A desirable position in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is the target of many individuals. In the quest of achieving the perfect rank, many individuals go for digital marketing services in hopes of attracting the right crowd which will influence their website’s ranking. However, there is no need to get caught in this complicated business since you can achieve the same results by implementing certain Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques yourself.
So, make your website rank higher and bring in more organic traffic by integrating the following SEO strategies!
Tailor Content to Meet Consumers’ Needs
Your website should serve the interest of your consumers. The best way of achieving this is by creating content that fulfills their needs. Often, people do not know what their readers want and keep pumping out content that nobody is interested in. This kind of content strategy results in a waning interest of readers which impacts your readership and your SEO ranking.
So, learn about the needs of your readers by scouring the niche-specific social media groups and communities. After thoroughly following this step, you will be in a better position in regards to your targeted content strategy.
Evergreen Content
Creating targeted content is a job half done which means that part of your content strategy should be all about creating evergreen content. In 2018, 153 million blogs were posted on the internet. If your content is subpar or is based around overused topics, then it becomes difficult to convince readers to read your content over others. This seems impossible; however, with evergreen content, you can achieve just that!
Evergreen content is the content that fails to age! This means that no matter the years, it will always stay relevant and useful to your readership. That said, search engines like Google also love evergreen content!
Incorporate Long-Tailed Keywords
Keywords will never go out of style because they direct the link juice to your target page and provides an SEO edge like nothing else! That said, never focus entirely on short-tailed keywords. Although they are easy to incorporate, long-tailed keywords are effective and yield better results. Usually, long-tailed keywords are short phrases that are specific and create a higher conversion value.
Because they are specific, only the audience looking to take some action will search the long-tailed keywords. For instance, ‘affordable pink iPhone6 covers’ reflects the buyers’ intention of taking action more than simple ‘iPhone6 covers.’ So, if you optimize your website for long-tailed keywords, you will have higher chances of ranking better for that specific keyword.
Focus on Video Content
Videos are better than words because they deliver the same value in record time which a blog does in 1000 words. Videos have untapped SEO potential and it is about time that you incorporate it into your business strategy to reap SEO benefits.
Videos generate more shares and result in higher user engagement; all of which are ranking factors which Google considers before indexing a website. So, focus on creating video content that not only prompts shares but also delivers rich information in a quick manner.
Voice Search Option
With the inception of technologies like Alexa and Google Assistant, voice search has quickly become a hot trend. So, if your website still has not incorporated any features that facilitate voice search mode, then your ranking will be impacted.
Because of its increasing popularity and ease of use, search engines like Google considers voice search optimization before ranking any website. So, make your website voice-search friendly by integrating targeted conversational phrases into your content. Since voice searches have a more casual and conversational tone to it, it is better to target long-tailed keywords for this matter!
Improve User Experience
Thanks to Google’s RankBrain algorithm websites cannot deliver subpar user experience without negatively impacting their ranking. When users click on any search result, RankBrain records their experience. So, if a user immediately hits the back button or interacts longer with the clicked search item; RankBrain will gather the information and deliver it to Google for helping it rank the website accordingly.
All of this relates back to user experience. If the bounce rate is high due to poor website layout, you will quickly lose ranks. On the other hand, if you provide great UX experience, users will spend more time which will enhance your ranking and bump up your online traffic.
Mobile-Friendly Site
If the mobile usage stats are not convincing enough for you, then perhaps knowing that Google ranks mobile-friendly websites better than their counterparts should do the trick! Skipping on a mobile-friendly design would take a hit on your user experience which will ruin your website’s SERPs ranking.
So, instead of having RankBrain negatively index your website, it is better to invest in a mobile-friendly design.
Use Power Words That Appeal to Users
You use words in headlines, meta descriptions, meta tags, and in the search titles that are displayed in the SERPs. Ignoring the potential of the words would be a fool’s move since these mere words act as a catalyst when it comes to compelling users to prefer your search result over others.
Because of its importance, you need to carefully craft your content in way that it hits right with the audiences. Anything from power words to emotionally-charged vocabulary or terms that generate a positive reaction will work in your favor. Additionally, the usage of keywords in your meta description or title tag will also generate fruitful results. However, refrain from practicing keyword stuffing because it will always backfire!
Focus on Internal Linking
Internal links are great since it keeps the users engaged long enough on your website to decrease your bounce rate. However, you can only achieve the desired effects if you are careful with this strategy because adding irrelevant internal links will only confuse your readers.
So find the right linking opportunities; such that either answers a reader’ question or provides further reading material on any topic. Through this way, you can control your bounce rate and on the other hand, the search engine crawlers will get enough link juice to keep them satisfied!
Improve Site’s Speed
Did you know that slow loading websites affect search engine ranking, cause a decrease in web traffic, and negatively impact sales? If your website takes more than three seconds to load, you are already in trouble. You can work on your website’s speed by looking into a couple of options. For instance, investing in a CDN would speed up your website by allowing users to access a copy of your website from data centers located closer to their geographical locations.
Additionally, you can optimize the web pages by cutting down on everything that takes a toll on your speed, i.e. heavy graphics, images, or third-party plugins.
The Takeaways
Improving a website’s rank is not difficult if you know which SEO techniques need to be implemented. That said, times are changing fast and what once worked may not work the same in enhancing your ranks. So, you need to figure out the favorable SEO strategies and craft an SEO plan that will make your website immune to Google’s changing algorithms.
Author
Anne Taylor is a serial blogger with technical and business background. She loves writing about digital marketing, IT industry and workplace productivity. She is currently the content writer for Dynamologic Solutions.