When you google something, how often do you go to the fifth or tenth page of Google? Never? You are not the only one here.
The latest study conducted by Infront Webworks has proved that sites that appear on the first page of Google search receive approximately 95% of web traffic. If you want people to visit your blog or online store more often, you have to enter the world of SEO (search engine optimization).
SEO is like magic that can assure your site appears on the first page of Google search and make your website look more credible and trustworthy.
It’s important to mention that implementing SEO strategies takes time and requires a lot of creativity, resourcefulness, persistence, and real dedication. That’s what you can do to improve the site’s ranking:
Audit your website
Before you get started, you should identify a range of your site’s problems, such as broken links or files. According to experts at Rankitor, regular audits help the website to reach its full potential.
Needless to say, conducting a manual site audit takes a lot of time and requires specific skills. Fortunately, there are a lot of different site audit tools; even Ahrefs has its own version!
Once you choose the tool, you will be able to identify off-page and on-page SEO issues, find duplicate content, assess page load speed issues and errors, etc.
Consider using several audit tools at the same time in order to generate the fullest report and determine which software can meet your needs.
Create quality content
You should start thinking like a user. You would not spend a lot of time on a site with poorly-written content and tons of obscene and vulgar ads, would you? Your website should attract new people, make them want to stay longer, and share posts on social media.
First of all, you need to define your target audience and then publish relevant, exciting content that would engage the site’s users.
Also, you should try to please Google with your content. These days, Google ranks long-form content much higher than short articles.
So, encourage your content writers to work on long articles that would include useful tips, photos, and infographics. That’s the way you can show Google that you are an expert at something.
Make sure the content on your website includes relevant and interesting headlines. It will help you to navigate your users.
To create better content, consider analyzing your competitors, and adding unique content types that other bloggers couldn’t come up with.
Do keyword research
Your target audience uses certain keywords to find your website. Your main task is to identify them and start implementing them in the text on your site. To do so, use special tools such as Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, Google Search Console, Google Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer, etc. Each of them can help you to choose a go-to keyword for your website and write content that ranks high on Google.
Run a link building campaign
To improve your ranking on Google, you need to make other websites with high traffic to link to your site.
To build links the right way, you should find the relevant sites where you can post for free or a small fee and define the target keyword that you will use as your anchor text. Consider mixing your anchor text with generic keywords in order to avoid getting penalized.
Make your site mobile friendly
These days, people spend more time using their smartphones than laptops. In fact, more than 60% of people browse through mobile phones on a daily basis.
That’s why you should make sure your website is mobile-friendly enough. Consider testing your website by using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
To make a mobile-friendly version of your site, start using a responsive theme on CMS, and media queries. Also, focus on simple design, optimize your image size, and use standard fonts.
To improve your rank in Google Mobile, consider using mobile SEO tools such as Mobile Meter, Our Mobile Planet, Pagespeed Insights, Google Adwords Keyword Tool, and Google Analytics.
For instance, using Google Analytics doesn’t really cost anything. On the other hand, it can help you to learn more about your mobile traffic and the way you can improve.
The bottom line
SEO techniques can help you to increase your ranking. This, in turn, can lead to better traffic and increased sales (in case you run an online store). It’s important to mention that SEO tools can also increase engagement on your website, boost your company’s credibility, help to beat competitors once and for all.
To increase your site’s ranking, you should audit your website, do keyword research, improve the quality of your content, and run an effective link-building campaign. Also, it’s crucial to make your site more mobile-friendly in order to attract new users.