Since Google introduced its Panda and Penguin updates to its search engine, it has become harder for low quality websites to receive a higher ranking. At the same time, it has become easier for high quality websites to climb to the top of the SERP. So what makes a high quality website? The answer, to a great extent, lies in the use of smart search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

Here are some ways SEO can keep you engaged with your audience:

Plays a crucial role in attracting traffic to your website
While SEO was predominantly about keywords in the past, it is now about the content itself. A webpage should have a well defined purpose, such as information about products, answers to questions and so forth. Well planned and executed SEO can turn your website into a magnet for visitors. Once they find that your content is informative and interesting, they will become regular visitors and also recommend your website to their friends.

Helps target the right audience
Getting traffic to your website is not enough; you need to attract the right kind of visitors. SEO helps streamline the content of your website around carefully chosen keywords. By combining the keywords with well researched and excellently written content tailored to the taste of your target audience, you can easily get the right people to visit your website. With the kind of audience you are looking for, communicating with them meaningfully becomes much easier.

Helps give your website a clear structure
When it comes to websites, people are partial to those with a clear structure. SEO facilitates the design of websites with a clear hierarchy and links, where every page is reachable from at least one static link. This makes it easier for your audience to find the information they are looking for and to communicate with you. The more easily navigable a website is, the easier it will be for you to engage with your audience. Such a website is also more favorable to search engines.

Encourages visitors to share information
Well researched and written content along with interesting pictures, videos and infographics are more likely to be shared by visitors with their friends and colleagues. This way, your website advertises itself and attracts more traffic. As a website administrator, you should encourage your audience to share your content with as many people as possible. The more people share your content, the more unique visitors you will get.

Allows you to create keyword-rich URLs
SEO is not just about using the right keywords and content, it is also about finding other ways to make your website more visible and accessible, such as creating descriptive and human-friendly URLs to make it easier for your audience to access your website. People are more likely to visit websites with easy-to-remember URLs and keep coming back to them for information and other purposes.

How do you engage your audience?

Photo by Paloma Gómez