SEO-friendly URLs may not be the batter in the SEO cake mix, but they can be the frosting. Having an SEO-friendly URL is easy when using a management system, such as WordPress. If your site uses a lot of imagery, consider adding a Pin It button to allow Pinterest users to easily add images to their boards. For sites with lots of high-quality product, inspirational or instructional images, Pinterest can be a major driver of traffic - especially given that every Pin and Repin of your image includes a link back to your site. Although SEO marketing tactics take a long time to show impact and ranking against high-power competitors isn’t an easy task, SEO should be a critical part of any small business’ long-term growth marketing plan. Website owners all want their content to be placed at the top of page one of search results. This is because very few website searches ever go beyond page one of results.

Businesses are born out of ideas

Understanding how your website visitors find you will help you determine if your SEO, marketing or networking efforts are paying off, or if you should refocus your priorities. Getting people to your website is great, keeping them there is better, but converting them to subscribers or buyers is the ultimate! The Internet highways are becoming more crowded by the day, and subscribers will help maintain a steady flow of traffic and help keep your brand top of mind. Be sure to set up conversions using Google Analytics, so you know your conversion rate and can improve it by tweaking things on your site. Don't be tempted by the huge numbers for broad keywords. With enough time and effort you might be able to rank for them, but you'd be battling large, established brands for unfocused visitors that might not even be ready to buy. There have been many minor changes to the layout of Search Engine Results Pages. Local and more location-specific searches have become more commonplace — especially on mobile devices.

Increase the likelihood of visitors to your site returning again

Another one of the best SEO tactics creates even more links to your site to improve your SEO. Local SEO practices and building profiles on business directories can build online authority for your brand and make a bigger digital footprint for your website. SEO isn’t an exact science. Unfortunately, Google hasn’t given us a comprehensive list of ranking factors. Considering that Google has around 200 major ranking factors, and as many as 10,000 sub-signals, we can’t possibly know every single aspect of their algorithm. Every Search Engines use different complex mathematical algorithms for generating Search Results. Different Search Engines perceive different elements of a web page including page title, content, meta description and then come up with their results to rank on. Each Search Engine’s algorithm are different, so if you rank on Google does not definitely mean that you will rank on Google. Take a few minutes to jot down some word combinations that website visitors might use to find you. Once you’ve got a healthy list of keyword options, it’s time to see if people are searching for them. A solid place to start is Google’s free Keyword Planner, which helps you research keyword ideas and estimate how well they’ll perform in search results.

Google Panda, Penguin & Hummingbird: Everything You Need to Know

SEO can be quite complicated, but you can absolutely develop a keyword strategy and take care of the essentials on your own. Make it as easy as possible for users to go from general content to the more specific content they want on your site. Add navigation pages when it makes sense and effectively work these into your internal link structure. If you’re a business, it may be a good idea to start a blog on your website. Not only will this keep your site up-to-date with fresh content and encourage repeat visits (and increase the frequency of search engine crawlers), but also show that you’re a relevant, trustworthy business. According to SEO Consultant, Gaz Hall: "Syndication takes the credibility of the site you’re syndicating it too and transfers all the link juice and credibility (as well as social proof) over to your website. Syndication is a great way as well to gain a lot more visibility for the same amount of work!"

Make sure your content is highly readable and can answer those longer tail queries

The sites that Google will rank highest for a particular search term are the ones that appear the most relevant and that have the best content and best design. At the same time though, they will also be the ones that have the most trust. This means that Google considers them an authoritative resource and expects the information on their site to be accurate and well-written. Historically, traffic from search engines has been about a very singular pursuit -- that of rankings. Sites that aren’t optimized for user intent and mobile SEO will fail. Not so long ago, SEO and social media marketing were different things. The idea was that SEO attracted visitors and social media marketing kept them coming back.