The world of search engine optimization is always changing but there are SEO tips that can always help your website.
One, for example, is targeting the right keywords for your website. Another is having quality content. There are many others, too.
In this article, we want to provide some of the top SEO tips that you need to know right now.
These techniques will help you improve your search rankings and drive more organic traffic to your site.
So, let’s get started.
Use the Right Keywords
One of the most important SEO tips, and a staple of SEO, is using the right keywords. And you probably already know you need to add keywords to pages you want to rank for. First, you’ll need to start with keyword research to find and choose the right keywords.
But, it’s also important that you use your keywords in the right places, too. Each page should have its keyword focus. For every page, your URL, title, and content should share keywords and closely-related words.
First, your URL should include your keyword or keyphrase. It could look something like this:
Then, your title will also have your keyword:
And finally, you want to place your keyword within the first 200 words of your content:
Find Competitor Keywords
This is one of my favourite SEO tips.
You’ll need to use Google Keyword Planner for this one. Luckily, it’s free and only requires a Google account.
Ever wondered what keywords your competitors are using? When you’re researching for keyword ideas, you can use a competitor’s website or a specific page.
You’ll be shown a list of keywords used, along with search volume and competition.
Whether it’s for a blog post or a product page, you can find keywords ideas you can use for your website.
Write for People, Not Search Engines
The old SEO way of thinking was about creating content overloaded with keywords to rank quickly on Google. Now, that’s almost impossible to do with Google cracking down on any black hat techniques.
So, instead, write content with your audience in mind. Think about how you want users to interact with your content and how that helps to reach your goals. Maybe your content helps to sell a product or service, maybe it helps to increase newsletter subscriptions.
But, search engines won’t become customers and won’t engage with your content. So it’s important to create content that will help someone. Once people read your content and find it helpful, search engines will realize you’re a legitimate source of information.
Optimize Your Images
Today your website speed is more important than ever. This means any little adjustment can help to improve that. Images are no different.
You should make sure your images are compressed and optimized so they download as quickly as possible. The size of your images can significantly impact how fast your website and individual pages load.
It’s also important that you give the proper alt text to your images. Google can’t read your images, yet. So you need to tell them what your images are about.
This is a great opportunity to earn extra traffic from Google image search. You should add alt text that is descriptive and relevant to the photo.
Install Web Analytics from the Beginning
One of the most important SEO tips people forget is set up web analytics.
After setting your goals, you need a way to track them. Whether your goal is conversions, engagements, or views, you need to know your website’s performance.
Software like Google Analytics and Google Search Console can help you track your success. Google Analytics allows you to analyze in detail the visitors coming to your website. Search Console helps monitor how Google sees your site and optimize its organic presence.
These tools are invaluable assets that can help you get the most out of your website.
Write Relevant Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are the first thing people see on a search result. It’s your way of showing off what your site has to offer.
Every meta description you write should be unique, interesting and relevant to the content on that specific page enticing clicks.
When writing your meta description, don’t forget to use your keyword, too. This gives you more of an opportunity to rank on Google.
If you’re a WordPress user, you can install the Yoast SEO plugin to help you write your meta descriptions.
When editing a post, head to the bottom of your page and you can add a title tag and meta description.
Find More Backlinks
One of the hardest things to do in SEO is to link build. Finding quality and valuable websites to link to you is always difficult. But, there are some ways you can earn links.
One link building strategy is to use the comment section on blogs or articles. First, find content that matches your own. Then, you can add your comment. Backlinko has a great template you can use for your comment.
Another strategy you can use is to take advantage of directory pages. Pages like Yellow Pages, Yelp, and 411 are examples of trustworthy directories you can get backlinks from. Directory backlinks should be one of the first links you build for your site because they’re almost guaranteed.
If you can make time for it, guest posting and podcasting is another great idea. With guest posting, you’ll earn a quick bio which includes a link to your website at the very least.
Becoming a podcast guest also helps create extra links to your website. Anything mentioned in that podcast will be linked in the show notes. Plus, it’s easier than pitching, writing, and editing a guest blog post.
Mobile-First Website
With Google using the mobile version of a site for indexing and ranking, you need to have a mobile-optimized website. To help with this, you can use Google AMP to create web pages that load quickly on mobile devices.
Google Search indexes AMP pages to provide a fast, reliable web experience. When an AMP page is available, it can be featured on mobile search as part of rich results and carousels. On mobile search, the AMP icon helps users quickly choose pages that load quickly and smoothly.
Improve Your Site Speed
Site speed is one of the most important aspects of your website. If your site is slow to load, this can increase your bounce rates and ultimately lowering your SEO ranking.
This is even more important now since Google’s speed update.
So, the best way to figure out how fast your website is and how to improve it is with Google PageSpeed Insights.
It gives you a score out of 100 for both mobile and desktop versions of your site. Plus, it suggests ways to improve your loading speed.
Some of the suggestions are as simple as using fewer plugins to changing image sizes.
Use a Simple Site Structure
This is a technical SEO tip all about user experience. You want people to come to your site and stay on your site. If your site is too confusing to use people will leave, hurting your organic ranking.
So making your site usable and simple goes a long way in getting visitors and keeping them. You want to build your site using a flat structure, something simple people can easily click through.
There are two reasons for this:
- A flat site structure makes it easier for Google to crawl and index your site.
- Link juice, or value, can easily flow from page to page.
Don’t forget the three-click rule: your users should be able to find any information with no more than three clicks.
Install an SSL Certificate
Moving your site to HTTPS should be considered, especially if visitors need to use their personal information. This is a must if you run an ecommerce business. The last thing you want is for people to have their credit card information stolen or email compromised.
Even if you don’t have an ecommerce business, your users want to feel safe and secure when visiting your website.
Security is not only a priority for your visitors but for Google, too. Google wants to ensure everyone using their products has a secure connection.
You can use Let’s Encrypt for your free SSL certificate.
Submit a Sitemap
A technical SEO tip, sitemaps are files that provides information about the pages of your website. Google uses this file to better crawl your site. It tells Google which pages are most important.
Sitemaps are useful if you have a large website with many pages. It makes it easier to crawl larger and more complex sites. Even if you don’t have a large website, you may want to add a sitemap to make sure all your pages can be found.
Good site architecture can be a big help, but it doesn’t hurt to add a sitemap. The more you can help Google, the better.
Sitemaps are also useful to tell Google to recrawl a page when it’s updated rather than waiting for Google to do it.
Final Thoughts
These are just a few important SEO tips you can use for your website. A couple of things to take away from this article is remember to focus on user experience and content. Also, Don’t forget to set up Google Analytics to track your website data. Finally, try to make things easier for Google to index your page.
If you can follow them, you should start to create better content and improve your organic ranking.
For any website, we suggest conducting a full SEO audit. A complete SEO strategy will take time to complete and to see the results.
