With the digital marketing world getting highly competitive there is a vital need to optimize your website in order to keep it visible in search engine searches for your customers.

Here are 3 things that you need to pay attention to for your website to rank higher against your competitors:

1. Ensure your website is updated

With Google now planning to use the mobile-first algorithm to rank websites it is highly important that your website is mobile friendly.  If mobile users quickly navigate off your website it implies that your website has a higher “bounce rate” and that users are not finding what they are looking for. To ensure that the mobile audience is engaged on your website your site needs to have a higher “site speed”, i.e. it should take less than 3 seconds to load. Avoid large files and flash images on your website. Additionally, it is important that your website is easy to navigate on a mobile device without the user having to click multiple buttons such as ‘see more’ or ‘next’ to get to the required information. Lastly, as obvious as it may seem, make sure your website is free of any loading or 404 errors. Mobile users are fast and savvy and any such errors will be penalized by the search engines.

2. Post Content Regularly

Google crawlers are hungry for new information; they crawl your website hunting for new material and content. The best way to get higher search engine rankings is by regularly posting fresh content. Start by creating a blog section on your website. In this section, you can start posting weekly blogs about your products and services as it relates to the customer. Also writing informative and knowledgeable content on topics within your related niche or industry encourages readers to visit your website regularly. Both of these factors —fresh content and increased visitors will yield a higher a search engine ranking for your website.

3. Create Backlinks

Links are of two types, outbound and inbound links. Outbound links are sites that you link to as part of a source or referral for information on your website. Inbound links, on the other hand, are links created when other websites link to your website. Quality and organic inbound links, i.e. links from influencers within your business niche, will greatly boost your search engine rankings. Be prudent in getting backlinks, as low-quality links (such as those bought from link farms), can adversely affect your rankings and your website could even be penalized for such black-hat SEO techniques.

Search engines have come a long way since their inception in the 1990’s and are regularly updating their algorithms to rank websites. Hence it is best to regularly update your website by designing it on a search engine friendly platform, keeping security updates up to date, writing quality content and linking with other key players in your business space.