3. Choose titles and subtitles carefully
Titles don’t just invite the reader to read an article, just as subheadings don’t just make it easier to read.
In fact, these two elements, known as “h” tags, contribute enormously to a page’s SEO. Having a relevant title and subtitles is an indicator of quality for search engine spiders.
To please them, the title (h1) must contain the main keyword, be appealing and respect a certain number of characters.
As for subheadings (h2, h3, etc.), each must contain a secondary keyword.
4. Optimize all photos
It’s no secret that images contribute to a page’s SEO if they’re well chosen.
It’s important to remember that search engine spiders only analyze text.
So, for other content to be “readable”, it needs to be presented appropriately. In the case of a photo, make sure the file name is short, not capitalized and contains no special characters.
Also take care with the alt tag (or alternative text) and the caption.
Finally, make sure that no image weighs more than 200 Kb.
5. Create a netlinking system
To create a place for yourself on the web, and therefore gain in popularity, you need an effective netlinking strategy.
To be visible to Google, you first need to earn its trust.
Backlinks are one of the fastest ways of doing this.
By definition, backlinks refer to all links posted on a site, redirecting an Internet user to yours. From Google’s point of view, if other sites use your links as external links or outbound links, then your platform is trustworthy and offers interesting content.
And don’t neglect internal linking, i.e. linking your articles to each other via internal or inbound links.
6. Ensure the quality of your products
Apart from the technical aspects of SEO, user experience or UX is a point that search engines take seriously.
Improving it is therefore tantamount to optimizing the SEO of a page, or even an entire site.
But apart from design, the quality of the content proposed also contributes enormously to improving UX.
In terms of both form and content, create impeccable content: rich, faultless, relevant and responsive to queries.
Web users will be satisfied and will share your content, generating more traffic.
7. Avoid plagiarism at all costs
Even though Google’s algorithms have undergone many updates, one thing remains true: the search engine severely punishes duplicate content.
This is what we call copy/paste on a daily basis.
On the other hand, the same algorithms love anything that’s new and of interest to the public.
So, if your aim is to appear in the top Google search results, make sure you create unique and interesting content.
This includes text, images, sound and video.
8. Publish regularly on your site
As we’ve just said, robots love new content, especially if it’s unique and optimized.
And if it appeals to search engines, there’s a good chance it will appear on the first page of Google.
In short, your article would generate more traffic, and therefore more potential customers to convert.
As for the frequency of publication, it all depends on the activity of the robots.
But the most important thing is that you publish or update your content often.
9. Be present on social networks
Every website needs to have a presence on social networks if it is to gain free visibility.
As you’ve probably noticed, almost everyone around you uses at least one social network.
Think of it as a godsend, and share your e-commerce links with your followers through posts that make them want to click.
This is what we call Social Media Optimization.
That said, for optimal optimization, you need to learn how to choose between Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. depending on your industry and personas or target.
10. Use Google Analytics and Google Search Console
Google offers companies free tools for evaluating their websites.
These include Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
While the former provides information on the traffic generated over a given period of time, i.e. its behavior, conversion rate and acquisition, the latter identifies weaknesses (tags, indexing, etc.) on your website so that you can, if necessary, improve SEO referencing.
