16 effective SEO Tips to increase website traffic

SEO and website traffic have a very strong co-relation. If you have effective SEO implemented to your website, your website traffic is bound to be increased. However, many of us often forget or misses out on one thing or the other. Here,  I have tried to summarize the 16 most effective SEO tips that you should definitely try out. It might also act like an SEO checker to just make sure that you haven’t missed on the most essential ones.

Must Read: On page SEO: Various Ways to optimize it.

Here is the list of the most effective SEO tips:

1. First of all, write high quality content that appears unique to the users.
2. Most noteworthy, create an XML Sitemap for your website and submit it to Google, Bing and Yahoo.  This is a very important step which you should not forget.
3. Make sure that you have a well-organized navigational menu, which are categorized appropriately.
4. Have a proper tagging for each of your post. (Categories and Tags are sometimes also referred to as taxonomies when used together).
5. Give the most appropriate title to each of your post. Don’t be in a hurry and give yourself sometime to ascertain what should be the most compelling title for your posts that will attract your audience.
6. Do not ignore giving meta title and meta description to each and every post of yours.
7. Create an archive page for your website.
8. Canonicalize your website’s URL through the Google Webmaster tool and then through your SEO plugin. (For WordPress it is Yoast).
9. Make your website more accessible by popularizing it through various social networking sites especially Facebook, Twitter and Google +.  These three should be your priority. You may also consider Tumblr, Instagram, Pininterest, Slideshare, Linkedin, etc as per niche of your website.
10. Try to have a Professional/ Business Facebook page for your website. Similarly you should opt for a business page for your Google plus account.
11. Backlink your website through the various forums and websites that might be relevant to your website’s niche. Do not overdo them and try to use backlinks only when it is appropriate.
12. Submit your website to the website directories. The web is flooded with the website directories site. Do not go to the extent of overdoing it. Just submit your website to few good ones, atleast.
13. If your website uses good and quality image, try to give alternative description and keyword to it in case the images do not appear for the user. Give suitable name to the images instead of some random numbers.
14. Use permalinks that have keyword instead of an id. The first four words of your permalink url is the most relevant to Google, so use them wisely.
15. Use SEO optimized themes for your website especially the one that uses light code. If you are using WordPress, my preference would be to use the Genesis Framework.
16. Focus on improving the speed at which you’re the webpages of your website loads. If you are a WordPress user, install a caching plugin like WP Super Cache and combine it with a CDN like MaxCDN.

I hope these SEO tips will help you in improving your website. Have a Happy Learning!!!