Search engine optimization has gone up to the level where there are no specific tasks that assure you the win. However, there are specific areas that are mandatory and recommended from search engines to get your website search engine friendly and drives the users to your website that you want.
Initially, I thought a list of tasks will be better solutions to elaborate on the SEO tips, but then now and then every other new and old SEO task is becoming obsolete. Hence, I have created a list of 5 SEO tips rather than processes that will help you to understand the core important tasks and how to go about it.
Table of Contents
1. Publish content which satisfies the searcher’s intent
This is the number one rule and also the best of the SEO tips that we have to consider before we think about search engine optimization. Major search engines like Google have started rewarding the website which satisfies the searcher’s intent.
Google search engine delivers results based on massive algorithms that they release from time to time. These algorithms are pretty good to get the best results for the users. I believe this goal of theirs has to match with ours which will help us in a big way.
So, How to publish the content which satisfies the searcher’s intent?
The best way to find out what satisfies the searcher’s intent is to check the search engine results for the query or keyword that you want to target. The search results will give you an idea about what users want from their search queries and keywords.
Just to give you an example, Search engine results show specific results (snippets) on the first page such as news, videos, images, knowledge graph and featured snippets. If you see one of these prominently then users want to see results in those fashion.
If search engine results show more of these snippets such as video snippets then it is clear that user intent is to watch a video for their queries. Sometimes you will see a mix of these features on the first page where the search term is very generic and the intent is not clear.
Once you know the search intent and the content format, check the first page results and create the best possible content than the competition. these will ensure that you have nailed the search intent and also the best solution for the user’s queries.
2. Make sure your website loading speed is fast
By the time I publish this post, the percentage of mobile users will cross 100%. Jokes apart, I mean really the worse thing could happen to your users that they click your listing on a search result and your website is taking ages to load.
I know it is frustrating when at the age of 5G we expect websites to load fast as 67.7% of users bounce off of the website takes more than 7 seconds to load and more interestingly only 9.61% of users bounce off if they the average load time is 3 seconds (Source).
Where to calculate website loading speed?
There are many tools online to calculate your page load time. I use gtmetrix.com to calculate website loading speed. This website uses Google page speed insights and YSlow metrics to decide the page loading time.
My page load time is high, how to improve it?
You need to check the results which are given by the page speed calculator. These results generally show where your website is lacking and needs improvements. These tasks are technical and need precautions while you change anything on the website. Make sure you have the skill set or know someone who knows the basics.
There are basic processes that you have to enable such as Minify CSS, HTML, JS, and image compression. Add expiry to headers in leverage browser caching. Use CDN (Content Delivery Network) which works as a network of servers that use to distribute the load of delivering content.
You don’t have to necessarily chase the 100% green mark, sometimes it’s hard to reach even 90% but make sure your website loads within the 3-7 second mark. Let users discover your amazing website faster so that they don’t get any possible way to leave.
3. Do keyword research before publishing content
Do you really need keyword research before you publish any content on your website?
The answer is definitely yes and here’s how you can do it effectively. There is no perfect set of a barrier for the keyword research level. The following are the key points you need to consider for this one in SEO tips.
One article can rank for thousands of keywords on the search engines and you would be amazing to know that this approach is an effective way since your efforts to get more traction from search engines will be decreased drastically as you don’t have to create content for every set of keywords.
Target the set of keywords with high > moderate search volume and moderate > low competition on search engine results. To do this effective analysis you will need a great tool that gives you both search volume and competitive data.
I use SEMrush keyword explorer to determine and finalize the keywords. I also used free tools such as Keywords Everywhere (chrome extension). There a website called answer the public which gives you questions related to your keywords so that you can use them in content.
Another good way to know what users also search related to your primary keyword is Google suggestions and you can find numerous opportunities when you search the keyword and Google will show suggestions in the drop-down.
Read Also: How much is the too much and ideal keyword optimization?
4. Do competitor research for improvements
As mentioned earlier in the section on satisfying the searcher’s intent, you need to check the first page of search engine results and find out how your content can be better than those. The top three ranking results are the best content to look for as they can give you the complete idea.
Once you know that these competitors have drafted content in a specific manner you can always improvise on the same. There are few things that will help you to get that benefit in the rankings and I will try to mention them below.
The first thing is the title and meta description of these competitor pages. The title and meta description is your right hook which ensures the clicks on the search engine results. Observe their title and description and try to make yours more enticing and click worthy to get that initial impression.
You can find any pattern of the content or style which you can also adapt as it will help you to rank among these competitors as users are clicking more on these content types since Google has shown you what is working based on CTR and behaviors.
5. Make sure your website is search engine friendly
What is the point of creating awesome content for your audience but they can not reach your content through search engines? Isn’t it very dis-stressing? Yes, it is very true that reaching out to the users via search engines can be difficult. Most of the time it happened unknowingly as there are certain recommendations that you need to follow through.
Did you know? Approximately 91% of total websites on the internet do not get organic traffic or visitors via search engines. Yes, it was very surprising for me too. Just to understand this fact, most of these websites do get indexed in search engines but do not rank high enough to get visitors.
So, How do I know that my website is search engine friendly?
I would first check if my website is indexed in a search engine or not. You can use the “site:yoursite.com” query in a search engine and see if your website pages are indexed there. Also, check if there are unnecessary pages indexed on the search engines.
The tool I would suggest for you to check your website SEO health is Google Search Console. This tool records all your website metrics such as search index, performance, mobile usability, and much more. Visit this search console on a regular basis to check if they have reported any errors that you need to resolve.
Search engines want to serve websites to users that have content to searcher’s intent comprehensively, fast loading, and error-free. If you have these things checked and optimized then you are good to go.
Final Thoughts
You may be thinking that why I haven’t added link building in this list of SEO tips and rightly so. In my entire SEO career, I have seen the Google algorithm updates and how they have made it difficult if you are building links instead of earning them. Link building in the traditional way can be harmful to your SEO health and you can lose existing search traffic.
So, How can I earn more links for my websites?
As described above in the first SEO tip that you have to publish the content which satisfies the searcher’s intent and this is where you have to make sure you have the best content out there on the internet for the targeted keyword. This alone is enough to earn links from the internet passively.
When you have the best content and it’s ranking well in search engines then it will automatically earn the links which will keep that good ranking position on the go. This is the biggest advantage of producing high-quality content and rewards you constant users to your website.
There is no direct benefit for sharing your content on social media to the search engine rankings but it can earn you links over a period of time. So, keep sharing your content with social media whenever possible.
Lastly, I have to say that SEO is a long game and you don’t see results quickly as you publish the content. Keep publishing high quality and useful content and you will see the search engine rewarding for your efforts. So, “Be Patient”
Let me know your thoughts and questions right below in the comment section.
