Did you know that 95% of the search traffic in Google goes to the first page of results? That means that if your content is ranking on the second page, you can’t expect more than 5% of the traffic to reach you — which is why it’s essential to reach page one.

But how can you do that? It might seem like a difficult task to get your web content to the first page of search results. In truth, though, there are a handful of ways to improve search engine optimization (SEO) for higher rankings.

Below, we’ll look at 10 SEO tactics to boost your marketing. Read on to learn more, and then subscribe to Revenue Weekly for more digital marketing tips from the agency with over 20 years of experience!

10 tips for SEO that drive results

To reach page one on Google, you must optimize your pages to satisfy Google’s algorithms, and there are multiple ways you can do that. Here are 10 tips for SEO that you can start putting into action today.

1. Write compelling title tags and meta descriptions

Google’s rankings are influenced by the way users interact with results. If a page earns a high number of clicks, it’s more likely to be ranked on page one.

To get more people clicking on your content, create title tags and meta descriptions that attract people to your pages. A good way to do this is to incorporate numbers and emotive adjectives (e.g., “5 Amazing Reasons to…”).

2. Practice internal linking

Links are another great addition to your SEO strategy. When you have links leading to pages on your site, it leads Google to crawl those pages as well as the one linking to them, allowing Google to discover more of your website pages.

A quick and easy way to get more links is to use internal linking, where you use your content to link to other pages on your site. Internal linking has the additional benefit of keeping users on your website, allowing them to move seamlessly from one page to the other.

3. Focus on user search intent

When you target keywords in your web content, it’s not enough to stick the exact phrase into a blog post several times and expect high traffic. If you want people to click on your page, you need to make sure it matches user search intent.

For example, if someone searches for “how to build a birdhouse,” they want information on how to do that task. Make sure your content provides that information, rather than writing about a different topic and shoehorning that keyword into it.

You can find the user search intent for a keyword by looking at the pieces currently ranking near the top and seeing what information they provide.

4. Target long-tail keywords

Targeting keywords is the foundation of a good SEO strategy, but some keywords can be more beneficial than others. In particular, you should try to target plenty of long-tail keywords.

Long-tail keywords are those that are several words long, like “how to write a book.”. The reason these keywords are so useful is that, since they’re longer, the search intent is more specific .

These keywords also tend to have less competition, which creates more opportunity for you to rank higher.

5. Create a positive user experience

Creating a positive user experience is a crucial factor in improving your SEO. When people visit your website and have a negative experience, they’ll quickly leave, which will signal to Google that your site isn’t relevant to search results.

Here are some ways to improve the user experience and rank higher:

• Use plenty of white space around text and images
• Break up paragraphs
• Use bulleted and numbered lists
• Provide a clear and useable navigation bar

6. Harness the power of local search

If your customer base lives primarily in a specific geographical area, local search is one of the best SEO tactics you can use. The idea of local search is to target users who search for things in their specific region, like “breweries near me.”

To harness local search, you can integrate keywords into your pages that target your specific location. You can find these keywords by using tools like Google Trends or KeywordsFX. The result will be increased chances of showing up in “near me” searches for people in your area.

7. Optimize your images

To effectively optimize SEO, you also have to optimize your images. When you use pictures on your website, they can be valuable for visitors — but they won’t help your SEO, since Google can’t read them like it can read text.

One solution to this is to use alt tags, which are short descriptions you attach to images. These tags give Google context for the image, allowing it to help you rank higher. These tags will also appear if an image doesn’t load properly so visitors can still know the context of the image.

You can also compress your images to keep them from slowing down your website. When your file sizes are large, they take longer to load — and no one likes a slow web page.

8. Earn high-quality backlinks

We’ve mentioned the benefits of internal links, but there is another type of link that offers even better benefits. Backlinks are an awesome way to improve your site’s ranking in Google.

Backlinks are links that lead to your web pages from external sites. You can obtain these by reaching out to third-party websites in your industry and asking them to link to you in their content.

In particular, you can find broken links on their sites and recommend that they replace them with new links. You can give them a list of some pages, including pages from your site, to replace the link. Since you helped identify the error, they will be more likely to choose to link to your article.

Earning backlinks from a few high-quality sites will help Google see you as more authoritative.

9. Implement responsive design

Over half of all Internet traffic comes from mobile devices. If your website isn’t optimized for handheld devices, you’re missing out on a lot of traffic! That’s why it’s so important for your site to practice responsive design.

 

 

 

An even more important reason, though, is that Google ranks sites based on mobile. That means that if you don’t practice responsive design, you won’t rank!

10. Create faster page load speeds

The last of our recommended SEO tactics is to optimize your page load speeds. Most users expect pages to load within two seconds, and if you don’t meet that expectation, you’ll see plenty of people hitting the back button.

Here are some ways you can improve how quickly your pages load:

• Cache your web pages
• Limit your redirects
• Minify your code
• Compress your images

When your site runs quickly, your visitors will stick around to read your content — and hopefully convert!

Get help optimizing your SEO strategy from WebFX

By following each of the above tips for SEO, you can make an enormous impact on the quality of your SEO. But if you’re struggling to make all of them work for you, don’t worry — WebFX is here to help.

At WebFX, we know what it takes to optimize SEO. Our more than 500 client testimonials show that we’re the agency businesses trust to drive results, and we’d love to bring our extensive dedication and knowledge to your company!

To get started with our SEO services, just call us at 888-601-5359 or contact us online today!