Creating a quality website is the first step in well-planned online marketing strategies. However, you can’t create a website and just expect people to flock to it – this isn’t “Field of Dreams,” and unfortunately, the phrase “if you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply.
That doesn’t mean there’s no hope. Thanks to SEO – search engine optimization – you can take steps to help your site rank well in SERPs (search engine results pages). Some of the steps that will help you with this goal are listed here.
Take Steps to Improve the CTR of Your Best-Ranked Pages
The title tag is an important HTML element. It should let someone know what your page is about without any additional information. Your title is what a person uses to determine if they will click through to your page. The ratio of people who click your link is the CTR – click-through rate.
While CTR isn’t a ranking factor (per Google), many professionals offering SEO services near me still believe it matters and affects your page’s ranking.
Regardless of what you believe, the purpose of ranking high in SERPs is to get more people to your page. If you can create a title tag that convinces people to click on your site instead of others – you have won.
Some tips that will help you improve your title tags and make them more enticing include:
- Put power words in your title. Power words create emotion and help make titles more compelling. However, don’t use too many power words, or they will cancel each other out. Choose ones that are relevant to your page.
- Add parentheses or brackets. This helps break the title up and improve readability.
- Harness the power of curiosity. Make someone want to click to find out more by using curiosity. Just don’t overdo it. Never get into “clickbait” territory.
- Don’t make your title too long. Google will cut off title tags at 50 to 60 characters. Be sure yours are short and sweet.
Optimize the Existing Content on Your Website
Look at the content on your site now. Search engine optimization is all about making sure all your content ranks well. If you didn’t engage in SEO tactics when you created and posted the content, it’s not too late.
Here’s how you can do this:
- Find pages on your site you haven’t updated for at least 12 months.
- Review the page to determine if the content is outdated or if it needs to be improved. In many cases, you may have outdated content or just needs a refresh.
When reviewing your pages, identify any changes that should be made. You can send this to your editing team or handle it yourself. Once changes are made, push them live so Google can index the “fresh” content. If you make significant updates, your page may also receive a “freshness boost.” Also, since you have taken steps to improve your content, it will probably perform better in search results and improve your SEO rankings.
Create a Link-Worth Site
When creating effective online marketing strategies, ensure you create web pages that are unbiased, authoritative, rich in valuable content, and that help visitors discover more about what you offer. These types of sites are most likely to get links from other sites. This is something that also improves SEO.
You can improve your credibility and authority by adding relevant links to your content. Rather than using links with anchor text like “click here,” write out the destination name. Just using anchor text like “click here” for links doesn’t add any search engine value past the URL attached.
However, when you enter the destination name, you are using something rich in keywords, which will improve your rank in SERPs and help the page you are linking to. Make sure to always use descriptive links by linking the keywords. This improves SEO and adds value for readers, including those who are using screen readers or others with disabilities.
Improve the Page Speed of Important Pages on Your Website
Have you ever clicked on a webpage that took a long time to load? If you did, there’s a good chance you clicked the back button and looked elsewhere for the needed information.
Google officially announced that page speed was a ranking factor in 2010. With mobile-first indexing being in place, having a page that loads quickly is even more important.
You should have realized this by now, but in case you missed the memo – slow-loading pages aren’t good for business or SEO. You can use the PageSpeed Insights tool from Google (that’s free) to see if your pages are loading quickly enough.
One of the biggest issues with PageSpeed Insights is that you must check each page’s speed, one at a time. This can be tedious, especially if you have a large site. It’s smart to prioritize the pages with the most search traffic. These pages will benefit the most from your search engine optimization efforts. You can find these pages through Google Analytics.
If your pages take too long to load, you can take a few steps to improve the speed. These include:
- Reduce the size of your images. If you use WordPress, there are plugins you can use to help with this.
- Enable browser caching. It’s possible to let users load your page without sending an HTTP to the server for repeat visits, which speeds up load times.
Structure Your Content to Display for Featured Snippets
Featured snippets are the large boxes you see at the top of Google SERPs. These appear before the number one listing. The content displayed in featured snippets is pulled from a result in the top 10 organic results. Also, if your content is formatted properly, you can appear in this featured snippet spot.
To do this, use the following formatting suggestions:
- Use subheadings to describe each part of your content.
- Sometimes, Google puts sub-headings in a list-based Featured Snippet.
- Be sure subheads use the same type of H tag.
With consistent H tags, Google understands that the subheadings are “equal” on your page.
Write New Content Using Low-Competition Keywords
Some sites struggle to improve their SEO because the keywords being targeted are extremely competitive. You have to find keywords with minimal competition to rank for.
Question Keywords
You can try targeting question keywords. These are great for two reasons. One, they are specific questions your target audience is actively looking for answers for. Usually, they aren’t extremely competitive. It’s possible to find question keywords by looking at the “People also ask” section in Google search results. To do this, search for a keyword and then scroll down the page until you see the “People also ask” questions.
Long-Tail Keywords
Another option is long-tail keywords, which are terms that don’t receive many searches on their own. However, they make up a lot of the terms people are actively searching for.
If you have a newer site or if your site is struggling with SEO, you should focus on long-tail keywords.
Fill in Gaps in Your Existing Content
People search for the same thing in different ways. Google knows this and ranks keywords that are almost identical in a similar way. If you have a page that ranks number one for a certain keyword, there’s a good chance it ranks well for around 1,000 other relevant keywords, too.
This means you should cover a single topic with a lot of detail and include all the subtopics under one main topic. Doing this will help you rank for several long-tail terms and is something that should be included in online marketing strategies.
This results in even more traffic to your webpage.
Also, thanks to “co-occurrence” and “phrase-based indexing,” it may be possible to improve your ranking for your focus keyword.
Quick Tip: Google can more easily identify the relevance of content when the co-occurrence of phrases and words is present.
Replicate Backlinks from Low-Quality, Outdated Pages
Does this sound like something that has happened to you:
- You searched for something on Google
- Clicked the top result
- Found a piece of content that didn’t answer your query
You may wonder how this page ranked number one.
There’s good news. While you didn’t find what you were looking for, these results present a good opportunity. After all, if low-quality content can get high-quality links and rank well on Google, you can too. Your job is to create something better.
Improving Your SEO
If you want to improve your SEO but don’t have time to invest in this yourself, search for SEO services near me. Working with professionals will help ensure effective and quality online marketing strategies are created to help you rank well on Google and to solidify your brand or business as an industry leader. Being informed is the best way to ensure you get the results desired for your website.
At Small Business SEO, our team can help you optimize your site for SEO and ensure you achieve your goals for your online marketing strategy.
