A lot has changed in the world of search engine optimization – and there are a lot of SEO tips out there.
Keywords reveal a lot more about users and what they’re struggling with.
With so many SEO techniques, it’s become almost impossible to determine which ones to stick to and which you can safely ignore.
Is link building a thing of the past? Should you devote your time and energy to on-page SEO? How can you write a title tag to drive your rankings with search engines? Where do SEO and social media intersect?
If you focus on these techniques alone, you’ll definitely drive more organic traffic to your blog and improve your search rankings without risking a Google penalty.
Let’s get started:
1. Remove Anything that Slows Down Your Website
Page speed is a critical factor in SEO.
In the past, you could get away with a slow-loading site. I recall when I had to wait for about five minutes before a popular news site fully loaded.
I’m sure you can relate to that. That’s never a good experience but it’s the kiss of death in today’s marketplace. A slow page frustrates users and ultimately discourages people from buying your product.
As businesses become more aware of the opportunities to generate targeted leads and increase revenue through search engine optimization, there is a huge demand for speed.
10 years ago on April 9, 2010, Google included site speed as one of the all-important ranking factors.
This means that if your pages are slow, you’re fighting a losing battle for top organic listings, regardless of the quality of your content or your professional website design.
Get rid of non-essential elements that slow down your site. If you’re a Word Press user, consider deactivating plugins you don’t actually need.
2. Link to Other Sites with Relevant Content
Some people think, linking out to relevant and authoritative content pages is bad because it takes people off your page.
But, I don’t think so. Link building remains a fundamental part of smart search engine optimization strategy. I link out to tons of high-quality sites and sources, including my direct competition.
According to Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz,
Linking out sends trackable traffic, it makes your site a more valuable and scalable resource.
You should only link out to content pages that offer tremendous value. It’s a good SEO practice.
More important, you can notify an influencer when you link out to them, and, if your post is valuable, they can link back to you, share the post, or even email it to their huge email subscriber list.
Link building is also all about quality, not quantity. You’ll build more trust in your niche if you have a few authoritative links rather than a dozen poor quality links.
3. Write for Humans First and Second for Search Engines
Today more and more bloggers and content creators are going back to the old method of SEO, where keywords meant to drive search results surpassed the real qualities of engaging, valuable content. If that’s you, it’s absolutely time to change your mindset.
Many people still aren’t capitalizing on long-tail keywords, preferring instead to attempt to manipulate search engines.
That’s the wrong approach.
Don’t prioritize search engines over the actual humans reading your work. Instead, write content for the user, people who have eyes to read and credit cards to purchase your product.
So, what does it mean to write for users first, before search engines?
Well, it’s simple.
Forget that Google and other search engines exist when you’re writing. Instead, create content that will help someone. This is known as SEO copywriting.
Q4 Recap. Optimizing for international exposure? Ensure your website is set up with these crucial elements. #SemrushChat pic.twitter.com/zOQ060Fzkc
— Semrush (@semrush) January 27, 2021
4. Encourage Other Trusted Sites to Link to You
When you combine do-follow and no-follow links, you get a natural link profile that even Google will reward.
Content marketing is all about creating high-quality, engaging content that drives people to link to you and share your content on social media.
When you’re at the forefront of your industry, creating useful content and linking to authoritative blogs, you’ll find that more people will link to you naturally. This is the essence of effective link building.
5. Write Unique and Relevant Meta Descriptions for Every Page in your site
One of the most important SEO tips that most people neglect is the well-crafted Meta description.
The Meta description is the first section that people see when Google serves up your page to search users.
Generally, the search engine giant doesn’t like duplicate content. In the same vein, duplicate Meta descriptions could get you into trouble. But, even if you don’t get penalized straight away, you’re still not providing a great user experience.
You can’t have the same Meta description for a page that talks about email marketing and a page on making sales. There’s a big difference in those topics and your Meta descriptions should communicate that fact.
Bonus SEO Tip: Don’t Change Your Site Domain Name Regularly
The age of a domain or web page is also one of the top SEO tips you should keep in mind. Indeed, it’s crucial for your success. For this reason, don’t constantly change your domain name. Pick one and stick with it, unless there’s a very good reason to change.
I hope you’ve found these SEO tips helpful. If you follow the tips above, you’ll be on your way to higher rankings and more traffic.
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