The number one position on a search result on Google drives around a third of all clicks. However, this isn’t just a case of paying for advertising. In fact, around 10% of all clicks are paid advertisement clicks with the other 90% coming from organic search results that are nurtured with SEO, not money. Another interesting statistic is that around 91.5% of all Google traffic comes from the first page, dropping to just a mere 4.8% for page 2 and 2.3% for pages 3 to 10.
As you can see, getting on the first page of a Google search will improve your visibility immensely, but most people don’t realize just how crucial it is to focus on your SEO so that you can guarantee your number one spot for a particular search term or string of keywords. So in this article, we’re going to explain 10 simple yet effective ways to boost your website’s SEO so that you have a much higher chance of growing your traffic and exposing your business to a wider audience.
- Focus on long-tail keywords
A basic SEO concept is to use keywords to help you show up on more Google searches. However, trying to use keywords that are far too general can yield poor results, hence the importance of using long-tail keywords that are far more specific. There are a couple of advantages to this. You connect with an audience that finds your content more relative to their search, meaning that there’s a higher chance that the lead is likely to convert into a sale. In addition, by establishing your dominance of a long-tail keyword, you have an advantage over competitors that are trying to also spread their influence to similar search terms as yours.
- Improve loading speeds
A great way to improve your SEO and get on the front page of Google is to understand a few of the concepts that the Google engine follows. Google isn’t just about keywords anymore. Instead, it takes into consideration everything about a website including factors such as its loading times. This will help to improve your overall search ranking so by ensuring that your images are compressed and load fast, you can actually gradually improve your SEO. Other factors, such as preventing video content from autoloading and optimising your content for faster loading, can also contribute to your search ranking.
- Accommodate mobile and desktop
These days, the split between mobile and desktop web users is roughly 50/50. Around half of all internet users access the web through their phones, but the ratio of mobile to desktop users that access your website will generally depend on your industry and the types of products and services that you offer. However, you should still accommodate both types of users by making your site responsive to different layout sizes, or by at least having a mobile website that automatically loads should your users access it from a mobile device.
- Utilise high-quality content
Quality content will get people to link to your website and discuss your content on social media. Good content could mean anything from informative articles to funny videos and this will all depend on what your business offers to consumers. But by having more high-quality content on your website, you’ll find that your search rankings can drastically improve.
- Optimize image use
Images are an important part of any website and it’s vital that you optimize the use of images for the purposes of SEO and search rankings. Images should have alt tags that can not only be picked up by search engines but will also show in the event your viewers decide to disable image loading for situations like slow internet data access. In addition, optimizing your images by converting them into quick-loading formats such as PNG can help improve load times which also positively affects your SEO and page ranking.
- Hire an SEO consultant
When in doubt, hiring an SEO consultant like SEOEXPLODE can help you find more ways to improve your website and aim for higher rankings. The advantage isn’t just in the expert advice, but also in time savings that you could make. Taking on the Google algorithm on your own is a time-consuming task that ultimately isn’t easy. It’s difficult to manage an SEO campaign and getting up on the Google search rankings is both time-consuming and requires a lot of knowledge about how search engines work and you also need to stay up-to-date with the latest changes to how Google works. An SEO consultant can help take a lot of that stress off your shoulders so that you can focus on improving the content of your website while they offer advice on how to help you rank higher.
- Add a blog to your site
Blogs are an excellent source of content because they’re filled with useful information and it presents an opportunity to mix in different links and keywords to help boost your search ranking. A blog doesn’t need to be incredibly detailed, but it does need to be at least related to your business in order for it to assist in your SEO.
- Mix up content types
It’s important to use a variety of different content types in order to appeal to a wider audience. For example, having just text content will be great for initial SEO purposes, but it won’t help to introduce more viewers to your website that could convert to sales. Instead, having video content can also improve your SEO While providing your users with informative and easy-to-digest content that doesn’t require them to read a lot of text, and you can also consider summarising or condensing web content into an audio podcast. There are many different ways to introduce new content types into your SEO strategy and it’s important to use a bit of everything.
- Use a comfortable website layout
It should come as no surprise that a comfortable website layout that makes sense is going to help with your SEO purposes. Most people don’t realize just how important the overall user experience is when it comes to improving your search ranking but it can make a massive difference in how Google perceives your website. The longer people spend on your website, the better your overall SEO will be. If your viewers come to your website and leave after trying to navigate a frustrating layout where they couldn’t find any information, then their experience will be soured and they likely won’t recommend it to anyone and they may even leave negative comments about it. A good website layout that is comfortable and enables everyone to find the information they need quickly and efficiently will ultimately boost your SEO.
- Provide a quality user experience
When it comes down to the basics of organic SEO, creating a quality user experience is the ultimate goal. SEO can be somewhat abused with keyword rankings backlinking, but Google has been known to make sweeping changes to its algorithms that will eventually reward high-quality websites over poorly-designed websites that do not provide a quality experience to its users. Your goal as a business should be to make more sales and increase your profits, and while appearing as number one on a search result is a great way to do this, doing it organically and taking the longer route is ultimately more advantageous since you’ll be shared with others on social media, your website will be praised and your traffic will lead to more sales.
