When it comes to success in Google’s search results, there is no such thing as shortcuts – that is unless you consider paid advertising.
Although pay-per-click advertising will boost your website to the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) immediately, it’s not a sustainable solution for maintaining your high rankings. So you must invest time and resources in organic search engine optimization.
Whether it’s spending more time on keyword research or Core Web Vitals experts, it’s time to invest heavily in SEO, especially in recent search optimization updates. If you don’t know where to start, this guide will show you how to improve your SERPs rankings and start seeing results this 2021 and below.
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Track Metrics with Google Analytics
If you haven’t started understanding your website’s performance with Google Analytics, this is your first step. While GA alone can’t tell you how poorly or well your website is ranking, it offers valuable information concerning the source of your traffic and what happens to them when they use any search engine.
One of the things you want to see on Google Analytics is that you’re getting visitors from the organic search results (compared to paid advertising) and that your engagement rates are high. If you achieve both, this means:
- Lower bounce rates;
- Multiple pages visited and
- Longer times spent on the website.
Also, if you configure Google Analytics to track conversions on your website, you’ll see how your organic visits convert.
At first, the amount of information can be overwhelming to track. But you have to understand your SEO efforts first to learn how you can improve your strategy.
Work On Your Mobile Page Speed
In July 2018, mobile landing speeds became a Google ranking signal. An expected change since more people rely on their smartphones or tablets for getting information or completing transactions. If your website takes too long to load on a mobile device, expect to lose substantial traffic. Speed is especially crucial for e-commerce stores.
Also, with the recent Core Web Vitals algorithm update, there’s no escaping the need for mobile loading speeds.
Meet Google’s page speed expectations by bookmarking the Core Web Vitals tool. This lets you know how your site is performing across all the major ranking categories. You’ll also learn more about speed-related issues.
There are other things you can also do to improve your page speed:
- Use well-coded plug-ins and themes;
- Remove unused pages, media, plug-ins, themes, backups, comments and other unused items from your server and data;
- Install a plug-in that will compress, simplify and make your website fast.
Make Your Site More Accessible
Thanks to the Core Web Vitals update of Google, accessibility has come to the forefront of optimization discussions.
Using a Core Web Vitals tool will let you know if there are any inaccessibility issues. But that doesn’t mean your website is 100 percent accessible.
Initially, accessibility may seem like a low-priority matter but with the increasing number of website accessibility-related lawsuits, it’s important to take this seriously. Because if your website is inaccessible, you won’t just lose visitors, you’ll lose money too.
Design a Mobile-First UI
A mobile-first design does more than improve your page speed. It can help your website rank better. But you must be careful when doing this. A mobile-first UI doesn’t automatically mean you’re creating a scaled-back version of your website.
According to Google, that’s not going to work. If your approach to a mobile-first design means having less content compared to your desktop page, you’ll lose traffic since Google can’t get information from your page.
Also, don’t bore people with repetitive or useless content. Give them more reasons to stay by giving users relevant and credible content they want.
Create Great Content
Speaking of great content, there are many technical ranking factors you’ll have to notice if you want to succeed in SEO. But all of that won’t matter if your content sucks.
For instance, if you are offering web design services, your services page must:
- Explain the importance of hiring a web designer;
- Let customers know what your services include;
- Inform them of the results they can expect;
- Include proof of your services via testimonials or portfolio samples, and
- Inform clients how to get in touch with you.
Great content goes beyond being error-free and well-written; it must match a user’s expectations and intent. If you can do that, the visitor will read through everything you wrote. Eventually, you’ll improve your website traffic.
There are no real shortcuts in SEO. To be a trustworthy and authoritative website, you’ll have to take the time to build your credibility online with these SEO tactics.