It is likely that most of the people searching Google for keywords and phrases related to your business are active buyers who are looking for solutions to their problems or to a need they are experiencing. It is likely that your website will see an increase in traffic if it appears in the top 5 organic listings. Do you want proof? The research firm HubSpot found that 66 percent of buyers don’t look past the first five Google results, and 75 percent don’t look beyond the first page of results. So, what can you do to improve your SEO? The following are the three steps to take.
Step 1: On-Page Review
The first step in improving your SEO is to conduct an internal audit. When Google examines your website, it does not do so in the same way that you or I would. It performs a text and code scan. It looks for clues to what your site is about as well as how to find, rank, and display specific things by looking at the names of the sections of your site. Here’s a straightforward illustration. Consider the scene: a warehouse full of binders… Some are extremely well-organized (with excellent on-page SEO), while others are a complete mess (bad on-page SEO).
To make it extremely easy to find exactly what you are looking for, the organised binders are labelled, the tabs naming each section are clearly labelled, the documents within each section have titles and subtitles, and the text within each section contains keywords and phrases that correspond to the section they are located in, making it extremely easy to find exactly what you are looking for. In addition, the binder is not labelled, there are no tabs identifying the sections, and the documents are disorganised and inconsistent, making it nearly impossible to find what you are searching for. Organizing the search area in a logical manner allows Google, as well as us, to find better, more relevant results in a more efficient manner.
Increasing the likelihood of moving up in search engine results can be accomplished by analysing and fine-tuning the building blocks of your website. Because it is the portion of SEO that you have the most control over, on-page analysis is the simplest step in the process. Its components are as follows: reviewing and responding to issues pertaining to you;
- Site Content
- Title & Meta Tags
- URL Structure
- Image Alt Text
- Keywords
Step 2: Off-Page Review
The next step in your SEO journey is to examine the actions that take place outside of your website that have a significant impact on your site’s ability to rank well in search results. External link building, also known as off-page SEO, is the process of increasing your domain authority by obtaining links from other websites. Having external sources link to your web pages is similar to receiving an endorsement from a third party that says, “This is good content.” The greater the number of votes of confidence (backlinks) you receive, the more Google and other search engines will take notice of your website and move it up in the search results page rankings.
It’s critical to understand that link quality is more important than link quantity when it comes to SEO. You will require a significant number of backlinks in order to increase your domain authority, but they must come from reputable sources. The following are some effective strategies for increasing the number of links to your website:
- Creating quality content that people want to link to because it’s valuable
- Generating social media shares of content
- Outreach emails to industry influencers who will link to you
- Guest blogging on sites similar to yours. The guest posts will have links back to your site
To check the domain authority of your website, enter your domain name here.
In summary, here are the things to analyze for off-page SEO:
- Referring Domains
- Backlinks
- UR & DR, which signal the strength of your backlink profiles
- Trust Flow
- Citations
Step 3: Keyword Review
The final thing you can do to improve SEO is to go over your keywords one more time. Please keep in mind that search engines are treating SEO keywords in a different way than they were previously. In the past, keyword volume was a direct indicator of ranking position. The greater the number of times certain keywords appeared on your site, the higher the site’s ranking for those keywords would be.
However, this resulted in companies attempting to game the system by “keyword stuffing,” which is the practise of repeatedly using keywords to improve ranking (but resulting in poorly written content). These days, search engines penalise businesses for keyword stuffing and reward them for creating user-friendly content that reads well and contains a variety of keyword variations.
Your analysis should consist of:
- Keywords & phrases associated with your site
- Keywords your active buyers are searching
- Volume of monthly searches
- Competition to rank
A helpful tool in this process is SEMrush’s keyword research tool. It will show you the keywords your site ranks for and provide monthly search volume.
What Good SEO Tactics Can Do for Your Website Traffic
Here’s an illustration of the benefits that high-quality SEO traffic can bring. Let’s say you want to target keywords that receive 10,000 searches per month on average. It is reasonable to expect that 50% of buyers will click through to your site if you are ranked #1 for those specific keywords. Obtaining the #2 position will result in a 25% click-through rate, followed by 12 percent at #3, 6 percent at #4, and 3 percent at #5. This translates to anywhere between 3,600 and 60,000 unique visitors per year to your website.
Need Help Improving SEO?
Understanding the steps to improve SEO is one thing. Putting them into practise is another. Having a strategic mindset and technical skills to properly execute them is one thing; having the ability to do so is another. If you require assistance in determining whether or not your website is optimised, please contact us. The process will be guided and assisted by professionals who are on hand to help.
If it is determined that SEO is an area that requires improvement, we will prepare a detailed, easy-to-understand video analysis that breaks down your website, keywords, opportunities, and growth strategy in plain English. This video analysis is a fantastic educational tool for learning about the factors that influence ranking, as well as a fantastic tool to share with other stakeholders within your company to gain their support.
Need help with getting your business found online? Stridec is a top SEO agency in Singapore that can help you achieve your objectives with a structured and effective SEO programme that will get your more customers and sales. Contact us for a discussion now.