The answer is multi-faceted and ever-evolving. With algorithms frequently changing, social media influencers and paid search, the playing field can be highly competitive. However, there a few steadfast ways to make it to the top of the list without super expensive, months-long SEO campaigns – some are even free. 

Leveraging years of experience working with midsized to large corporate business, Swayed Creative, LLC has been building results-driven websites for entrepreneurs and small businesses for nearly two decades. Staying on top of trends, being proficient with programming, servers, SEO and tips and tricks gathered along the way, have given Swayed a competitive edge in developing sites that deliver big budget results to the little guys can afford.

Here are just six current ways to improve your rank from the start:

1. Choose a descriptive URL. This is one of the easiest way to show up in rank by search terms. A URL that describes your business, includes the name of the business or other generic search term can help your website appear at the top of screen. For instance, if I’m looking for a way to get around a quaint mountain town in Santa Barbara wine country, I might google “Solvang transportation” – solvangtransportation.com is number one on the non-paid rank list. 
2.  Build an efficiently programmed site. This is one of the most important priorities for your site. Mobile-first design is key for most consumer-facing businesses. Making sure your site is optimized and loading quickly for mobile devices will be crucial. 
3. Adding animation, images that aren’t optimized and content relying on superfluous code can lead to a slow website. Google Page Speed or GTMetrix offer helpful tools to evaluate the shape of your site. Higher scores help your site rank higher.
4. Implement free SEO best practices. When building your site, there are a number of free and easy-to-implement SEO tactics  that contribute to favorable ratings. Adding alternate text (ALT text tags), not only helps your page show in Google image searches, it’s also imperative for sight-challenged viewers.

   Be sure to enter ALT tags for all your images. Strategically using headers (H-tags) is highly important as well. Descriptive terms and phrases that will match viewers’ search terms are helpful, as well as the placement on the page. 

   If you’re able to add software or plugins, like Yoast SEO, take full advantage of the resources offered for evaluating each page for quality of content and implementation of all tactics mentioned.

5. Leverage your “Free.” You likely have social media platforms to promote your business. Your website and social pages can work symbiotically to drive viewers back and forth.

   Network with other businesses that offer complimentary services or products and ask the site owners to link to your site and vice versa. Driving traffic to your site from multiple in-bound sources can increase your rank.

6. Update website content. Search engines prefer updated, relevant content. Just by updating your site with content attractive to your target market can help. Though traditional blogging is a bit outdated, using a built-in CMS blog can be useful for feeding search engines, and linakble content on social. Add new product or service announcements, industry trends, ways your business excels. 

7. Use Google Maps. If your business has a physical location, adding your address to Google Maps can help improve rank and will help in geolocated searches. Geolocation identifies businesses in proximity to the search and will rank higher for the viewer searching in a specific area.