Ranking on the first page of Google is a priority for all website owners because it comes with the privilege of a broad audience reach, improves brand visibility, higher conversion rates, and traffic flow. Every day, new websites are launched online, which directly translates to more competition for the first page of Google searches.
For this reason, webmasters have to learn as many tricks as there are in getting their website to retain dominance in the first page of search engines. With so many practices of SEO to be on the lookout for, there are fundamental SEO tips that will get your website on top of Google searches, and here are eight of the best:
Mobile first indexing
By now you must know that the mobile site audience has taken over the internet, outshining the desktop audience. While it means something to optimize your website in a mobile-friendly manner, it means much more to optimize for mobile first.
With mobile first indexing, you place your mobile audience before the desktop audience, and this way, you provide value niched for the mobile internet users. Since Google prioritizes mobile-optimized sites for its search results, optimizing for mobile first indexing gives you an upper hand on the first page of Google.
Strong social media presence
Social media may be a powerful digital marketing tool, but it also is a vital technique in matters of SEO. Your presence on social media can mean your visibility on Google’s search results.
If people are talking about you on social media platforms, it means that your content is valuable and your website is worth the attention. Further, social media platforms duple up as search engines, therefore, the social media results matter for indexing, not forgetting that they are a rich source of brand mentions.
Fix all website errors
Auditing a site is a rare initiative taken up by website owners. Over time, you may be focused on improving the content you share and elevating the value proposition for your target audience, but underlying errors in your website may cost you your position to Google search.
Analyze your website for errors like broken links, unnecessary redirects, duplicate content, among others. The website errors trickle down to the little faults that could decrease your User interface or user experiences, including faint fonts, needless pop-up adds, among others. Use SEO tools like Open Site Explorer to help in fixing all poor on-page factors compromising your site’s structure.
Keyword research
By considering the metrics on serpbook.com on matters of your site’s performance of Google search, you realize that the use of properly targeted keywords secures you a higher position on the first page of Google. What keywords do is position you strategically as a solution to people’s searches. However, to do it right, your keyword research must involve more than just the popular terms.
Determine search terms that are in your industry and popular, but structure them in your content in a way that gives you a competitive edge amidst your competitors. Opt for long-tail keywords, which comprises of 3 or more words in a phrase, and this way, you capture more intent than you would with short-tail or one-word keywords.
Focus on user-engagement signals
Google very much values a happy audience, and there is no better way to measure the satisfaction of an audience other than regarding the engagement level they have with web pages. Once you start showing up on search results on Google, you have to prove to Google, and your target audience, that your website is deserving of that position, and a higher one.
User engagement signals is a sum of the interactivity of your audience with content as concerns feedback, shares and reviews, the amount of time they spend on your web pages, and their willingness to come back again. Keep your content interactive by using questions, share user-generated content, respond to their feedbacks promptly, among others.
Competitor analysis
Sometimes, you do not need to discover your path to success; you can rely on the path other people have laid out, and be better at it. Competitor analysis may not seem like an option to many website owners, but it is a sure stake in finding out what your competitors are doing different from you, especially in instances where they are performing better than you are on Google searches.
Concentrate on analysis of their website to find out the topic they share, the approaches they use in addressing common topic areas, their sharing technique, as well as their audience engagement. You do not have to ape everything they are doing, but competitor analysis helps you in making informed decisions. Consult the use of a competitor analysis tool like Google Analytics, Open Site Explorer, among others.
Write more blog posts
If your competitors are doing better than you are, it could be that they are sharing more content than you are.
Even as you focus on generating high-quality content for your target audience, you must bear in mind that Google needs more information to index your website correctly. Further, more content provides people more ground for visiting your site. More blog posts are also an excellent way to use up your keywords without stuffing them or attaining redundancy.
Overall, keep your content unique and original, focusing on what matters to your audience based on what is current and trending in your industry.
Get reviews
As suggested and proved by studies, most people online are swayed into actions by other people, thanks to social validation. In this light, Google takes reviews seriously in ranking a website.
Focus on earning reviews by encouraging your audience to rate your content or your products. The end goal is to get them more engaged in your website while providing resourceful feedback that is actionable for making improvements in your brand.
As much as these tips are tried and tested with terrific results on your recognition stats, it takes sustained and deliberate efforts to launch an SEO campaign and yield fruits from it over a period.
