Staying at the Front of the Pack: Maintaining Your Website’s SEO and Search Rankings, Part 2

 Posted on June 16,2016 in Website Analytics

A few weeks ago, we talked about a number of ways to help ensure your website continues to remain strong and near the top of search results. Although it would be nice, your site will not just stay that way without additional effort. Maintaining online visibility takes organization, work, and perseverance, along with the knowledge of what makes a website successful.

Last time, we discussed how the speed of your site is a major factor in optimizing your site’s search rankings. We also talked about how regularly-updated, engaging content can drive organic traffic and increase your visibility as well. From a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective, there are still other things you can do to stand out against all of the background noise on the internet.

Linking Strategies

To help maintain your rankings, it is important for users elsewhere on the web to be able to get to your site. Backlinking to various pages within your site from other reputable places around the internet can quickly build your site’s authority, though building backlinks too fast can have the opposite effect. You will also want to avoid having too many of your inbound links pointing to a single page on your site. Diverse inbound linking shows search engines that your site is relevant and provides useful information to visitors.

Links on your site also affect your rankings. Outbound links to other quality websites within your industry or area of authority reinforce your site’s relevancy and strength. There are also advantages to linking internally, as well, as internal links can help Google and other search engines recognize the focus of each of your pages. Similar to backlinking, too much internal and outbound linking can be detrimental, as it may feel forced and artificial.

Social Media

While it may be argued that your actions on Facebook or Twitter could have little to do with your website, links to and from social platforms can certainly contribute your site’s authority and subsequent rankings. For example, if you post to Twitter and include a backlink to your site, every time that post is retweeted by one of your followers, additional backlinks are organically created. As with most aspects of SEO and maintaining search rankings, these results will not happen overnight. It takes time to build a respectable social media presence that conveys a sense of trust and a community participation.

Putting It All Together

Maintaining search ranking strength involves finding the right combination of factors for your particular market and intended audience. While all of the elements are important, you may be surprised to find that one or two of them have stronger impact than you might have expected. That is why is it is also important to track the changes made to your marketing strategies, then following up to see your metrics are affected.

At OVC, INC., we have the tools to help you improve your site’s rankings and maintain them over time. We understand how analyze a site’s performance, make appropriate changes, and suggest new approaches to keep pace with evolving search engine algorithms. Contact us today for a free site analysis and let us put our experience to work for you.

Sources:

http://searchengineland.com/5-ways-to-maintain-your-seo-ranking-248932

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2015/01/27/6-social-media-practices-that-boost-seo/