The only way to succeed today is to get ahead to avoid falling behind. That’s how quickly the world is evolving. So it doesn’t matter whether you’re a brand new startup, an existing small firm, or a massive corporation — SEO is an essential practice to drive your business.
If you’re struggling to drive the same level of organic traffic you used to, you have to improve your SEO techniques. Unfortunately, Google and other search engines make changes to their algorithms annually. So, last year’s successful approach might not make an impact this year.
1. Optimize your content
While regularly publishing new content is an integral part of SEO, there is more to it than that. You can experiment with keywords and backlinks, which is essential, but you can maximize existing content through content optimization. What does that mean?
- Post-easy-to-read content. Use the correct number of keywords, primary and secondary.
- Hit the proper word count.
- Tick the right boxes for meta titles and description tags.
2. Provide an experience
It doesn’t matter how algorithms evolve; tags and links will always matter. However, there is more to creating a flawless experience. For example, an algorithm can’t understand how human users perceive websites. So, they use a set of four metrics to make an educated guess.
- Page Load Speed.
- Mobile-friendliness.
- HTTPS Protocol.
- A lack of intrusive interstitials. Elements (particularly ads) that obstruct the view of the page.
3. Boost your dwell time
Mobile experience matters, and so does a sleek page with great content and a fast loading speed, but your dwell time can make or break you. The good news is those first things do influence how much time users spend viewing your page. Dwell time is the amount of time a user spends on your page once they click on a search engine result page (SERP) before they return to the SERP.
Richard Perrin, the director of Paramark, says, “If a search engine user types laundry service into the search box, they will receive a list of results. When they find a page they feel meets their needs, they click on it, read it, and return to the SERP to look for another page or search for something else.”
The dwell time spent on clicking the link and returning to the SERP is the dwell time. It might not mean much immediately, but the more people linger on your page, the more the search engine will recognize that your page is of a higher quality.
Dwell time is not the same as bounce rate. Bounce rate measures the number of users who visit a page and leave without further interaction.
You can improve your dwell time by providing easy-to-read, informative posts.
- Write short paragraphs below 150 words.
- Avoid too many sentences over 20 words.
- Use sub-headers, bullet points, and white space to make your content easier to read.
- Use screenshots and images, where relevant and valuable, to support your point.
4. Topic clustering
You won’t get your website to the top of the search results with keywords alone. It would help if you used researched keywords to support your content. And narrow it down to your local area wherever possible. There are other ways to drive organic traffic, however. And one of them is topic clusters.
There has to be context surrounding your use of keywords, so black hatting will only work temporarily (and will hurt you in the long run when search engines catch wind of the behavior) — user intent matters. So, you need to know your target audience, and you need to organize content into clusters.
- The content you make depends on your target audience, so the better you know that audience, the greater the content you create can be. But, on the other hand, you can alienate potential visitors by not understanding that.
- Organize your content by topics and themes and link them to each other to create a cluster of work. Start with the pillar page, the most crucial page where you use keywords and phrases. Then come to your cluster pages that link back to a relevant pillar page. It would help if you satisfied your user’s intent to establish your site as a valuable resource, and in doing so, it gives all of these pages a higher chance to rank.
5. E-A-T
E-A-T stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
- Use your about page to highlight your EAT by providing certifications, degrees, expertise, and testimonials.
- Use a robust review process to ensure your content is high-quality and trustworthy.
- Build authority by using high-quality backlinks to support your work.
As a general rule, SEO won’t work on anyone’s aspect alone. So your website’s SEO strategies will have to adapt, and quality SEO strategies, like those mentioned above, will help you get there.
