Are you still in business despite COVID-19? Please count your blessings. As a brand, you have a whole lot of other stuff to count like followers, likes, and so on with over 20 social media apps at your disposal.
According to data shared by Statista, Google is still the most popular website worldwide and gets more than 86 billion total monthly visits.
Ranking high on Google is still one of the biggest challenges. Firstly, it’s competitive and secondly, you need to figure out how Google’s algorithm works.
Focus on-page SEO
Here are some best practices to help you with on-site SEO:
Use your keywords at the beginning of your title tags
Focus on creating long-form content (aim for at least 1,800 words)
Insert your keyword two to three times per page (keyword stuffing will get you the opposite result)
2. Don’t neglect technical SEO
Make sure that:
All your pages are secure
Your site is optimized for mobile
You don’t have any plagiarized content or similar content on different pages of your own site
Pages load quickly
All the links work
3. Don’t settle for low-quality content (ever)
By creating great, shareable content, you create backlinks that show the relevance of your content. It is important to share good quality content.
Try contacting other authoritative websites and brands and asking them if they would be interested in publishing a guest post that you’ve written is also important.
4. Create internal links
An internal link is a hyperlink that links to another page on the same domain. In short, they help Google with finding and indexing your web pages.
One of the advantages of using internal links is that the anchor text may match the content exactly. So, they’re pretty straightforward to create and you don’t have to rely on other third-party websites. Ideally, you should place the internal links toward the beginning of the web page. A lot has been written about content and keywords. Most of the time, this is immediately associated with written content like blog posts, white papers, state of the industry reports, etc. However, content can (and should) also be in the form of video.
5. Include LSI keywords
LSI keywords (aka latent semantic indexing) refer to related phrases that a search engine like Google can use to get a better understanding of a page’s content.
For example, if your main keyword is influencer marketing, LSI keywords can be words and phrases like social media, marketing campaigns, brands, Instagram, marketers, endorsements, etc. You get the idea.
6. “E-A-T” more
Google E-A-T is another three-letter acronym that can help you in the new year. Basically, it stands for expertise, authority, and trust. These are three elements that Google looks at when working out the ranking potential of your website. It’s even more important if your website focuses on so-called YMYL topics (aka your money or your life). These typically include content that offers medical, legal, safety, or financial information.
7. Match search intent
Do you know what your target audience actually wants to know about the topics that you plan to write about? You might think that they already know all the basics about a topic like influencer marketing and want to know all the in-depth details or vice versa.
Basically, Google rewards the websites that share content that people are searching for most often.
8. Improve your bounce rate
If visitors land on your site, look at one of your pages and return back to the search page in a matter of seconds, it will hurt your search rankings. To Google, this is an indication that users aren’t impressed with your website. In other words, a lower bounce rate shows that users actually enjoy browsing your site.
Not only is a low bounce rate better for search ranking, but it will also mean that visitors have more time to get better acquainted with your brand which can help to increase sales and customer loyalty. After all, isn’t this your real goal at the end of the day?
9. Incorporate video
Remember, Google offers not only results, but also video, images, and news articles to help create a better user experience.
10. Share statistical data
From time to time, you can also try to include content, like facts and figures, that others can quote on their own blogs. Content creators often link back to statistics which can earn you valuable backlinks.
11. Boost your click-through rate
While rankings are important, you should also keep an eye on organic traffic. After all, what’s the use that your target audience stumbled upon your site via an online search, but didn’t actually visit your website? This is why monitoring your click-through rate is crucial.
12. Create a Google My Business Profile
Businesses can also get a better Google ranking for local searches by creating a Google My Business profile. In short, a Google My Business profile helps you to control how your business appears across Google products such as Search and Maps.
So, double-check that all your business details, like contact details, business hours, and address, are correct and complete. According to Google’s help page, relevance and prominence play a key role.
13. Audit your brand and content
Your overall branding can also impact your ranking. As mentioned, your Google E-A-T score essentially takes into account if your brand can be trusted. Do you come across as an expert in your field? While the quality of your content will play a huge role, it will be of less help if your branding isn’t applied consistently.
14. Keep track of your results
Not only should you audit your brand and content regularly, but it’s also key that you monitor your SEO results. While it won’t improve your SEO directly (Google won’t know about this step), if you don’t know how much organic traffic you’re getting, what’s the point? This also helps you to double-check that you are, in fact, ranking for all the keywords that you’re targeting.
15. Don’t be afraid to hire experts
While there are more technical elements like mobile optimization and web page speed that you’ll be more inclined to leave to the professionals, it doesn’t mean that everything else you should do on your own. Whether you need a freelance content writer or a UX designer, if there’s any other aspect that you feel you need help with, hire the help of the professionals. We’re talking about your online presence here. That’s a lot that’s at stake.
Conclusion
If you’ve dreaded SEO in the past, don’t drag old fears along with you into the new year. Sure, we’ve shared a long list of things to do and change, but as you’ve probably picked up many of these are linked.
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