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SEO tactics are forever evolving and changing.
As the major search engines go through continuous algorithm updates and changes, it can be rather difficult to know where to actually start, or what aspects of SEO to prioritize.
Tailoring your content to a specific keyword so that it will rank high in the search engines for it, doesn’t work today the same way it once did in the past. Despite that, keywords are still just as crucial today as they have ever been. It’s just the method of implementation that has changed over time.
But that’s just one of many things you need to consider when looking to optimise your content. There are many SEO tactics and techniques that play just as crucial a role in getting your site that organic traffic that you desire. Whether it’s through on-page SEO, content quality, link building, etc.
With the large wealth of knowledge on the subject area, it can be rather difficult to determine where you should start, and which aspects of SEO will give you the quickest and most effective results.
That’s why this article exists. Further on, you will find a list of the top SEO tips that you should get to implementing right away, if you would like to generate organic traffic. After all, organic traffic oftentimes has the best conversion rates, which is likely what you’re really after.
1. Don’t Be Put Off From Linking To Other Sites
A lot of webmasters are put off by the idea of linking to other websites. This is because they want the web visitor to remain on their site.
However, link building, whether inbound or outbound is an essential aspect of SEO.
The search engines are looking for the most relevant content and pages, so you give your content more credibility when you link to other relevant content – especially from higher authority websites.
So, when linking to other websites, it’s recommended to prioritize only the highest quality of sites. The primary objective is to make your content the most helpful and most relevant to the reader. This is done by linking to other pages that supplements the information that exists on your pages. All of this is designed to give the end user the best experience when on your site.
Search engines will always seek the most relevant content. So outbound linking can be one of the quickest and most effective ways to get that ranking boost.
2. Simplify you’re URL Structure
Be default your content management system (such as WordPress) will use a number system for your URLs. On the surface, this may not seem very optimal for SEO. Especially to the search engines, as they won’t be able to get an idea of what you’re content is about, by looking at its URL.
The first thing you want to do, when organising your URLs, is go with something short and to the point. Like website/products/item-1. This makes it easier for the users to copy and paste into their address bar. It also enhances the overall User Experience (UX) of your website, which can help the site in other areas. Additionally, when choosing URL names, you don’t want to go with anything long, as they can appear quite messy and prove difficult for the search engines to crawl, which will adversely affect your SEO.
Other things you want to avoid when looking at your URL structure is the use of random letters, dynamic URLS, subfolders and special symbols. Instead, prioritise keywords, and use hyphens to separate your words. You may also want to include breadcrumbs in your URL structure, so end users can easily trace where they are in your sites overall structure.
3. Write for People Not Search Engines
As previously touched on, each year, there’s a new round of algorithm updates, which makes the search engines even smarter. Major search engines like Google, are now using human input more than ever, and are looking at the best ways to align things with general human thought. That said, there’s no quick solution, no way of gaming the search so that you can rank high – so you shouldn’t waste your time. The best solution is to write for human consumption, then consider the search engines after.
You want your audience to be priority, and you’re content to be centred on what you hope they are looking for. However, in order to do this, you need to be able to write truly engaging content. It’s not that difficult to spot a keyword that has been artificially added to an article, and keyword stuffing is even worse, so you want to make everything fit together in a more seamless fashion.
4. Link to Your Pages Internally
The next SEO tip that you should consider is your sites internal linking structure. Setup your own strategy for linking internally. It can be done a whole lot easier when you use the right services and tools, as they can easily help identify opportunities to refer your web users to more relevant content.
For example, you may want to adopt a hub or create a silo structure and spoke content strategy. In short, the spokes are your main supporting categories and topics that leads the user back to your main posts, while your hub acts as your main page.
Having an internal structure that works well, helps the major search engines, like Google understand how relevant your pages are, looking at the relationship between them and the people you intend to read them. As a result, you may want to consider looking at your linking structure as a form of pyramid. With your main home page being at the top, and you categories existing within the centre, and your posts somewhere at the bottom.
Another thing to remember is that, sending users to sources that are unrelated, doesn’t enhance your UX. There’s no shortcut, make sure every link you create makes sense.
5. Remove Elements That Slow Your Site Down
When it comes to building any site, you always want to have all your technical elements in place. As this way you can better ensure your content is able to express itself. Whether you’re selling a product/service, providing informative content or simply pointing people in the correct direction, you want a site that is accessible, quick, and easy to navigate through. Nowadays, people are looking for instant results and instant information. If your site takes too long to load up, they’ll simply leave.
There are many ways that you can improve the overall speed of your site, which in turn improves its UX. Such as removing any redundant plugins, optimising your sites code, compressing your sites images, and making sue any sub-folder flows is done correctly. You can use tools like GTmetrix and Google page speed insight to monitor what things need improving.
AUTHOR INFO
Uchenna Ani-Okoye is a former IT Manager who now runs his own computer support website https://www.compuchenna.co.uk/.
