SEO Tips: 16 Optimization Tricks & Techniques

on SEO September 22nd, 2020

By following search engine optimization (SEO) tips and a solid digital marketing strategy, you can ensure that your company is available whenever prospects are looking for your services.

But, the only way to develop a successful plan is to stay up to date with the latest changes and research practices that will set you up for success.

Like consumer trends, search engine optimization best practices are always changing. This is a result of search engines optimizing the results they show based on consumer preferences.

Developing a successful SEO strategy is a continuous task, so you need to find the time to monitor, manage, and adjust your campaign in order to achieve the best results.

With the above in mind, learning how to build an effective SEO machine is a gradual process.

At Fannit, we have decades of combined experience developing and implementing SEO strategies for clients in a wide variety of industries.

Our team understands the different variables that influence your rankings, so we’ve put together a list of tips to help improve your website’s search results.

Let’s take a look at the definition of SEO, the factors that affect your organic positions, and tips to help improve your site’s rankings.

16 SEO Tips to Help You Develop a Successful Online Marketing Machine

Below, we’ll go over the best SEO tips and tricks that can help get good rankings on Google and other search platforms for your blog posts and other pieces of.

1. Create a Holistic Online Marketing and SEO Strategy

Before you start creating materials or posting new content, you need to make sure you have a solid plan in place.

Implementing organic search marketing may not produce the results you’re looking for if you don’t have a clear road map.

Instead, develop a holistic approach, set both short and long-term goals, and distribute your resources among organic search marketing and other supporting strategies.

2. Remove Unnecessary Website Elements

Although there are many technicalities, good search engine optimization advice also covers user-facing elements, like the individual parts of your pages.

Long videos, sliders, and similar components can slow down your website. Plus, these extra features don’t always produce the desired effect.

By removing unnecessary elements that don’t boost user experience, you can reduce loading speed and make sure that your pages are as fast as possible.

3. Start Linking to Other Relevant Sites with Good Authority

Relevant link building is one of the best tips for search engine optimization. But, linking to other authoritative platforms in your content will also help boost your rankings and give you a well-rounded backlink profile.


More Helpful Reading: free backlinks


Instead of evaluating sites through experience, always check the authority metrics of the pages you’re linking to. Always link to pages that have authority ratings that are either the same or higher than your own.

4. Create Content for Your Readers First, Then Search Engines

One of the biggest traps that many companies fall into is writing content for search engines.

It’s true that you need to comply with search platform requirements to get indexed and appear in search results, but the main goal is to attract paying customers.

So, remember to write first for potential customers, then for search engines when creating new content. Your first goal should always be to answer the search intent. In other words, consider the intention  behind user searches when writing your articles.

5. Linking Building Through High-Quality Content

If you’re on a quest to find the top SEO tips for website managers, acquiring backlinks needs to be on your list of things to implement.

Linking to quality pages in your content gives you a small boost, but having authoritative platforms link back to your pages can fast-track the results you get.

The key is to take your time with each blog post, research the topic, and create a piece of content that’s better than the pages featured in the top results.

After finishing each blog post, you should also publish it on social media and try to incorporate it into your email sequences or in another part of your strategy that will boost its exposure.

6. Organize Your Internal Links Structure

Even if your potential customers don’t always navigate your site in the most logical way, it needs to have an organized and logical internal links structure.

Crawlers read and interact with your website from top to bottom as if it were a book, so these pieces of software go line-by-line clicking on each link separately.

If the internal links structure isn’t logical, search platforms will assume that your site is hard to navigate, which can reduce your ranking.

The best SEO suggestion to avoid this is to create a logical structure and ensure that all the links on your site are well-placed.

7. Implement Google Search Console and Other Analytics Tools

Having access to your website metrics is essential, but Google Analytics only provides information on the way people behave on your site.

Google Search Console, another one of the search platform’s free business tools, can help fill the gaps and tell you how your website is performing in terms of search results rankings.

Google Search Console also provides backend information about your site and it can help ensure that all technical elements are up to date.

Plus, you also have access to educational resources, so you can pick up local SEO optimization tips as well as other advanced techniques.

8. Develop Enticing Titles and Meta Descriptions

The title and meta description used on each page may seem trivial compared to some of the SEO marketing tips we’ve discussed.

But, these variables play a crucial role because they tell crawlers and search platforms what the content on your pages is all about, so you should carefully craft every meta description according to the contents of its page.

Remember, you’re writing for users first, so develop enticing titles and meta descriptions, then ensure that they include the keywords you want to target.

9. Adjust Your Website’s Backend Elements

As we mentioned before, there are many technical SEO tips you can implement.

From including the right title tag on each page to ensuring that your images have the right alternative description, all of these technical elements contribute to a well-structured site.

There are dozens, if not hundreds of variables that need to be checked on your website’s backend.

Your best bet is to work with a knowledgeable agency and get a free audit to see how your site is currently performing.

10. Use Informative and Well-Structured URLs

Similarly to the title and description, you need to make sure that your URLs are both informative and keyword-rich.

In addition to search platforms using them, a lot of consumers have also developed the habit of checking URLs.

So, if your pages seem irrelevant, you’ll lose out on a chunk of your traffic.

11. Fix Any and All Errors On Your Pages

Whether it’s outdated information, technical elements, typos, or even crooked images, you need to review your entire website and correct all errors found on each individual page.

Although crawlers are relatively basic, they have the ability to detect small errors that affect user experience, so these can end up hindering your page’s performance in the long run.

12. Invest Time Into Building a Strong Social Presence

Social media has become an important tool consumers use to research companies and get recommendations from friends.

The value of social networks exceeds that of a simple publishing platform because they allow your company to interact with your audience and consistently generate quality leads.

 

SEO TIPS

13. Implement Keywords Throughout Your Content (Even in Your Images!)

Conducting thorough keyword research is very important, but you need to go beyond general keywords that are difficult to rank for.

These terms have their time and place, but you should start by targeting long-tail keywords that are easier to rank for and also have higher conversion rates.

Also, make sure that the content on each individual page is targeting a specific set of keywords that don’t overlap with others on your page.

If not, you may have two pages competing for the same keywords, which may lower the ranking of both.

14. Include Schema Markup in Each Individual Page

Have you ever seen search results that have a featured snippet with relevant content in it? These can make search results stand out and attract more attention.

The good news is that your page can also feature snippets, knowledge panels, and similar elements thanks to schema markup vocabulary.

Like other Google SEO tips, techniques, and tricks on this list, schema implementation has a certain degree of technicality. So, take the time to learn to build sites using these standards or contact a knowledgeable agency that can help.

15. Create a Dedicated Writing Process

Quick SEO tips can give you small boosts in ranking, but developing and publishing quality written content on a regular basis will produce more noticeable improvements.

However, developing great content takes time, so you’ll see results gradually. Your best bet is to create a writing process that’s to be followed by all writers as this will help ensure consistency across all your content.

The more pieces of top-notch content you produce, the higher your rankings will be. So, make sure to create a content calendar to go along with the process guidelines and keep you publishing new pieces on a regular basis.

Just remember that you should never sacrifice content quality for volume.

16. Track and Monitor Your Results to Make the Right Adjustments

It’s impossible to know how well your content and links are performing without tracking and monitoring your campaign.

Before you start publishing materials, you need to install a reliable tracker that lets you see the performance of each individual page, which links are sending traffic your way, and how you can improve internal link building.

What is SEO?

There’s no question that the internet has become the best place to market your products and services.

Google estimates that close to 63% of all sales begin with an online search, regardless if the purchase was made online or at a physical location.

Whether you serve consumers or other companies, your potential customers rely on search engines like Google to help them find local, regional, and international providers.

In simple terms, SEO is the branch of digital marketing that focuses on promoting your products and services through organic search engine results.

Instead of paying for ad placements, SEO focuses on getting your Google’s first 10 positions whenever there’s a relevant search.

After all, 3 out of 4 users never make it to the second results page, so the only way to reel in significant traffic from search engines is to be among the websites that appear in the first 10 positions.

But, as you probably know already, getting to the top rankings is no easy feat.

Most companies are already marketing their solutions online, so getting an early-bird advantage isn’t really an option anymore.

That said, Google made more than 3200 updates over the span of two decades, so staying on top of the latest SEO optimization tips can give you an edge over competitors.

How Do Search Engines Rank Websites in Results Pages?

It’s common for companies to look for SEO blog tips that help them improve their writing.

But, this alone won’t be enough to get you to the covered first positions.

Google and other search platforms have developed unique algorithms that take hundreds of factors into consideration in order to generate the best results whenever there’s a relevant content query.

Users rely on search engines to provide them with the best results in order of quality.

So, these platforms evaluate each page and determine whether it’s a good fit based on the searcher’s location, intent, and other variables.

It’s important to note that all websites are different, so you’ll need to find the best approach for your business site.

For example, you may notice that some companies have very little content but still manage to land near the top of Google search results, but this doesn’t mean that you should do the same.

Organic search marketing doesn’t come with a defined set of rules.

Instead, you need to analyze your website’s current performance, explore the different techniques you have at your disposal, and find a combination that works.

Let’s take a look at some of the elements that directly and indirectly affect your website’s rankings on search engine results pages.

Page Loading Speed

Although some SEO tricks and tips are easy to understand, it doesn’t mean that they’re easy to implement.

Site speed is a great example because reducing the load time on your pages can significantly improve your rankings.

However, knowing what elements you can remove to help reduce page speed without sacrificing user experience may not be as straightforward.

In some cases, you may not have to remove any elements at all, but take different steps like changing servers or eliminating unnecessary code from your site.

Having in-depth knowledge and understanding of the variables that can affect loading speed can help you make the right chances.

If you’re not sure how to take care of this, visit https://www.fannit.com/seo/ and get in touch with us.

We’ll be glad to help!


More Helpful Reading: Top 9 SEO Metrics to Monitor


Relevance to the User Intent

One of the many reasons why users rely on search engines is because of their ability to generate relevant results in a matter of seconds.

Although most people in the marketing industry (including ourselves) refer to Google’s ranking system as a single unit, the truth is that this mechanism is made up of a large series of individual algorithms. And, one of them is specifically designed to determine how relevant content is whenever a user conducts a search.

Before implementing each SEO trick we’ll discuss, you have to learn about the factors that help determine your relevance.

This includes the keywords in your content, the functionality of your pages, expertise indicators, locations, and your site’s backend settings, just to name a few variables.

seo tips

Domain Age

You can search for all of the SEO advice in the world, but the age of your website is the one thing you won’t be able to change or adjust.

In some instances, websites that have been running for longer outweigh new platforms — but this isn’t always the case.

Google has claimed that, on its own, domain age has little to no impact on your site’s rankings.

However, by objectively analyzing ranking trends, we have observed that domain age can help determine which site has the highest relevance if all other factors are matched.

So, even though it’s not one of the main factors, establishing your website and continuing to use this platform over a long period of time can pay off later on.

Keywords

No list of Google search optimization tips is complete without discussing keywords. In a nutshell, keywords are the terms that users input when conducting a search.

Besides literally describing the information that the user is trying to find, the keywords also help Google and other search platforms understand the intent that every individual has whenever there’s a query.

What does this mean for your website? It’s simple, you have to implement the keywords that your prospects use to find your services into your content.

But, you have to find a good balance between writing for search engines and creating user-friendly content that’s easy to read and understand.

URL Structure

Despite the fact that it seems trivial to some, the URL structure of every page on your website directly affects your search engine rankings.

Google uses a combination of signals to determine what your site is about, including the words used in your web addresses.

Therefore, you need to make sure that all pages have relevant URLs that are easy to understand and describe the overall topic of each page.

Keep in mind that Google employs simple pieces of code, which are called crawlers, to literally read the data on your website.

To create a good URL, you should use the main keywords you’re targeting and separate each word with a hyphen.

This will allow Google’s crawlers to easily read and catalog your site in the search engine’s index.

Website Authority

Websites that have good SEO don’t usually focus on only one tactic because Google has developed a variety of ways to determine each platform’s authority.

Pagerank is an algorithm that Google has been using for almost 20 years to help determine how authoritative a website is.

And don’t be fooled, even though companies can’t access their Pagerank score through Google Toolbar anymore, the system is still used to determine a website’s algorithmic authority score.

There are many tools that can help you determine your website authority score, including in-house mechanisms developed by Moz and other leading companies in the marketing software industry.

Just remember to verify the platform you choose was developed by Google or a well-known provider.

Site Architecture and Other Technical Elements

Even though you have to create content that captivates your audience, the backend of your website also plays a huge role if you’re trying to get good rankings on Google and other search platforms.

Optimization for these platforms is crucial, so your site’s architecture is one of the best examples.

Having the right structure will help determine whether crawlers can easily read your website or not.

If your site’s structure or any of its other technical elements aren’t properly calibrated, Google’s crawlers will have a hard time reading your content. And, search engines will assume that users will have the same experience, which can result in a lower functionality score as well as an overall lower ranking.

In other words, the best SEO marketing strategies have to include a complete analysis and, if necessary, restructuring of your pages.

User Experience and Website Design

Your website design and the user experience you provide will also impact your search result positions.

Web design includes all the graphic elements on your site, but it also covers the layout as well as any other factor that influences the way people use your site’s interface. And, when it comes to getting first-page rankings, developing a simple interface with a slick design tends to produce the best results.

The user experience is influenced by the web design, but it’s also affected by the functionality of your site, the quality of its content, and other variables.

If you’re looking for effective organic search engine optimization tips, you should try to combine techniques that result in a better overall experience for your potential customers.

Backlink Profile

Although they analyze each page within a site, search engines also use a variety of indicators to differentiate high-quality websites from irrelevant platforms.

For example, Google expects quality websites to link to each other.

So, if an authoritative site contains links that send users to your site, Google will start categorizing your website as a quality platform as well.

In this context, you can think about links as SEO recommendations that Google gets from leading sites in your industry.

The sites that link back to your pages make up your backlink profile.

If you have quality platforms sending organic traffic your way, you’ll get better rankings.

Unfortunately, the opposite is also true, so having low-quality pages linking back to your site may actually hinder your marketing efforts.

Social Indicators

Social media presence hasn’t been confirmed as a primary ranking factor, but Google and other search engines can still use social signals to properly categorize your website.

After all, Google shows social media profiles on its results pages and may even display a featured snippet with a tweet or similar post depending on the term the user is searching for.

In simple terms, social indicators refer to events that illustrate how active and popular your company is on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks.

This includes likes, shares, pins, votes, reviews, link clicks, and other ways users can interact with your posts.

The more social signals you have, the higher the chances of driving traffic to your site.

Security and Accessibility

You can take different paths, but the best ways to have SEO success focus on creating a comfortable experience for your potential customers.

Modern consumers are more concerned about digital safety than ever before. So, you need to create a secure platform where they feel comfortable sharing phone numbers, email addresses, and other pieces of contact information.

Furthermore, you also want to make sure that your website is easy to access and navigate regardless of the device being used.

More than half of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices, so you’ll want to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly and that it adjusts to the customer’s screen size so that your content can be easily digested at all times.

Functionality and Overall Quality

Many SEO rules focus on the technical side of your site, but search engines also focus heavily on keeping users happy.

One of the most frustrating scenarios visitors face is the lack of functional links and features on a website.

Whenever a potential customer is on your website, this person expects all links, forms, and other elements to work properly.

Crawlers conduct a full assessment of your website and attempt to interact with all its features, so any site that has functionality problems can be penalized by search engines.

Additionally, the overall quality of your site will have an impact on how search platforms evaluate it.

This means that messy websites that don’t have a cohesive linking structure or organized content have a much lower chance of getting to the first spots.

Even after implementing the Google SEO tips we’ll discuss, also review each individual page one last time to ensure all of its elements look great and work properly.

Content Quality

Content may be the most powerful ranking factor, especially for new websites that are still working on developing the right structure.

Since these sites usually have a low authority score, great content can help accelerate their growth and help Google place them in the right category.

That said, publishing a random piece of content every few months won’t be nearly enough to get your pages a good rank.

For starters, you need an organized plan that includes the creation of a content publishing schedule.

Your content should also have a purpose, so it should be written in a way that promotes users to ask questions and submit their contact information using the forms on your site.

Furthermore, the content you produce should be of superb quality.

Any and all facts discussed in your blog posts and any other relevant piece of content should be accurate.

And, the writing should be top-notch in terms of grammar, so you need to proofread and avoid punctuation and spelling mistakes.

We’ll discuss techniques that help you produce great content later in this article.

But, before we delve into the best SEO tips, let’s take a look at the advantages of leveraging this type of marketing.

Why is SEO Important?

We’ll discuss our top SEO tips in the next section, but first let’s take a look at the importance of implementing this type of marketing into your promotion plan.

Organic search engine marketing has a variety of advantages, especially when compared to traditional forms of advertising.

You control your website and all of the elements that it contains.

So, you can choose to promote your solutions through long-form articles, videos, interactive media, and any other content format that you think is suitable for your business.

Not only this, but this marketing approach is also ideal for all types of companies and industries.

It doesn’t matter if you serve consumers or provide B2B services, if you sell physical products or software solutions, or if you focus on in-person services, search engines can help you attract the right type of traffic to your site.

Additionally, here are some of the benefits of organic search engine marketing.


More Helpful Reading: what is SEO?


Measure Campaign Costs and Performance

Traditional marketing campaigns involve a lot of guesswork and it’s pretty much impossible to determine how well they truly perform.

If you choose to promote your solutions through search engine organic result pages, you can track how well each individual page performs.

This allows you to see how well your campaign is performing, which parts of your site are producing the best results, and the areas that need improvement.

Keep in mind that your site doesn’t automatically come with a tracking mechanism.

If you want to access user-related data and create intricate reports, you’ll need to download and install Google Analytics on your site.

Google Analytics is a free tracker created by the search giant, so it provides comprehensive insights that will help you implement the tips for SEO we’ll discuss later on.

Discuss Your Service in Detail Through Blog Post Format

In order to get good SEO rankings for your pages, you need to update your content regularly.

Additionally, having a higher number of relevant keywords will help search engines understand your services and categorize your site properly.

Blogs give you the ability to use keywords that are related to your services but don’t really fit in your main product pages.

Plus, your blog is also a great chance to discuss your products or services in great detail.

Then, you can publish this content through social media and boost your traffic before you get on the first page of Google search results.

With the above in mind, remember that you also need to keep SEO for blogging in mind.

In addition to keyword research, you should verify that your content is easy to read and understand.

You should also use appropriate title tags and meta descriptions that give details about the contents of each page and get quality sites to link back to your content.

If you want to learn more about SEO for blog posts, our team of knowledgeable consultants will be glad to help.

Credibility Boost

To create a strong connection with their audiences, companies have to instill confidence and create credibility around their brand.

Claiming one of the top positions on Google boosts your credibility with the search engine and the same applies to other search platforms.

But, this can also catch your target audience’s attention and create a buzz around your company.

After all, Google reserves the top 10 placements for the best results, so having your company featured with the industry leaders can help give your company more credibility.

There are many website SEO tips that help you boost credibility, like displaying BBB icons and reviews on your site. But, this will only work if content and other areas of your site are already optimized.

Higher Rankings and More Quality Web Traffic

The main goal of implementing basic SEO tips into your site is achieving higher search engine rankings because this can give your business several great advantages.

In addition to giving you a credibility boost, higher rankings also allow customers to find you easily, which improves accessibility and user experience.

Furthermore, the best organic SEO tips help you attract larger volumes of quality traffic. Search engine users are known for being more engaged because they are actively looking for information.

These visitors are more likely to explore your site, read your content, and engage with the features available to them.

This translates to a higher number of leads that come directly to your website.

Available to Potential Customers Around the Clock

One of the biggest challenges for companies that rely on traditional marketing is reaching consumers when they are available.

After all, these companies often work at the same time as consumers, and making sales phone calls early in the morning, during lunch hours, or late in the day doesn’t always generate the best results.

The good news is that your Google and your website are available to your customers around the clock.

Your potential clients are able to run a search, find your site, and learn about your products at any time of the day without input from you or any of your team members.

And, the best part is that they can submit a question while learning about your services, which empowers them to reach out to your company.

Suitable to Target Prospects in All Stages of the Funnel

While many SEO tools and tips focus on the lower parts of the funnel that are designed to convert customers, this marketing technique is actually suitable for buyers in all stages of the decision-making process.

Marketing through search platforms allows you to attract top-of-the-funnel prospects that need nurturing, mid-funnel leads that already have an interest in your product, and potential customers who are lower in the funnel and ready to speak with your sales team.

Organic search marketing is an alternative to target leads during any stage, but you have to understand your buyer’s journey.

All companies and industries are different, so you need to analyze the steps that users take on the way to becoming your customers.

Once you have a deep understanding of your buyer’s journey, you can develop organic content for the different parts of your sales funnel.

Complement PPC, Social Media Marketing, and Other Promotion Techniques

Even if you choose to keep it basic and implement simple SEO tips, these actions will complement and boost other areas of your digital marketing strategy.

Companies that have developed social media, email marketing, and similar plans will likely experience improvements in performance across all efforts.

Result in Higher Digital Marketing ROI

Organic search leads are known for being the most cost-effective in terms of return on income (ROI).

The ROI of your marketing campaigns measures the funds you invest against your revenue, so you can see how much profit you make for each dollar spent.

You don’t have to plunge right in either — you can implement some easy SEO tips and measure how well these efforts perform to get a taste of the potential this marketing strategy has.

How to Choose the Best Search Engine Optimization Agency

Learning about the Google Search Console, keyword research, featured snippets, and other SEO concepts can be a daunting task, especially if your marketing depends on it.

Instead, you can choose to work with an agency that specializes in organic Google search rankings.

Now, attracting search engine crawlers, creating an internal linking plan, and converting site visitors require an extensive amount of experience.

Therefore, you should aim to work with a knowledgeable and reputable agency that has experience transforming low-quality content into top-ranking pages.

Now, vetting your potential partners is not a straightforward process.

Your best bet is to find an SEO tactics expert that takes the time to evaluate all your website pages and perform a site audit.

Only then will you know what your needs are, which strategy makes sense, and who can help you get more organic website visitors.

Do you find that you have better products than other sites, but still can’t get more organic traffic? Having a good meta description and choosing a target keyword is not nearly enough to get you ranked on search engines like Google.

If you want to find a profitable target keyword for every page, appear on relevant search queries, and get better rankings than those other sites, we can help.

Need Help with Your Online Marketing? We’ve Got You Covered

Mastering SEO isn’t easy, especially if you want to implement advanced tips that improve the performance of your campaign.

You need to know how to develop a solid link-building plan, create high-quality content for each page, and make sure you get traffic from relevant links in your industry.

At Fannit, we specialize in creating engaging content, developing link-building strategies, and managing our client’s entire digital marketing strategies.

If you want to learn more about the best SEO tips and techniques, or simply want to get started with your strategy creation, get in touch with us today and our team will be glad to help.

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2020/07/30/small-business-seo-seven-tips-to-rank-your-website-on-google/

Recommended Article: Show Up First On Google Search

Neil Eneix

My brother Keith and I started Fannit in 2010 and have been very fortunate to work with a wonderful family of clients, watching their businesses grow through the power of digital marketing. At the office, I work with our clients on developing out their business strategy as well as nurturing our relationships. It’s amazing how much influence and power SEO and good content can have over a business’ health. Connect with me on LinkedIn >