About close to a decade ago, SEO was simpler than it is today. Not to say that it did not require hard work to rank your site on the first page of Google. However, those were simpler times. Through some link building, content sharing and even some not so ethical tactics, people could get their sites to the first page within a few weeks for their desired keywords. Fast forward to 2019 where Google themselves have declared that their algorithm looks at over 200 signals to determine how to rank a particular website.
There is no possible way for any SEO analyst in the world to be able to hit the mark on every single one of those 200 signals. I would suggest you do not even try to because it would be futile. So the question arises, how do we rank our site higher in search engines, particularly Google in today’s changing paradigm of search?
What Factors to Still Look After
While I mentioned above that going after all the 200 signals that Google’s algorithm considers before ranking a page is futile, there are some signals that we should not ignore. No matter how much SEO may change, a few factors whether basic or advanced remain the same. These are the factors I will be sharing with you all in this article.
1. Targetted Keyword Research
The very first step in SEO always begins with keyword research. Keywords still are an important factor when optimizing a site as per SEO guidelines. Targetted keyword research ensures that you are using the right keywords as per your target region and target audience. You should first determine the geographical region you wish to target with your site.
For local SEO, you need to determine what terms are the people in your city searching for and which of them would be relevant to what you have to offer them through your site. You need to know your audience. Whether they are going to be searching for your business on mobile devices or desktops. Google’s keyword planner gives you details about the searches based on device usage, which can be helpful.
2. Appealing Page Titles
After your keyword research is over, the next step is to use those keywords to create meta titles for your pages. Do not simply put emphasis on the home page of the site but all internal service or product pages as well. The focus keyword of your every page should ideally be placed at the beginning of the title rather than the ending.
Not only will this help your page rank for that keyword but also, appealing and relevant titles are what make searchers click on your links in the search results page. Remember that there is no point in ranking on the first page of Google if no one ever clicks on your result. Appealing title tags go a long way towards increasing organic traffic to a page.
3. Mobile Optimization
Google’s new and improved search console now crawls your site’s pages using mobile-first indexing algorithm. Which means that it first checks to see if all your pages are optimized for mobile devices. The desktop versions still matter for the sake of user experience but Google has clearly stated that since a majority of internet users are using their smartphones for conducting searches, it wants every site to be optimized for those devices.
Mobile optimization includes page speed on the site on mobile devices. These page speeds can be checked using Google’s own page speed insights tool. Apart from good page speed, the responsiveness of the pages is an important factor and has been for many years.
4. Internal Linking
This is also one of those SEO best practices that we have been following for many years now. It is still very much relevant today as it was ten years ago. What has changed is that since Google has made it incredibly difficult to gain backlinks for exact match keywords from third party sites, you can still use exact match keywords during internal linking.
For example, if one of your main keywords is “web design company”, then you can create a blog post in which you can insert that keyword and link it to the page you wish to tank for it. When Google’s bots crawl that blog post, it will indirectly help your main web page as well. It is even better if you share that blog post on third party sites. It will help you pass on link juice indirectly again to that page.
5. AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
One of the ways to rank your site higher at least in mobile search results is using Accelerated Mobile Pages. AMP was a project started by Google itself in 2016 that would give users with slower internet speeds using mobile devices load pages faster. It is meant to improve user experience and again shows the emphasis Google putting on the mobile experience.
However, even though it is believed that implementing AMP can help a site’s mobile search rank, implementing it can be very complicated. There are many intricate issues with HTML coding, CSS and Javascript that are involved.
6. Targetted Content Strategy
It is no surprise to anyone by now that content plays a very significant role in search engine optimization. In fact, in the entire digital marketing, there is nothing you can achieve if your content strategy is not strong. In SEO, you need to target your content at the exact audience you wish to bring to your site. Your potential customers. This involves a mix of several things. First is the use of proper keywords in the content that your prospective customers are searching.
Then, you need to create a list of topics that would be relevant to your audience. Your content should give them answers to common industry-related questions. The more popular the question, the more traffic you can drive from that content. With a perfectly optimized blog post, you can get it to rank for the target topic or keyword clusters.
No article about SEO is complete without the mention of link-building. The old ways of creating backlinks are dead and buried. Forum commenting, blog commenting etc is only going to get your site penalized for spamming. The new way of link-building revolves around relevance and content. The focus has shifted from targeting keywords to targeting topics to rank for.
Firstly, get your site listed in all relevant business directories that suit your business’ industry. Then, focus on gust posting on sites that are in the same niche as your site. The more relevant the content, the better it can help your site. Do not use exact match keywords but rather a long term search terms that relate to the topic you want to rank for.
Conclusion:
These are just a few of the important SEO factor you must keep in mind if you wish to rank your site better in Google’s search results. SEO is always changing and evolving. Keep your eyes and ears open for new updates from Google’s end and make changes to your strategy accordingly.
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