There are many different search engine optimization techniques that you can use to help your target keywords rank higher in the search results. Your business is probably already doing many of these basic techniques, like optimizing page content, creating Meta titles, and creating Meta descriptions. However, there are over 200 ranking factors, so just doing the bare minimum is not going to be enough. Throughout this post, I will go through some other techniques you can, and should use to improve your website’s SEO.
Checking Website Errors
As a website owner, it is important that you have set up a Google Webmaster Tools account. This type of account monitors your website’s errors. The most important type of errors we like to watch out for are 404 errors. If search engines and users are unable to access your site’s content, then the browser will return this type of error and are then stored in Google Webmaster Tools and will need to be redirected to the correct page for better user-experience using a 301 redirect.
Although having a lot of 404 errors does not directly affect a website’s SEO, it can affect user-experience because they prevent people from getting to your website. User-experience is a ranking factor, so it is important to get people to a site page that exists.
Internal Linking
Linking internally from one page to another can be very beneficial for your website’s SEO. By linking to other pages on your site, it pushes traffic around the site and could lead to higher trust of that site and the most important pages.
Below are the advantages of internally linking:
- It provides your readers with additional reading options, which can reduce bounce rate
- You can increase rank for a page for a specific keyword by internally linking to a specific anchor text for that page throughout they site
- It allows Google to navigate and crawl your website much easier
Proper Navigation
Depending on how big your website is every site page should link to almost all of the other site pages, if possible. This is why we have navigation on each page of the website. It is not just for the spiders to crawl, it is also for ease of use for the website visitors.
Longer Word Count
Although user have a much shorter attention span now than ever, spiders still need to know enough about the pages to be able to rank you correctly and for the right keywords. For an average piece of content plan on creating articles around 700-800 words long. However, for more informative content, it is important that you extend your content to give all the information necessary.
Increase Page Load Speed
As I stated above, people’s attention span is extremely small compared to what it used to be, so when it comes to page load speed, it is very important to have it optimized properly. According to several studies, web users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less. There are many ways you can speed up your site to ensure you are under those 2 seconds or less, which includes making images and website code smaller. If your site is slow, you may need to hire a development team, but I strongly suggest you do so. You can test your site speed here.
Image Attributes
Many people forget to include alt-text with their image, which is something that should not be overlooked. Alt-text allows you to give a description to an image, which in turns helps Google understand what it is about and the value it has for the page since they cannot ‘see’ it.
Additionally, by describing your image, you increase the chances of your images appearing in Google Image search for an extra form of traffic.
Proper URL Structures
It is important to have a URL structure that is optimized for the user so they know exactly what he page will be about when they look at the URL. Additionally, optimizing for the search engines is important because it helps the spiders understand what’s happening on the page to help your page rank higher.
**Advanced Tip: Schema Markup
Schema is a little more complicated to work with, but is becoming more and more important in the search results. Schema Markup is used to make your search results more attractive. It is a specific type of code that you put into the HTML code of the website. Depending on the type of website you have and what you are trying to achieve, schema allows you to add star-ratings, customer ratings, images, and other bits of information.
When it comes to SEO optimization, there are many different strategies that you can use for search. It is important to make sure that you are using more than one of those strategies otherwise you are limiting yourself and are probably not getting the most out of your SEO. Try using some of the ideas above to make your website a little more sophisticated and optimized better for your keywords.
And remember....don't sweat the technique!
