Improve Your SEO With These 10 Proven Strategies

Improve Your SEO – Best Practices that Get Results

Connecting online with customers and encouraging visitors to engage with you can seem like a Rubik’s cube. You’re wrestling with your website, content, search rankings, directories, and social media. You’ve heard you need everything to work well on any device, including voice assistants. 

How do you get everything to line up so people can find you online? It can be a head-scratching challenge. We get it. That’s why we’ve compiled 10 SEO strategies that we’ve used with our clients. When you follow a step-by-step plan to Improve Your SEO, you’ll see results.

1. Get Visitors’ Attention with the Right Words

Your audience will respond when you speak their language. As you craft the page titles and descriptions for your website, use words that reflect how your customers talk about your product or service. 

• • For inspiration about keywords, check out Google Ads. Analyze the words used in your industry. The words used in paid advertising are likely well-researched and known to work. 
  • Showcase your keywords on your website. We recommend assigning one primary keyword per page, showcasing it in the title, the meta title, the first paragraph, and at least 1 subheading. Put the primary keyword in your image alt heading, too. Don’t stuff your pages with keywords; target mentions to reach 2% of total word count.
  • Use action words to encourage conversions. Simple phrases such as ‘Let’s Get Started Today,’ or ‘Downloading is Easy’ can compel your visitors to act.

2. Get Google’s Attention for Featured Snippets

A few years ago, Google began trying to answer search questions by returning short paragraphs, a list, or a table pulled from relevant website content. They call these results’ featured snippets’ and place them above the top-ranked search results. To write content that will make your site a contender for featured snippets, use the following approach:

• Answer questions about your product or service. Think about the how, why, who, what, when, and where questions you could answer with your content. 
• Phrase your title as a question and include your keywords in your title and content. Remember to create unique content.
• Brief snippets are better; try to keep your content between 40 and 60 words.
• Add clean HTML featured snippet code to the top of your content. For example:

Strategies to Improve SEO

• • Use the Right Words
  • Write for Featured Snippets
  • Additional Answers

3. Build Your Links: Internal for Navigation, Backlinks for Authority

Make it easy for your visitors to enjoy their stay by including links to other pages within your website. Internal links should improve UX and navigation; avoid having too many to minimize confusion. 

Backlinks, which mention your website as a resource, act as referrals, and increase your authority – one of the critical dimensions Google’s algorithms use when producing rankings. Backlinks are most effective when they come from reputable sources – those that are relevant to your site. Podcasts are a growing tactic for getting quality backlinks; if you have your own, your host website generates a backlink. If you’re a guest on a podcast, you’ll also gain valuable exposure. Don’t forget about the tried-and-true methods of creating backlinks:

• Infographics
• shareable content like ebooks or whitepapers
• social media conversations
• strong content on your site

4. Write In-Depth, Quality Content for Your Site

Search online for guidance about what defines ‘quality’ for content, and you’ll find a wide range of advice. From our perspective, it’s not about word count or keywords. Content will be shared and linked when it has these characteristics:

• It’s written by actual people (not machines) who understand the audience: their pain points, their language, and their style. The writing is friendly and natural. Sentences never exceed 30 words. 
• It’s evergreen (always relevant) and unique – no duplication across pages.
• It’s easy to read, thanks to paragraphs, bolded headings, and bullet points. 
• It demonstrates essential Google E-A-T dimensions – expertise, authority, and trust.

5. Tap into the Power of YouTube with Videos

We live in a visual word, and video content is becoming a ‘must-have’ to get noticed. Search statistics show that 55% of Google results have at least 1 video. Why? Because videos provide color, movement, and simplicity to keep your audience stimulated and interested. 

Think about how you can tell your story visually on your website, in blog posts, or as a video featured snippet. You’ll connect with your audience and boost your ‘dwell time’ – the amount of time a visitor spends with you.

6. Make Connections Mobile-Friendly 

The importance of a mobile-friendly website isn’t news. But we’re compelled to mention it again because we still see sites and less-than-optimal content for mobile devices. Layouts are awkward, dropdowns don’t work, and load times are slow.

Several solutions are available to ensure your site performs consistently across all devices. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), for example, use a simpler version of your site’s HTML code to deliver faster page loads. Take time to investigate your website settings and set them appropriately. If you work with a website designer or digital marketing agency, they can help.

7. Maintain Up to Date Local Listings 

Getting local with business pages, directory listings, and social platforms help your online visibility, your reputation, and most importantly – your revenue. Make sure your business name, address, and phone number are current and consistent wherever you’re listed. 

As with all digital marketing, having a plan for local listings will help your ROI. We recommend starting with the major players like Google My Business, Yelp, YP, and Facebook. Then, list on the platforms most relevant to your industry or location.

8. Create Voice-Search Friendly Content

According to WordStream, voice searches are forecast to hit 50% of all searches in 2020! About 40% of voice searches are happening daily, with 20% occurring on-the-run via mobile. Haven’t you tried, ‘Siri, where’s the nearest gas station?’ as you’re driving?

When your content is conversational, natural, and easy to read, it will perform well on voice assistants.

Be mindful about advertising since voice assistants who will ‘read’ your content ‘as written. For example, if your headline is S A L E, a voice assistant will read, ‘S, space, A, space, L, space, E.

9. Revisit Your Site to Keep it Fresh and SEO-Strong

With Google tweaking search algorithms about 500 times a year (estimated), updating your website is a must-do to stay connected with your customers. What’s the optimal timing to update? Too often, and your brand image won’t be clear to visitors. Not often enough, and your SEO will weaken, reducing traffic to your site.

From our perspective, updates need to keep pace with changes in your business and your industry. You want your content to remain relevant and reflect your audience’s language and needs.

10. Keep ‘Behind the Curtain’ Elements Working

Your visitors won’t see many of the elements that make your site visible and easy to use. But our last Top 10 SEO Strategy is vital to performance:

• Get an SSL certificate. Without this verifier of website authenticity, Google will flag your site as ‘not secure.’ The SSL certificate reassures visitors that they can trust you.
• Include a site map, structured data, and robots txt to make it easier and faster for web crawlers to find your content. As we mentioned earlier, many website software platforms make it easy to add these elements. Your designer or digital marketing agency can help, too.
• Have a logical site hierarchy and page structure. Both are vital to SEO but are also essential for delivering great user experience.

A Bonus Strategy: Partner with a Reputable Digital Marketing Agency

You’ve started and are operating a successful business. SEO isn’t rocket science or a black box. You have the ability to implement all 10 SEO strategies on your own. But you’ve got a company to lead, a team to manage, and customer to support. A qualified digital marketing agency like Renaissance Marketing has the team and expertise to put these best practices into place for you. 

Contact us today to set up a convenient time to review your website and your business goals. We’ll create and implement a plan to get you connected to customers online.