Tips for Better Ranking

Google is not constant in its algorithm as it keeps on updating the ranking criterion throwing seo services into a spin. So, if one day you are at the top, it is possible that your ranking will not be the same the next day. Add in the ordeals this year has given us, it is not easy to dedicate hours to thinking of new and effective strategies and implement them.

Nevertheless, you also need to stay in the loop regarding Google’s ever-evolving ranking criteria. This is can be a dilemma but worry not for there is a way to all this. There are some quick SEO tips that can work wonders in shifting things around for you. What you need to do is to know where and how to work them. 

Why is SEO important?

You hear and read it everywhere how Search Engine Optimization strategies are a crucial digital marketing tool. Even if you retain some fundamental understanding of what it encompasses, you might still have a solid grasp of this complicated and multifaceted phenomenon.

SEO is composed of numerous distinct elements, and understanding what they are and how they function is important in understanding why SEO is so significant. SEO is crucial because it gives your website more visibility, and that implies additional traffic and better opportunities to transform visitors into customers.

Furthermore, it is also a useful way of brand awareness, relationship building with prospects, and placing yourself as a powerful and trustworthy authority in your niche.

What Has Changed So Far?

First, Google has quickly formulated new technologies and strategies for language processing. Its objective is to facilitate people to browse for things in a manner that feels natural and easy. This is also an enormous relief to those who utilize voice-assistant friendly devices like Siri and Alexa to go about their searches.  This resulted in Google constantly getting competent at comprehending the context of what someone is looking for, and hence the search engine results pages (SERPs) provide precisely what they want. This further meant that Google plans to execute certain strategies where they can offer more options and results in the form of ads to people on their social media accounts, too by analyzing their recent searches.

This emphasis on user intent implies that for search engine marketers wanting their content to rank better, they need to comprehend what their searchers want – and they must ensure their content is delivering it to them.  Today’s strategies are all about quick results and convenient solutions.  Another huge change is the heightened effect that user experience has on the rankings. Since people greatly prefer pages that provide a tremendous page experience, Google kept busy by putting in a range of user experience (UX) in its ranking algorithm’s criteria like mobile-friendly websites and how promptly the pages load.

Google stated in one of its recent announcements that great page experiences allow visitors to have more things done and get them engaged deeply. Therefore, by adding UX to the hundreds of indications that Google contemplates while ranking search results, they plan to assist people in getting easier and quicker access to the info they want from a certain website. This, in turn, helps the website owners to understand how the visitor perceives their page. Do they stay or do they want to leave because everything is so slow. 

Of course, understandably, this is too much for digital marketers to contemplate and act upon. No matter if your content is strong and useful, if it is not optimized the way Google wants, then it will not get any visitors and is of no use. We bring you some handy but quick tips that can turn your SEO game around. 

SEO Tips to Amp Things Up!

Everybody has a lot on their plate, so we can use all the help we can get right now. We have gathered a list of some quick and latest SEO tips that you can implement to turn things around for your website.  You will not need to invest too much money or energy; just a few smart tweaks here and there and it can show a bit differently; the best part is that even rendering tiny changes to your content’s optimization can deliver a great impact. So let us dive in.

A quick look at SEO practices to win over Google:

  • Inspect your User Experience
  • Keyword Strategy Calls for Variety
  • Search Intent is the Priority
  • URLs and Stop Words
  • Meta Descriptions Need Accuracy
  • Featured Snippets
  • Up Your Content Level
  • Repurposing Old Content
  • Compelling Thumbnails
  • Backlink Building organically
  • Desktop and Mobile Versions Need To Match
  • Don’t Forget Image Optimization

Now we are going into more details to give you better insight and guidance in how you can implement all these practices to ensure results.

Inspecting Your User Experience (UX)

With page/user experience turning out to be such a big deal, Google has tossed marketers a bone with this new tool called Core Web Vitals. This tool can help measure the website loading time, visual stability of every page, and user interaction. This is an excellent place to begin with your renewed SEO strategy. Before you check what you need to add or fix, you must know if what you have is working constantly and is not broken. 

 

Keyword Strategy Calls for Variety

Historically, optimizing web pages around particular high-search-volume keywords and content around lower-volume or long-tail keywords was what marketers did to get things going. Now, things have changed and that old practice has started to wane. Rather, you need to strive for a strong blend of both across your entire website. In addition, if you wish to fulfill the rising popularity of voice search, you must seek opportunities to function in numerous of your keyword variations like synonyms and relevant keywords, to get the most favorable results.

Helpful tools like Moz and SEMrush can be a great way to give your keyword list some revamping. Alternatively, you can try Google Suggest and Google Autocomplete for quick additional ideas.

Search Intent is the Priority

We all know how Google is getting better at understanding user intent to provide the most relevant and personalized and outcomes. Interestingly, the layout of your content also plays a part in this relevancy. For instance, a visitor searching for “best tents for winters” will also probably see a blog post analyzing various tent models.

Therefore, you need to optimize the content for user intent by assessing the search results your target keywords generate. This will show you what pop-ups and you can discern better what type of search intent your content categorizes for. Then, you can format it accordingly to get a better ranking. 

URLs and Stop Words

Popular filler words like the, of, and or can use up some valuable space in a website’s URLs. This renders it difficult for both crawlers and readers to skim through resulting in lags in a page’s loading time. You must attempt to keep such stop words away from the URLs and use them only if they are a crucial keyword part. It is best to limit the URLs to a hundred or fewer characters.

Meta Descriptions Need Accuracy

Google recently revamped its search results page to six hundred pixels, enabling for lengthier descriptions, titles, and descriptions on mobiles and desktop. However, you need to be very careful and mindful because nothing can be more annoying for a searcher than clicking a promising looking link only to end up with completely irrelevant content.  Your content must be exactly what your title and Meta description is hinting at. 

Rather, utilize the additional space to expand keywords to define your content effectively. This ensures that your searchers will be clear on precisely what they are getting when they click the link. 

Aim for the Featured Snippets

The high-ranking place on SERPs is not the number one result, now Google’s Featured Snippets show up before organic results, and they have taken up the prime spot.  There are various paths to secure a featured snippet place, but among the best ones is to respond to a keyword question directly in the content.

Various tools can help you discern better what queries people have regarding your targeted keyword.  AnswerThePublic and the People Also Ask column in Google searches are among the top option. Answer questions with clear and succinct paragraphs, and you will have better chances of gaining the highly coveted spot of a featured snippet.

Up Your Content Level

You also need to make sure your content is of good quality and review it constantly. Your content analytics will show you which posts are garnering the most traffic, and you can strive to up the level.  A good way of doing this is by setting up an advanced filter on Google Analytics to reveal how your keywords rank in SERPs.

Does some information need fresh resources and links, or can you add more depth to a certain post? Ask yourself these questions because sometimes all it takes is a little attention to your work to understand where you could be improving.

Repurposing Old Content

To proceed with this idea of leveling up the SEO strategy indicates it is the best time to give some love to your old content that still holds some relevancy.  For instance, contemplate turning an old blog post into a fresh video that gives an interesting and engaging brief of the main points. Incorporate numerous blog posts on a similar subject into an eBook offering a comprehensive peek at the subject.

Compelling Thumbnails

Thumbnail pictures are the initial thing visitors see as your video indexes and show up more often in Google findings. Video site giants such as YouTube produce their previews, but you get the choice to produce custom thumbnails. A thumbnail image must be of good quality, reflecting your video’s subject accurately.

Thumbnails can further enrich different types of content in search findings, like blog posts and web pages.

Backlink Building Organically

Backlinks remain a significant ingredient of SEO ranking. However, instead of tumbling into the snare for paying for links through black-hat tricks, always look for chances to build backlinks organically. You can sign up your website for a better ranking, powerful directories like Google My Business or Crunchbase.

You can convert your brand mentions on other sites by contacting companies, writers, or publications who referred to your brand and consult about linking back to your website. Moreover, you can ask an industry pro or a client if you can mention them in your case study or blog post and then link to their site and ask them to add a link on their site to cross-promote.  

Desktop and Mobile Versions Need To Match

Google switched to a mobile-first index in late 2020 for every website. This means that your content must be mobile-friendly and needs to match your desktop version. Nowadays, most users prefer their smartphone devices for browsing, and Google has made it a must for websites to be mobile-friendly to rank better. Now is your time to analyze your website’s desktop and mobile versions to ensure all content, images, links, videos work properly on both functions and are the same.  You can utilize Google’s URL Inspection Tool to discern any important and prominent discrepancies that need fixing.

Don’t Forget Image Optimization!

You must also optimize all your website pictures for mobile-first ranking. Ensure that all images have adequate size and high resolution, all the tags and formats are mobile compatible and double-check all titles, text, file names, and captions to confirm it matches the desktop version. 

Conclusion

And there you go! These were all our quick and effective SEO practices that do not require much effort but can have a big impact. If you go with even a few of these tips and incorporate them into the SEO strategy, then you can stay a step ahead of your rivals and be at the top of your game. A little effort in the SEO strategies can go a very long way in giving you better results and long-term understanding.

View MRC SEO Consulting in a full screen map

IF YOU HAVE MORE QUESTIONS – CALL US RIGHT NOW!