If you have spent any amount of time on the internet, you will know that SEO is the lifeblood that provides the success of any website. This makes it vital that website owners implement effective SEO strategies in the most appropriate way possible.
There are a number of SEO strategies and techniques that are quite common; however, in this post, you will discover a few SEO strategies you probably never knew were important. These unique strategies are not often talked about, but they can be extremely effective.
Read on to Find Out More:
1. Own Your Own Domain and Hosting
While there is no problem starting with a free host, it is never advisable to continue with one if you have plans to grow your business. Most business owners do not understand that free websites will not help with SEO. Google only ranks websites that they consider to be reliable and, unfortunately, lots of the free website providers are not. They drown your website in adverts, effectively distracting your visitors and frustrating their efforts to find the required content on your website. Remember that user experience is important for SEO success and if your users are not satisfied after visiting your website, you lose any chance of ranking high in SERPs. “Google is not asking for much,” points out James of domains4less “,to get into Google’s list, businesses and website owners should plan to own their domain name and hosting space from the beginning,” he adds. Fortunately, domain names and hosting packages have become so affordable that even startups with limited budgets can afford to own one.
2. Content Should be Original and Engaging
The internet is full of all manner of materials in the name of content, therefore in order to penetrate your own minds of your target audience, it is important that you create content that is original and engaging. Google’s plan is to produce search results that provide quality content to internet users. This means that your website content has to meet a particular standard before it can rank highly in any relevant search. Since the beginning of the internet, there has been a lot of emphasis on keywords. This is actually one of the first things taught in SEO classes and remains highly relevant today. However, as Google’s search algorithm evolves, it is important that content marketers stay on top of new trends. For example, it is no longer enough to have applicable keywords in your content. Today’s internet searches are more intent oriented, so you need to make accommodations for semantic keywords in your content. This way, your content will show up in both regular searches and voice searches.
3. Revisit Existing Content
If you have had your website for a long time, or you are a consistent blogger, you may very well be sitting on a gold mine. Once an article has been published, many bloggers simply forget it exists and move on to the next, not knowing that old content can be rebranded to meet current standards and re-optimized to attract more traffic. Existing content on your website has serious potential, so, every once in a while, you should carry out a content audit on your website. Content audit helps you identify articles and posts that can be improved upon, merged with other articles, or completely removed.
The first step is to identify the content that could use re-optimizing. You can do this using Google Search Console. Optimizing may involve simply bringing the content of the article up to date so that it can stay relevant. Maybe there have been changes in the information available since the content was last published. Or, maybe you just need to change the images and add one or two videos to make it more engaging. You can search for similar articles on the internet to see how outdated yours is in comparison. It could also involve just a bit of polishing, adding citation links, and removing unnecessary elements. All in all, re-optimizing old content on your site can turn a poorly-performing article into a new and improved traffic generator.
4. Mobile Acceleration
It is no longer news that we are steadily moving into a world where a large amount of, if not all, internet content will be consumed via mobile devices. This is what informed Google’s first mobile algorithm. What this algorithm means is that if you want your content to appear in relevant searches for mobile devices, you should make sure that it is displayed correctly across all mobile devices. To make this easier, Google developed its Accelerated Mobile Pages, which help convert regular websites into high-speed mobile pages. Even though the project started out for use by websites that cater to articles and publishing, it is now gradually evolving to work for more complex pages such as eCommerce and form pages.
To improve your chances of ranking well in SERPs, you should consider adopting AMP for your website.
● It tremendously improves your visitors’ mobile experience, thus effectively reducing the bounce rate.
● Websites with fast-page loading speed enjoy more recognition from Google and rank higher in SERPs.
● Because websites using AMP have to be routed through Google’s servers, it reduces the resource load on your own server.
● It puts you and your business on the cutting edge of technology.
5. Infographics
Not many people are aware, but an infographic is a vital tool to have in your SEO arsenal. Infographics are a great way to break down complex information into bite-sized pieces, usually with text and pictorial representation. Search engines and users equally love infographics as it makes the message you are trying to convey clearer. Research has actually found that people who follow instructions that contain both text and illustrations do much better than people who follow only text-based instructions. Don’t forget that visual content such as images, videos, and ‘infographics’ enjoy more social shares, which will, in turn, generate a large amount of referral traffic to your website. You may still need to do a bit of keyword research when putting your infographic together, but the most important part is to ensure that you get the file name right. The file name is what Google will use to determine what your infographic is about, so use something that is short, but clear. For instance, if your infographics is talking about SEO techniques, then something like SEO-techniques-infographic.png will do perfectly.
There you have it, 5 incredibly effective SEO techniques that, if you adopt, will put your website ahead of the competition. There are many more techniques to look out for. Keep this page bookmarked and check back regularly for more SEO updates that will make your website rock.