Let’s admit it, every online business owner dreams of occupying the top spot on the SEO marketing for their targeted keywords. However, contrary to popular belief, it takes more than having relevant content and links to get a site ranking highly on Google and attracting organic traffic.
Are you looking to generate consistent traffic from Google by ranking your site using SEO? Here, we explain a few effective techniques that we’ve used to rank hundreds of businesses for our HQ SEO clients.
Let’s get started!
Improve your site load speed
Multiple studies show that the attention span of humans continues to decline in this digital age, and now most internet users don’t have the patience to wait for a site that loads for more than three seconds. In view of this, you must continuously assess, monitor, and improve your site speed to load content faster on both desktop and mobile devices. Some of the key areas to focus on while executing page speed optimisation include:
Images
Using an image editor, compress and optimise all images on your website to minimise their size and also convert them into web-friendly formats like PNG or JPG.
Caches
Caches are temporary memory locations where browsers store site resources to increase data transfer when users re-visit the site or other pages inside it. You can manually enable browser caching by adding a code to the .htaccess file or use plugins if you’re using WordPress.
Script handling
JavaScript and CSS files are notorious for slowing down website speed when operating independently. To optimise site speed, consider merging these scripts in a single file so that only one call is made to the server to load their content.
Implement a functional linking strategy
In essence, links are supposed to point to internal or external web resources for purposes of referencing. The aim is to refer your audience to credible resources while also creating linkable content assets that attract links from other websites.
Only link to credible content
Ensure that the external or internal pages you recommend have trustworthy, authoritative, and relevant content for the reader.
Monitor links and quickly repair the broken ones
The last thing your visitors want is to bump on a 404 error on an external link they followed from your website. Google has also been found to frown upon sites with broken outbound links and this is exactly what you should be avoiding – getting in Google’s bad books.
To avoid ruining your visitors experience and potentially losing Google’s trust, use powerful tools like Screaming Frog to spot and fix broken links as soon as they appear.
Capitalise on-site mentions
A free but highly effective tool to use when looking for site or brand mentions is Google Alerts. This service identifies every platform that mentions your brand on the web. With this information, you can contact the owners of sites with unlinked mentions and request them to add a link back to your site.
Optimise your content for search engines
We cannot overemphasise the importance of implementing proper keyword research and placement for any webmaster looking for high site rankings in 2019.
For starters, you need to find the most profitable keywords with the least competition in your niche. You can then create detailed content around these terms with the intention to provide solutions to the reader.
A few content optimisation guidelines to follow include:
Use unique, concise, and natural titles
Including keywords in your titles is highly recommended; however, ensure that these terms fit in naturally and avoid overstuffing keywords.
Use clickable meta descriptions
Aside from including the keyword in the title, you need to create unique and irresistible meta descriptions for all posts and pages in your site. An effective meta description should offer search engine users the incentive to click through to your page.
Provide the best possible user experience
Having a neat site layout improves user experience by making it easier for users (and even search engine bots) to scan and digest your content. In the end, readers are able to spend more time consuming your information, and this indicates high site popularity in the eyes of search engines.
A few simple guidelines to follow to enhance user experience include:
- Use coloured and bold text to highlight important sections of your content.
- Use short paragraphs and proper line spacing to avoid creating unsightly walls of text.
- Apply the correct size of fonts to speed up reading.
- Segment your content using headings and subheadings while also adding appropriate keywords where necessary.
What are your most effective (and favourite) optimisation techniques when trying to rank websites? We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below! Contact The Weblab today.
