Every second, Google processes close to 90,000 search queries or roughly 3.5 billion per day. Think about all those potential customers!

More than half of the world’s population – 4.1 billion people, use Google to search for information. With access to so many potential customers, it’s easy to see why you’d want your company appearing at the top of the search results. So how do you dominate that leaderboard? It’s called Organic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and it’s about making your site more appealing to search engine crawlers – they’re the bots that determine your ranking. To help you get noticed we’ve pulled together ten tips on making the most of your SEO.

TIP #1 Make the most of your web pages

Make your content relevant

There’s a lot to be said for rich, original content that’s interesting to your users. Making your key phrases relevant with well researched keywords, will help search engines understand the context of your content. If your content doesn’t offer value, or engage users, it won’t open up doors to business leads or customers, much less grab the attention of search engines. Ultimately, the more people that search for you, the more Google thinks you are an authority – and will push you up in rank.

Boost the power of your URL

Can you say “Universal Resource Locator” fast five times? Yeah. We couldn’t either. In fact, it seems to have become defunct with most people relying instead on its acronym: URL. It’s the last part after your domain in the address bar and its another great opportunity for you to sprinkle in more of those magic keywords that get you noticed by Google.

Try customizing your URL with keywords, separated by hyphens, to entice those Google bots to nibble on your site. For example: yourwebsitename.ca/attractive-web-designs

Be aware, there are a few potholes to avoid when customizing your URL

• Stay away from special characters which make it difficult for Google to find you
• Avoid lengthy descriptors
• Don’t use directory levels

A simple way to figure out if you’ve got a solid URL is to show it to anyone and ask if they get what the page is about. If they do, chances are Google will too.

Picture potential

…And don’t’ forget when you upload an image – that’s also an opportunity for you to include keywords in the file’s name. Pictures are a great visual way to break up text and also communicate with search engines.

TIP #2 Pick your keywords carefully

Major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo are continually indexing billions of websites. When the google computer spiders through your system, it takes keywords and then determines what your website is all about.

While SEO isn’t only about keywords, using the right ones in your content will make a difference. Think about words that you might use in searching for your product. How do your customers describe your services? Relevance is the key issue here when choosing the right keywords.

Keep in mind that the more specific and niche the keywords are, the better. And don’t forget to think about your service area. Users usually include their local city or town when searching. According to Hubspot, if you only run your business in one area, you might consider putting location-based keywords on all your web pages, because traffic from other areas won’t really help you. If your business operates in different areas, it is a good idea to set up a separate page for each area so that your brand appears wherever people are searching.

TIP #3 Each web page should be different

The same old repetitive stuff gets boring – even for web crawlers. Avoid putting the same content on every page or repeating yourself which will only result in lost ranking. We recommend between 750 to 1000 words per page and about 10 to 100 pages per website with each page featuring different topics.

If you want to see how many pages your competitors have, go to the address bar on your computer and type in site:// and their domain, e.g. site://websitename.ca – and that will list the number of pages they have. Obviously, you’ll want more pages than theirs to attract more crawlers to elevate your site in the search engines.

TIP #4 Internal links attract crawlers to your site

Internal links are hyperlinks on a website page that connect to another page or resource on the same website or domain. They help move visiting crawlers through your site and can contribute to your brand by pointing to key aspects of your business. You want Google to crawl throughout your site to help boost your ranking. Don’t forget blogs and specific web pages can also point to other pages in your site. Always use the same keyword to link a target page. This helps search engines recognize that this page in your domain must be extremely relevant to a particular subject or keyword.

TIP #5 Get on board with free local directories

There are thousands of free online directories (like Google, Yelp and Yellow Pages) at your disposal and these get noticed not just by your customers, but by search engines. There are so many industries to pick from and even general ones, you’ll be sure to find your niche. In addition to posting your NAP, many of them will allow you to include additional content like photos. Amelia Willson writes in the Search Engine Journal, “Any business with a local presence needs to maintain their local citations with a consistent NAP, but web directories won’t help with your SEO much beyond that. The real returns will be from the credibility and traffic they drive to your business site.”

TIP #6 Outbound links are food for spiders

As Hubspot will tell you, every search engine has a program known as a “bot” or “crawler”. These programs follow links and visit websites. They index website content and follow the links on the website to other sites. If your website has not yet been indexed, it will not appear in search results.

It’s not just who links to you that’s important, but where you link to. Your links to top quality websites sends a positive message to the search engine. When you set up your external links make sure they are relevant and authoritative – think of them as a footnote to your content. Consider including quotes from industry leaders and link to their websites. Search engines rate trusted websites higher, like The Globe and Mail for example, so be sure to include those wherever they’re relevant to your content.

TIP #7 Monthly uploads show you’re alive and well

It doesn’t have to happen every day, but you should try to post something new to your site on a regular basis, maybe once or twice a month, because the more updates you make to your site the more the search engines will find you. No need to tear your hair out writing a ton of text; a brief client testimonial or an image of a new product and short descriptor will do just fine. The more updates you make on your website the more google will find you.

Blogging regularly can have significant implications for search engine optimization, since each new blog entry represents a new web page. You might also consider inviting a guest article, if you don’t have the time to blog yourself.

You can take a peek at your update frequency on The Wayback Machine, a free internet archive that also lets you see how often your competitor posted. And of course, you’ll want more than theirs.

TIP #8 It’s NAP time

If you want your business to rank well in local search results, its critical to include your name, address, and phone number, or NAP. Search engines take that information into account when deciding which companies to include based on searches in your business’ geographic area. If you add or update your business on multiple business listing sites, make sure you're providing the same company information across each directory.

TIP #9 Just say “NO” to click here

Anchor text is that blue underlined clickable wording in a hyperlink. To make it work best for you, be sure it’s relevant to the page you're linking to, rather than generic and use keywords that relate to your content. It’s a common web practice and a great opportunity to push up the Google ranks. The saddest thing you can do is to simply add the words “click here” – that’s just a lost opportunity.

TIP #10 Build your Google buzz

The more you get Googled, the better your search rank. An idea that might help get you started on building buzz is to put a message on the back of your business cards that asks customers to include a Google review. If you don’t include your website, they’ll be forced to search for you. It also sends a message that you care about their customer experience with you.

Here’s a little extra

When we see a good thing we just have to share. Google My Business is a free tool that allows you to promote your business profile and business website on Google Search and Maps. You’ll be able to see and connect with your customers, post updates to your business profile and see how customers are interacting with your business on Google. It’s perfect for boosting your SEO.