Given that the majority of web traffic originates in search engines now, it's no wonder that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) remains an important factor in operating a website. Companies have been discovering the increasing importance of having good SEO, now more than ever, as niches and markets fill with competition in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs.) There are several ways in which your website's SEO should be tended to, and many new methods being discovered by companies that could improve the search engine rankings for any commercial website.

SEO Matters More Right Now than Ever

The reason for the increasing importance of implementing an SEO strategy is that more websites are cropping up than ever before. Just every every niche imaginable is now filled with competing websites, many of which are being built with SEO in mind.

When trying to build traffic and improve your site's search engine rankings, it's important to know what you're up against. That's why many websites owners are using tools to analyze keywords and traffic patterns.

Websites owners have a finite number of viable marketing strategies available, as there's little room for success while leaving web traffic to chance. You need to act with intention and precision to drive traffic to your websites nowadays, with so many competing sites in every niche market. Search engines place a lot of emphasis on specific variables that differ between sites, such as error-free coding, correct spelling, working links, easily-discernible navigation systems, and properly sized and labeled media.

SEO Methods Companies are Using

Luckily, there's a science to SEO that any company can utilize. Search engines have expressed the factors they look for when crawling websites and determining which sites should rank favorably among the SERPs. Website owners have the option of editing their pages to align with search engine SEO criteria, or hiring a third-party company to improve the site's overall SEO.

One method that companies are using to improve their search rankings is to create alt attributes and captions for all images and videos on their sites. Creating an ALT attribute in HTML allows users to understand your content while using a screen reader. This is helpful for vision-impaired users and users who browse content with audio devices like Amazon Alexa.

Caption your images in plain text so that users know the purpose of each image and search engines can more easily understand your content. Placing copyright information in the captions of your images and videos can also help with your SEO efforts.

Another method that will help improve your SEO is to implement Facebook Graph images and other social-focused content. Facebook graph images allow you to control which picture or graphic accompanies your articles and website pages when posted to the Facebook platform.

Using SEO Tools and Services

There are likely hundreds of changes you could make to your website to improve your SEO. These range from editing your text and HTML, to optimizing your images to load more quickly, and defining terms and sections on your site.

It can be hard to keep up with all of the SEO changes if you're not an SEO expert but there are plenty tools available and even SEO service providers to help along the way. Some of the most effective SEO-for-hire options out there include services from a link building company, HTML and CSS editing teams, and even freelance SEO experts.

If you're interested in trying to improve your company's SEO on your own, it's a good idea to start with an SEO tool made for the platform your website uses. Many company websites are built using WordPress or Joomla, and there's no shortage of SEO plugins and extensions for those two platforms.

Conclusion

Companies are undoubtedly seeing the importance of SEO on today's web, even if they have overlooked the marketing strategy in the past. SEO is an integral part of running a website and achieving high search rankings. There are plenty of solutions for improving your site's SEO, be it through manually editing your site, or hiring a third-party SEO-driven consultant or company.