Everyone in the business wants more search leads because, in comparison to paid search results, organic searches get 8.5x more clicks!
There’s a lot more to SEO these days than there was two or three years ago. There is a wealth of SEO experts available these days, and everything has changed in the world of SEO. Some fundamental ideas, on the other hand, have remained constant.
It’s gotten so difficult to choose which SEO strategies to stick with and which ones to avoid that many people have stopped using the term SEO altogether.
SEO has always been a mixture of strategy and tactics, but now there are so many variables trying to understand SEO is like solving some Sudoku puzzle.
Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could find some quick tricks that would get search engines to favor your site and your content? That’s what so many people (including me) have been looking for.
The good news is: There are lots of little things that can increase your search visibility. Of course, you might not be able to use them all, but the more you learn about individual techniques, the better.
Top 12 SEO tips that will help to rank your pages faster
I’ve gathered the top 12 most essential SEO pointers for you to use right now to ensure that your website ranks.
1. Keywords Positioning is the Key
Let’s start with the obvious one: Making sure that your site has keywords in some visible place.
You’re probably aware that keywords should be added to pages you want to rank. But the way you use your keywords is just as essential as how many times you put them.
Search engines use these to create their index for your pages, so it is crucial to make them count. This is why you should try your best to include your target keyphrases or keywords as early on as possible and at least once in the title tag and page URL.
2. Keeping users on your site for longer
The longer your clients stay on your website, the more likely they will visit other pages and click on internal links.
So place links strategically throughout content – blogs, articles, or press releases – so that readers can discover new information through related files and webpages.
The more value the customers will find on your website, the more time they spend with you. And Google will value this too in SERP ranking.
One important tip is to keep your site super fast and accessible, or you could be pushing potential visitors away with every second that ticks by.
3. Delete Zombie/Ghost Pages
Now and then, we all find pages that we have created and then forgotten about.
These are pages on your site that don’t attract any visitors. For example, pages that were meant to be temporary.
But they’re still indexed by the search engines and still count toward your site’s page total.
If you want to keep these for any reason, at least remove them from the index so that only Googlebot can see them. In addition, these so-called “zombie” or ghost pages make it harder for you to rank in SERP with your optimized content on other relevant pages (when all of your best original pages have less weight).
4. Add Text to Infographics, Podcasts, Videos, and Slide Shows
If you create infographics, podcasts, videos, or slide shows on your website, be sure to add a text description of the content. This is crucial because it’s one way to ensure that Google can properly display relevant information in the search results when your clients look for related topics.
This step isn’t automatic. For example, at Slideshare, we sometimes forget to include a text description with our visual content, so be sure to remember!
5. Make sure your site is mobile-friendly
This one goes without saying these days, but if you haven’t created a mobile version of your website yet (or even if you have), then it’s time to do so soon.
Mobile compatibility has become essential for two reasons: It will help your site get indexed correctly make sure that search engines understand what you are trying to say instead of just guessing.
Adding a mobile component or app to your website isn’t hard, but there are several things to consider before doing so. For example, resize the desktop page and create an icon – optimize the content to increase speed and conversion rates.
It might also be helpful to add some text with keywords that mobile users frequently use. So, if you’re in the retail business, for example, make sure to include expressions like “shop now” or “buy online.”
6. Keep an eye on your competitors
It’s always useful when looking into SEO strategies to keep a close eye on what your competitors do. For example, they might be linking out to other sites relevant to their industry; add those links to your website as well and see where they take you (if not your competition’s site).
Another way of using this information is to rank above you for certain phrases (and, of course, you want those!). Studying how your competitors rank and discovering their link sources can help you produce better-optimized content, leading to improved organic visibility.
7. Speed up your Website
It’s a fact that most visitors won’t wait more than 3 seconds for your page to load. However, pages that take more than 10 seconds to load should be considered long-loading pages in some cases.
Most of the time, you can fix this issue by simply upgrading your server or making sure you’re using SSL encryption over HTTP (it is faster).
Lastly, it might help to delete any unnecessary files from your website – like old pictures, script templates, or anything else. And don’t forget to optimize graphic elements with the right file size and dimensions!
PERC has created a relationship with the fastest WordPress hosting you can get right now that isn’t dedicated hosting that costs hundreds of dollars per month. Check out WPX hosting, and their independent tests and reviews to confirm. We’ve moved all our projects and clients over to WPX and couldn’t recommend a hosting company more than them for all your WordPress hosting needs.
8. Use the Google Search Console
The Google Search Console is a tool that will help you find and fix potential issues with your site. It’s also the place where you can check if Google bots are regularly crawling your pages or not, so it’s definitely important to use for any optimizer looking to improve their rankings in SERPs.
For example, make sure to keep Google up-to-date regarding changes to your page titles and meta descriptions so that they appear correctly. Also, don’t forget to submit your sitemap because even though it might seem like an unnecessary task (or one that you could perform manually on occasion), this way, you’ll be able to monitor the indexation process of all of your new content quickly.
Finally, note that sending a Sitemap every two months is a good practice – but don’t send any more than that.
The Google Search Console should be used regularly – you might even want to start using it for your site if you haven’t already. If you know what your problems are, then taking care of them becomes much easier!
9. Link to Other Websites with Relevant Content
You should try to avoid simply linking to your social media accounts, but if you have such content on your website, make sure that it’s relevant and well-organized. After all, search engines look for websites with many user interactions (likes, shares) and high-quality content.
Similarly, links to other trustworthy or authority sites can improve your site’s visibility in SERPs and increase its trustworthiness over time (because visitors might also think better of it).
10. Write for Humans First, Search Engines Second
One mistake that many people make is thinking that they need to write specifically for bots. While Google and other search engines do have bots dedicated to indexing content, in the end, you should always keep in mind that your audience will be reading your content – not a computer.
Therefore, it’s good when optimizing websites to use natural language (plain English) while still including all the necessary expressions and keywords. Like John Mueller of Google says: “Think about what would help users most.”
11. Check out Broken Links on Your Website
You might forget about broken links or neglect them because they don’t affect user experience directly. However, these small issues can cause big headaches down the road since if you manage to get one page of your site penalized by Google, then all of the outlines pointing to it will also be affected.
As a general SEO tip, make sure you keep track of broken links on your website and check that they’re redirected to proper pages. Otherwise, the visitors might get frustrated or even leave.
One of our favorite tools to check for broken links, back links, rankings and more is SEMRush.com. It’s worth a subscription for your site to track your site analytics, and even your competitors!
12. Do a periodic content audit
Just like broken links, content that is no longer relevant or updated can hurt your site’s visibility. Always make sure you know what data appears on your pages and if you find out that some of it is either outdated or just not needed (for example, old meta tags), delete it right away.
It might sound simple at first, but often, people forget about the relevance of their content and end up keeping important pages with very little information on them – which leads to having these essential web pages indexed too fast (and gets them penalized by Google).
You could do a quick check yourself – but we recommend using tools for in-depth audits instead! For example, Monitor Backlinks has a Content Optimization feature that you could use to check your pages for freshness and more.
Conclusion
Rank fast with these top SEO tips! They’re simple, but they can make a world of difference if you implement them correctly. So try to use some of them in your next SEO campaign and enjoy the results! Feel free to reach out for any help related to SEO.
