The marketing landscape is continuously changing, and Google's rules dictate where your content is going to rank. A lot of marketers use content marketing, affiliate marketing or even email marketing but to rank higher you need to take care of the machines too.
That’s why search engine optimization is more vital than ever if you want to create a high-authoritative website.
In today's data-driven world, brands need a way to analyze and understand their SEO efforts to stay ahead of the competition. Most marketers use SEO tools to upgrade their content and optimize their Google rankings.
Use these tools to make small modifications to your website, keep track of your performance and increase your website traffic.
This article will explain how to leverage SEO to rank higher on Google. So let's explore 8 strategies to improve your SEO in 2021:
Identify and Refresh Low-Performing Pages With New Content
Content marketers who write high-quality content have the following thing in common. They always try to deliver engaging topics that spark their readers.
To become a successful content marketer, you need to follow conversations and trends to brainstorm content ideas. Apart from that, you need to ensure that you keep upgrading low-performing posts and content at some point.
To help you identify low-performing content, have a look at these data points:
- A low number of social shares
- A small number of Backlinks
- Low organic search traffic
- Thin content
- Oldest pages
Once you identify pages that need particular treatment, focus on finding new keywords to target. There are several research tools online that can help you explore which content ideas have the most search volume.
Following this tactic can decrease the amount of time you will need to spend revamping your content and ensure that the traffic results will reward you.
Having a content plan that provides a solution to your audience's pain points is mandatory for your engagement quality. When you're refreshing old content, remember to give more value to get ahead of the game.
Craft Your Content Around a Primary Keyword and Relevant Secondary Keywords
As a marketer, you should understand the intention behind keywords to build a content strategy that boosts your SEO efforts. Research is part of the game, and it is extremely crucial to develop a framework that has potential.
Taking the time to find the right keywords enables you to find out what your readers want to read from you.
But how can you do that?
There are tools online that help you identify primary keywords and explore related ones. To understand what to use, see how closely related a keyword is and its search volume and decide whether it's a good fit for your content.
Apart from this, I got a pro tip for you that not many marketers use nowadays. If you want to rank higher, why don't you “ask” Google how to do it?
To do that, we have two options. The first one is to go to the search console and search for a keyword. Before you hit enter, take a look at the autocomplete examples below. There are many close-related keywords for you to shine like a diamond.
The second option is after you hit enter and Google shows you all the related results. Have you ever noticed these searches related to an area at the bottom of Google Search results? Yes, right there, there is a gold mine of keywords.
Finally, try to identify how a user would search on a topic you are about to write. Maybe it is a question that means that you have to craft your content in a way that answers the most frequent questions about this particular topic.
Diversify Your Backlink Portfolio
Backlinks remain a vital element when it comes to Google rankings. The truth is that the more authoritative a website is, the more valuable the backlink is.
When you craft a piece of content, you need to consider creating backlinks to rank higher.
A diverse backlink portfolio is crucial as it signals Google that your site is an authoritative source. That means that your website is generating links organically.
But how is it possible to grow your backlinks? Let me explain.
- Explore Roundups or “Best of” Lists: Many bloggers online craft pieces of content that focus on providing the best info on a topic. If you craft high-quality content and provide value, most content creators would love to have you on their list.
- Create shareable content: When you write a well-researched and informative article, you want people to see it, right? Yes, so add these social media buttons to let your audience share your content on multiple platforms. It can be a great source to generate more backlinks.
- Create interesting stories and promote them: Everyone wants to hear great stories. By creating data-driven content that tells a story can have a significant impact on your backlink portfolio.
You can complete an original survey or accumulate information from your website and conduct a case study. Share this original content with publishers, and there is a high likelihood that they will share your stories and credit you back.
Use Efficient Header Tags to Target Google Featured Snippets
With search engine optimization, it is essential to crafting your content with a clear and concise structure. Readers tend to spend most of their energy reading the content at the top of the page, so all the vital information must be in this section.
On the contrary, Google looks at the article as a whole to find out if it's comprehensive. Please spend some time and thought behind each of your blog posts to ensure that they meet these criteria.
To leverage the most out of the keywords we found above, add jump links at the top of your page. This strategy helps a lot with user experience and enables you to use your header tags in more creative ways and go for Google Featured Snippets.
Headers help search engines understand the context of your article. Using titles strategically created for search engines without sacrificing the user experience is the key to succeed in SEO for 2021.
On the one hand, machines will have a clear vision of your content as you can add keywords in your headers. On the other hand, readers will have skimmable content to concentrate only on the parts that keep them engaged.
Remember that you are writing for people, so leverage machines to create the most pleasant user experience for your readers with a structured and valuable piece of content.
Optimize Images for Web
It's a common scenario for many marketers to overlook image optimization when boosting their SEO efforts. However, this tactic can drive a significant amount of traffic to your website.
Apart from that, images help with user experience and your article's general structure, which is also a ranking factor for Google.
Some of the benefits of image optimization include:
- Helps with Google's visual searching feature
- It gives a better context of your content
- Allows your audience to visualize and understand better the written content
- Create a more concise copy by breaking up a wall of text
Like written content, visuals can help you improve your site's visibility and traffic. However, when optimizing images, you should keep in mind certain things.
Pay attention to how you optimize your images. Poor optimization can drastically slow your website and end up having a bad ranking. Focus on creating alt texts that are descriptive, relevant but are not the same in every photo.
The best strategy to approach this is by not overthinking it. Describe what the image shows and how it relates to the whole article. One crucial piece of information is that you should not use your content keywords as the alt text for every article's visual.
Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly
Many users use their mobile to browse the internet, so it's crucial to ensure that our website is optimized for this large audience.
But what does it mean to have a website optimized for mobiles?
- Have a Responsive design.
- Pay attention to text-Blocking Ads and Pop-ups.
- Keep Your Web Design Simple.
- Make Your Button Sizes Large Enough and keep them centered.
- Use Large Font Sizes.
- Perform Mobile Testing regularly.
Some marketers believe that crafting a website with a mobile-first approach can drastically help your desktop version. That's because you take the time to remove all unnecessary elements from your website when working on the mobile interface.
Use Clean URLs and Meta Descriptions
Your URLs and meta descriptions are crucial elements that provide Google with much information about your content. To do that efficiently, you need to optimize these text fields and leverage their full potential.
There is not a specific rule about the length that could help marketers improve rankings. Based on my experience, a good rule of thumb is to make them as clear and concise as possible while implementing your target keywords.
Try to have a meta description of around 120 to 140 characters and a URL with the page's keywords. Keep them short, to the point, and always have the user's intention in mind when crafting them.
Focus on having a consistent structure and following the same approach for similar content you plan to publish in the future.
Learn From Your Analytics
Marketing is a diverse and complicated landscape where you need to know how to track what works or not to upgrade your strategies. A website's performance can help you understand what works for your audience and, more importantly, what doesn't.
Leverage this data to create more tailor-made content based on the pain points of your audience. To do that, you need to track specific metrics and always seek ways to improve your tactics.
Some of the metrics you should always track are:
- Average time spent on a page: The amount of time visitors spend on a page is the most crucial element you should track. Knowing what people are looking at or reading will show you what type of content works for your audience.
- Bounce rate: This number indicates how many users leave your page without browsing other pages on your website. Having a high bounce rate is a big no for Google and means there is room for improvement. It can be that your website's loading speed is slow, or there is no internal linking which causes a high bounce rate.
- Traffic sources: Learning what sources work best when it comes to traffic is precious information. On the one hand, you can optimize these channels, and on the other hand, you can improve the performance of less efficient channels to achieve more significant traffic.
The Takeaway
Having all the tips above, you are now ready to rule the SEO world and upgrade your game in 2021. Take your time and follow each step carefully to ensure that you optimize every part of this process.
Remember that SEO is all about search engines, but the end goal is a better customer experience. Focus on crafting a website that is easy to navigate and helps users get what they want. With that in mind and every tip in this article, your brand will skyrocket.
At this moment, I want to get back to you and hear your thoughts on this topic. Which techniques are you going to use in the future? Let me know in the comments section so that I can learn from you too. Until the next one, keep optimizing.
