Despite the long term of an SEO field existence, the discussions on how to boost website rankings don’t stop. It happens because of changes in algorithms of search engines. And an ability to adapt to those changes quickly, largely determines if some online business has future in a whole.
The variety of articles with numerous tips and tricks used by different SEO specialists to increase website ranking appear all the time. Follow those bits of advice cautiously. Since search engines roll out new updates of their algorithms from time to time, there are a lot of things that don’t work today as it was a couple years ago. But, nevertheless, there are certain methods to get higher ranking which always bring the desired effect.
1Keyword research
Looking at the sad results shown by a website in ranking, an amount of traffic and conversions etc., and making a decision to change the situation, in most cases, people don’t know where to start exactly. You have to start from the start, actually. And everything begins from a keyword list. So, get back to your keywords and make a proper research to define the weak ones and exclude them, and add new ones which certainly bring you the needed results.
It always amazes me when so many articles with the suggestions on how to improve a website ranking tell about everything and avoid the initial possible mistake. It happens more often than you could have thought when low website rankings become a result of the wrongly picked keywords to rank for. First of all, I strongly suggest you not to rely blindly on any kind of automatic keyword generators.
Take this keyword list check seriously if you really want to get high rankings for your website. I suppose the article about how to choose keywords for SEO will help you a bit.
2Content
Only the unique content! Yes, I know that you have heard about this so many times. And I am aware myself that there are websites that have top positions on SERPs, although their content is a total crap. But you should know that, first of all, in the most cases, such results are temporary. And, the second, they get them through the aggressive and often illegal methods of boosting the rankings. Plus, as a rule, a lot of money are involved here to maintain these results. Do you need all of this? Be my guest and stop further reading then.
But if your purpose is a long term solid online presence on Tops it is worth to spend time and forces on unique content creation which would be interesting to your audience. And I can assure you that it is not so hard as it may seem. Think about it, what can be more unique than your own valuable thoughts? But you have them, right? 🙂
So, use your keywords (keep an eye on their density), write quality content, satisfy the search engines as well as your users, and get higher rankings.
3Backlinks
Time to clean up. Conduct total revision of your backlinks profile. Honestly, how many of them actually add value? And how many of them just mar the overall picture? Get rid of all bad and precarious ones. As the backlinks profile is cleaned up, enter on finding new opportunities.
They can be right before you, by the way. Check out the mentions of your brand, company, your self-name, whatever, on the Web. If you found those ones and there are no active links to your website, request the site owners to provide them to you.
The more authoritative websites that link back to you, the more juice is brought through such links. And again, you won’t get even close to those websites without qualitative content. To get links from them you need something valuable to offer.
As for the directories and all that stuff, they don’t bring much-added value and the effect of boosting traffic is temporary. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them at all.
And one more thing, when putting links in your texts try to use the title of the article you’re linking to as an anchor instead of “here” and “there” etc.
4HTML
Check your meta tags. If they are present, not duplicated and filled in correctly. We are talking about Title and Description, first of all, since they are among those elements which the search engines use to understand what your page is about and if it suits as an answer to user’s query.
Be sure that only one <h1> tag is present in a page text, images have no empty Alt tag or Title tag and all main thoughts are highlighted with the help of bold or italic texts.
The most important thing is that all listed elements should be relevant to each other. Otherwise, if some elements are irrelevant to other ones, it confuses a search engine and it prefers not to show such page as a result of SERP. The empty tags don’t provide any information to a search engine at all. Which is not a good thing either.
5HTTPS
The secured connection, undoubtedly, wins some extra bonuses for your website, at least in Google’s eyes. Furthermore, it will help you not just to rank higher, but also attract Internet users as they start to appreciate online safeness more and more. The presence of an SSL certificate gives your website stronger positions, proves your seriousness and care about your visitors.
Of course, the switching from HTTP to HTTPS can cause a lot of troubles but it is worth to do, anyway. Among a few equal websites Google will choose the secured one, that is for sure. Plus, who knows what is the next update of an algorithm will be rolled out… Do yourself a favor and make your website the secured one if you haven’t done it yet. Check out a few thoughts on why should you switch to SSL.
6Mobile friendliness
Make sure your website is optimized for cell phones and tablets. In other words, make your site available to users from any device they are willing to use. In 90% everything that improves user experience improves website ranking as well because any search engine tries hard to satisfy a user, and, thus, if your online resource meets this unwritten rule sooner or later it will be noticed and rewarded with higher positions on SERPs.
Just think how many people, and I am sure you are not an exception, use mobile devices to get information on the go. It is an enormous share of all Internet users and it grows from day to day. Thus, it is not surprising at all that Google literally forces owners to develop the mobile versions of their sites. In addition, if you are an owner of some local business the mobile friendliness gives you undeniable advantages and brings you a lot more traffic and conversions too.
7On-page optimization
So, another one “big secret”. I am talking about the things related to a website on-page optimization which are considered by the search engines algorithms when ranking sites. First of all, constantly monitor your site for any broken links and eliminate them immediately if you have found ones. The search engines don’t like to irritate their users, so the presence of “not found” pages directly leads to lower rankings.
The website load speed takes its honorable second place. To make your site load faster you can use the following tips:
- Pages compression
- Images optimization (their size and formats)
- Getting rid of all the excessive page elements (fonts, widgets etc.)
Avoid all possible duplications. No, Google won’t penalize you, unless you are purposely trying to manipulate search results through duplication. But, searching for an answer for user’s query Google will pick up the first appropriate one and exclude all repetitions. Thus, all your duplicate pages become useless in terms of common website ranking.
8User behaviour
Learn to manage the behaviour of your visitors. Make them stay as much longer as you can on your website and view more pages. The number of pageviews and time spent on a site are strong signals to Google and other search engines, so they are able to add positions on SERPs.
To keep them on your site you have always to post an interesting and valuable content. Each article should be approximately 2,000 words. With screens, mems and listings to not get user bored. Write in simple words. Don’t force a user to decipher your thoughts. Make them interact, let them share their opinion and answer their comments.
Keep in mind that if a user finds your content valuable enough he will share it on social networks (make sure to provide such possibility). In spite of some discussions, the spreading of your content through social networks by your visitors it is also a good signal for the search engines, although it is an indirect one.
9Reputation
I believe you all know that Google adores authoritative sites and even forgive them some derogations from the generally accepted rules. Although, to become the giant I am talking about here, is a very tough task, you have to strive for it, anyway. Sites with a solid reputation rank a lot higher because the website authoritativeness is also counted and it is one of the strongest indicators that this online resource is trusted and, thus, worth to be shown up on top positions on SERPs.
There are certain actions to improve a website online reputation and increase an authority of your domain name. You can find hundreds of articles on the subject on the Internet. But all of them have one main thought: communicate with your users and niche leaders, be honest, share your experience, say sorry when you are wrong and take into account each feedback, especially the negative one. The worst thing you can do is to ignore them.
10Analysis and improvement
The only way not just to boost your rankings but also to stay on top is to monitor your website online performance on the daily basis and react on tiny changes immediately. Improve your website, regularly update content and stay up to date with all news concerning the search engines algorithms.
Thankfully, nowadays to find some automatic tools which can ease your life and help you to solve SEO tasks that you face, is not a problem at all. But don’t go too far and don’t use tools which should not be used (content generators, for example). Otherwise, the only thing you will gain it is the damage of the results you have already achieved.
So, in conclusion, I wish to say, no matter what you do, the main thought that you have to keep in mind is that all your actions should be aimed to prove the search engines and their users that your website worth the attention. Only in this case you will succeed.
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