SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a crucial part of establishing your website. This is what enables your content to show up in the searches, and this, when managed effectively, is what drives users towards your page; hence increasing traffic. SEO is not just about the search engines though, it’s also about understanding what the people are looking for, as well as the type of content they prefer seeing. So why is SEO important? Realizing what people want and then presenting your content in a way that search engine crawlers can locate and understand is what SEO is all about, and this is what directs traffic towards your website.
Why are search engines important?
Through a process called ‘crawling and indexing,’ search engines sort through a multitude of information that is present on the web to find out which most matches the user’s query. Then it arranges it in an order of how well it matches that question, and that process is called ranking. Why are search engines important? Because they filter through the abundance of information that is available on the web, and present the most suitable information to the user. This is where successful SEO comes in.
Why is SEO so important for businesses?
When a user inputs a query in the search engine, the results show up in the SERPS. The SERPs, or Search Engine Result Pages, present the advertisements and the organic search results together, in a way that it is harder to distinguish between the two. And the search engines make money from the advertisements; so they tend to direct users towards the advertisements, or they answer the queries within the SERPs, making it harder for the websites that rely on search engines’ organic results.
This is why SEO is essential; the search engines are becoming more and more adept at presenting all the information within the SERPs. An effective SEO is the only thing that can help your website show up on the SERPs and drive traffic. If you rely on paid media advertising, then you need to keep investing money in it forever. Effective SEO takes care of that; it enables your website to rank higher in the SERPSs, and thus helps direct traffic towards your page.
Why is Technical SEO so important?
Your content needs to be readable; not just by humans, but by machines too. A good grasp over the basic technical assets is important. For one, it helps you convey your needs to the developers in a way that gives them a clear picture of what they require. You will need the developers to enhance some of your content, and so, you need to have a basic understanding of technical SEO. Apart from that, technical SEO is also crucial, because it has a massive impact on the performance of your web page; so that the pages you set up are designed for both crawlers and humans.
Effective SEO techniques to increase organic traffic to your website
Now that we’ve talked about the basics, let us look at some of the ways SEO can help drive traffic towards your webpage.
Your site should be User-friendly
Giving your users a great experience across your website is sure to ensure more traffic; if people get what they want when they visit your page, they’re likely to return again, and that will increase your ranking. Search engines rank pages according to their quality, and poor quality sites, which load slowly or are outdated tend to have a high bounce rate. This likely decreases their ranking in the SERPs. Make sure that your content is readable and enjoyable. Writing shorter sentences, using bullet points, and using sub headers are some ways to make it more interesting. Adding pictures and videos doesn’t hurt either!
Another thing to do is to use bucket brigades. These are words that connect one idea to the next one in order to maintain the flow. Words like ‘Do I have your attention”, or ‘Have you ever found yourself…” etc.
The inverted pyramid style of writing should be adopted; presenting the most important information at the top and less important below as it tends to maintain users’ interest.
Finally, it is important to improve the speed of your website. Slow websites tend to drive traffic away.
Optimize your content for voice search
People tend to prefer to use voice searches nowadays, so the content should be tailored for that. Typically, longer sentences in the form of properly formulated questions. Also, use organized data and longer keywords – that are bigger than 3 words. Using similar keywords is also a good idea. Schema Markup is a type of structured data. People implementing SEO can use this to help Google decipher the theme and subject of a web page. Rankings will improve as a result.
Design your website for the smartphone
Smartphones are the devices that everyone is using nowadays, and most of the online shopping and searches are done on the phone. Google also crawls and indexes the mobile version of the websites first. So make sure you develop your site keeping in mind its mobile version.
Topic clusters are more important than keywords
Google tends to focus more on what its users want, and also, which search result would be most appropriate to answer their questions. Hence, your target audience should always be your focus. Clearly define the demographic you want to cater to like their age, gender, and location. This will help your SEO to be more focused and effective.
Another thing to remember is that keywords are very important, but so are topic clusters. That means that you should organize your content according to different themes. Topic clusters include a pillar page, which is the page that contains the principal information; and this page has a broad range of keywords. Next, we have the cluster pages, which carry additional information about the topics on the pillar page, and are linked back to it. Lastly, keep in mind that keywords are still essential, so conduct a proper keyword search.
Longer content creates more backlinks, which leads to increased traffic
Most of the time, you should focus on writing longer content, which creates more backlinks. This in turn leads to increased traffic and better rankings. However, remember that your content should be according to what people want. If you’re writing a blog about the dos and don’ts of something, you need sharp, crisp content with bullet points that will keep your readers engaged. But a guide requires more detailed information.
YouTube SEO is important
Video marketing is extremely important, so after creating a spectacular video, keep some things in mind. For one, your video should be SEO friendly, with clickable titles that include your keywords. Secondly, the video description is important, since that is what YouTube reads to determine your content. Good, custom thumbnails are also a must. Lastly, create playlists so that the users can spend more time on your channel, and hence, engage with more content.
Technical seo is the key
As we have mentioned above, technical SEO is key to making sure your website performs. Your website should always load on HTTPS. Accelerated Mobile Pages should be enabled. Crawling software is a good investment. It can help determine the technical health of your pages. The semantic markups should be accurate. Semantic markups are there so that Google can understand your website. Finally, users find the ‘page not found’ errors extremely off; so broken links should be fixed as soon as possible.
Evaluate your performance
Track your websites performance. This is crucial in order to improve your rankings. Three tools that can help you keep an eye on your performance are:
- Data Studio
- Wayback Machine
- SEMrush
