We all want to be at the top of the competition. When it comes to digital marketing, sometimes big-name brands already take up space on top of the search engine results pages.
But search engine optimization (SEO) is a gamechanger for many businesses, small businesses in particular. It’s an integral part of internet marketing that levels the playing field for shops and other local brands that aim to compete.
The majority of online activities begin with a simple online search, whether you’re thinking of birthday presents, restaurants, or date nights.
How your website ranks depend on certain keywords and your domain authority. All these are affected by SEO. Google and other search engine algorithms often change to better serve its global users. If you’re a new business trying to break into the Internet’s overly saturated world, it’s important to always stay up-to-date with all the latest SEO tricks and trends.
Here are some easy and simple tips to make sure your website ranks higher on search engines.
The faster, the better
It’s 2020! You need your website to run and load fast. COVID-19 has gotten all of us sheltering in place and social distancing. Whether you’re selling masks, delivering groceries, or in business for curbside pickup, you need your website to work faster than your competitors.
Half of the Internet users expect a website to fully load within a couple of seconds. Many users bounce out of the site if it doesn’t load with 3-4 seconds. Some of them may never visit the site again if it takes a while to load.
Some solutions to improve your site’s speed is to make sure your images are compressed. Just by compressing images up to 30%, you’re guaranteeing a faster loading website for your users.
Another tip is to enable browser caching. This allows repeat site visitors to experience a faster load time as some of your site’s elements are cached. Reducing plugins is another way to improve site load times. So, deactivate or delete those unnecessary plugins on your site.
Secure your site
We want our online experience to be secure. Yes, securing your site is a top SEO trick. If there’s a good bandwagon to join, it’s the HTTPS bandwagon. This is a more secure version of the HTTP web protocol and works well with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to transfer information more securely. HTTPS encodes the data for security, not allowing data to be corrupted. This provides a safer and more secure experience for your site visitors.
How does this benefit your SEO? Chrome users, since 2017, have been warned by Google that the page is not secure. This causes potential clients to look for other secure sites. Google has also added this as a ranking factor.
Mobile-friendly website
It is now crucial for brands to have a mobile-friendly website. It’s no longer a luxury. Google has been prioritizing mobile responsive sites in its search results. More than 50% of web traffic come from mobile devices.
To know if your site is mobile-friendly, use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
A trick to remember when developing your mobile site is to remember that keywords are different on mobile than desktop. Mobile content should be easy to read on smaller devices like smartphones or tablets.
Create valuable content
Content marketing plays a crucial in improving your business’ search engine rankings. No one wants their time wasted. Not all content is created equal. So, make sure your content connects with your readers and adds value to their life, whether it’s informational or for entertainment.
What does it take to create engaging and useful content? While it’s important to explain what your products are, you’ll want to explore your users’ challenges and concerns and how your brand adds value to their lives.
Content is and will always be king. But it’s no longer the content’s length that search engines look at. It’s quality. Your content needs to be original and must be of high quality. Topics need to be engaging and relevant to your target audience. Develop a brand persona and research topics and keywords important to them.
User experience matters
Your SEO generated a good amount of leads, but it didn’t convert. What happened? Your users more than likely didn’t have a good experience using your website. Your site needs to be intuitive and easy to navigate so consumers have a seamless buying experience.
Google favors websites that offer a positive user experience.
Quick tips for improved user experience:
- Provide simple menu navigation
- Provide a clear list of all your categories
- Users should not have a difficult time navigating your site
- Simplify your website’s function and design
Social media presence is a must
All the important brands, influencers, and everyone with a smartphone are on social media. And social media is key to your SEO strategy. Your social media profiles rank in search engines. This means that your site visitors may be scrolling through your social media first to learn more about you.
Consumers are on social media for most of their days, and they use these channels as a sort of search engine. Whether it’s YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, the more present you are on social media, the more you increase your chances of connecting and engaging potential consumers.
Create more optimized online video content
More than half of Google keyword searches result in at least one video. Many Internet users rely on video content. Some search for how-to tips, cooking recipes, or online tutorials. And Google provides the results that add the most value to their users.
Optimized online video content improves your chances of showing up in Google’s video results tab.
Here are tips and tricks to optimize your video content.
- Create a video title that is both eye-catching to the users and SEO-friendly.
- Avoid clickbait titles and make sure the title indicates what the video’s about.
- The description should have keywords relevant to the video.
- Use a thumbnail image that encourages users to watch your video.
While these SEO tricks and trends sound simple, it can be overwhelming, especially when you’re balancing work and family life in these difficult times.
Let us help you optimize your site for search engines. Send us a message, and let’s talk about how we can improve your site’s SEO.
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