A company website can be a vital tool to educate and engage current and potential customers. Customers’ first brush with a business often comes through a search on the Internet. According to data from analyst firm iProspect, “62 percent of search engine users click on results within the first page of search results and 36 percent believe that companies whose websites appear at the top of the search results are leaders in their field.”

Therefore, it’s critical that company websites are optimized for search engines to help increase search rankings to drive more traffic and business.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a tried-and-true method to earn higher rankings in Google, Bing and Yahoo. Below are a few tips to get started:

1. Keywords: Identify who your target audiences are and what key phrases they are using to search for a business like yours. A free tool to search for keywords is Google Sktool. With this tool, users enter their company and its competitors’ website links and compare the keywords that are driving traffic to each site. Based on this search, you can optimize your site by adding keywords or phrases to the website titles and content.
2. SEO-friendly URL: To ensure that web pages are ranked high in search engine results and draw traffic, use static URLs (e.g., http://www.test.com/test-aboutus) instead of dynamic URLs (e.g., http://www.test.com/php?category=title). Search engines index static URLs more quickly than dynamic ones. Static URLs are typically ranked better and bring more traffic to the site, simply because users are more likely to click on a URL that is easier to understand and matches the key phrase used in search query.
3. SEO external links: Backlinks coming from external websites (e.g., industry sites, blogs or Wikipedia) to your homepage are a sign of quality and trust and help increase a page rank. If possible, try to secure links from .edu and .gov sites by contacting them directly via email or a phone call. These links are considered more reputable than .com, .biz, .info, and other domains simply because they are difficult to secure. Another practice, we recently explained in our blog post is link baiting – creating valuable content for the website that encourages people to link to it from other websites. The older, the better. But be aware that getting too many new links in a short time suggests you recently purchased them.
4. Add a postal address to your site’s pages: This is important to drive local traffic and business. This tactic reinforces the location of the business to the search engines. Try to add your postal address to as many pages as possible, for example at the bottom of each of your webpages.
5. Optimize your local business search: Search engine directory listings play an important role in local searches. If your business is not already listed, then “claim” your own local business listings on Google Places, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local. Fill out the profile completely with the company address, phone number, website link and target keywords. By doing this, your business will also come up in mobile-based searches, which are equally important.

Using these steps, you can take charge of your website traffic and make it easier for your target audience to find your company’s website using today’s high-powered search engines.