Actionable SEO Approach

The primary reason why website owners want to rank high in Google is to be visible to their target audience, to advertise their products and services. But with almost 3,500,000,000 searches a day, it’s quite difficult to attain such success.

You must drive more traffic to your site from Google. But, it’s easier said than done. With over 1.5 billion websites on the web today, the competition is tough and stringent. All of them are vying for the viewers’ eyes.

Although there is no magic to rank your site without fail, there are actionable steps you can take to skyrocket a search engines results page. Here are seven proven strategies that’ll work great in 2023.

Target the Right Keyword

When we talk about keyword targeting, a lot of people make three common mistakes. First, the failure to optimize for any keywords. Second, optimizing too many keywords. Lastly, optimizing irrelevant keywords.

To resolve the first two mistakes, remember these key points: every page on your site should target one unique topic or keyword. Also, it’s very important to stop targeting the same anchor text on different pages.

Google will, for the most part, select only one of these pages to rank, and it might not be the page you want Google to rank. One great exercise for picking the right keyword is to submit your page to one of your colleagues and ask “what’s this page all about?”

Usually, their feedback will give you the most advantageous topic or keyword ideas. But still, use Google keywords before acting. It’ll help you to understand better what’s the best result, in Google’s eyes, for that specific keyword.

If almost all of the results are dissimilar to the content you are attempting to rank, it is not a right keyword to target.

Look for Content Ideas for Any Keyword or Topic

Do you want to rank for a keyword, but got no content ideas? If so, begin by searching and reading the prominent content on the web today. You can use Ahrefs Content Explorer to make your search easier.

Just put a keyword or topic, click explore, and you will receive a list of the most linked and shared content for that particular keyword. When you become familiar with what’s popular, get some ideas, adapt them, and create something better.

Make your Content Easy to Read

For readers, there is nothing worse than looking at a long, intimidating wall of text. With that said, steer clear of creating such content at all costs. Here are some tips to keep your content clear, concise, informative, and not difficult to read.

  • Divide your content into coherent sections.
  • Write in simple, short sentences (at least two or three sentences).
  • Curate a story throughout your content.
  • Use numbered lists and bullet points.
  • Use multimedia like slideshows, videos, and images throughout the content.

You can take advantage of various tools to help you make your content better. One great tool is the Hemingway Editor. It’s a free tool that’ll give you tips on where you can enhance and amplify your writing.

Build Links that Drive Absolute Traffic

Perhaps the basic principle of link building is focusing on links that drive actual traffic. And the best kind of link you can get to your website is referral traffic. Links that carry actual referral traffic to your site is excellent for SEO and your business.

But, the problem is, how do you classify or categorize link prospects that will drive your site good referral traffic? You can use some tools to identify the traffic of your link prospects. For instance, Ahrefs Site Explorer.

Also, metrics such as URL rating, Domain rating, and Ahrefs Rank are all excellent indicators of the reputation of the page.

Analyze your Site Speed

Another essential thing to check is the site speed. Keep in mind that it’s one of the significant ranking factors in Google. If your website is slow running, you have a lower probability of a high search position.

As a result, it will be difficult to convert and market new customers. According to Hubspot.com, a one-second delay indicates a 7% decrease in conversions, which can then affect your revenue. When it happens, it will not matter what your meta descriptions, or title tags are. Google will penalize you, whether you are a big company or not.

Hence, it’s of the utmost importance to check your site’s speed to learn how you can make your Google rankings better. There are a lot of tools that can aid you in doing it. For example, WebPage Test and Google PageSpeed Insights.

Aside from that, examine and analyze the page load time as well. According to John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, most visitors are eager to wait for 2 seconds for your webpage to load.

Thus, if the speed of your page exceeds the benchmark of 2 seconds, it can make you lose a massive amount of web traffic.

On-page optimization

On-page optimization is the practice of optimizing individual web pages on your website to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. It involves making changes to both the content and HTML source code of a web page, with the goal of improving the website’s visibility and relevance to specific search queries.

Choose Between www. Or non-www

 For the most part, Google might regard http://www.yourwebsite.com/url and http://yourwebsite.com/url  as two duplicate and separate pages. As such, choose between www or non-www. If you are not using the other one, label it as a 301 redirect.

Remove Referral Spam

Referral spam appears when spammers ploy and deceit Google Analytics into submitting referrals that never exist. It alters your Google Analytics data and will leave you with false and unreliable reports.

Luckily, it’s easy to get rid of them and clean up your data. First, clean out existing spam. Then, add filters to shut off referral spam. Third, block common spam referrers and third-party traffic. That’s it.

However, take note that there’s no absolute solution to eradicate spam entirely. Spammers will always look for ways to work their way around. Thus, it’s best to update your filters every month to gradually eliminate spams.

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Stay up-to-date with the latest SEO trends

Staying up-to-date with the latest SEO trends is essential if you want to maintain and improve your website’s search engine rankings. SEO is a constantly evolving field, with new techniques and strategies emerging all the time, and search engine algorithms are constantly changing. Therefore, it is important to keep yourself informed of the latest SEO trends to stay ahead of the competition and ensure that your website is optimized for the latest best practices.

Here are some tips for staying up-to-date with the latest SEO trends:

  • Follow industry leaders and influencers: Follow influential SEO professionals and companies on social media platforms, subscribe to their newsletters, and read their blogs to stay informed of the latest SEO trends and strategies.
  • Attend SEO conferences and events: Attend conferences and events focused on SEO and digital marketing. This can provide you with a chance to learn from industry experts, network with other professionals in the field, and stay up-to-date on the latest SEO techniques and strategies.
  • Use SEO tools: Use SEO tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz to monitor your website’s performance and identify areas for improvement. These tools can also provide insights into the latest SEO trends and best practices.
  • Read SEO blogs and publications: Read SEO blogs and publications to stay up-to-date with the latest news and trends in the industry. Some popular SEO blogs and publications include Search Engine Land, Moz Blog, Search Engine Journal, and Neil Patel.
  • Experiment and test new strategies: Experiment with new SEO strategies and test their effectiveness. This can help you identify which strategies work best for your website and keep you up-to-date with the latest SEO trends.

Takeaway

Improving your Google search rankings is a challenging task. Fortunately, there are actionable SEO approaches that’ll help your site to perform and work well. If you feel capable of optimizing your website, then go ahead. If not, contact any SEO service provider right away and apply the following approach above.