There are several things that need to be taken care of if you want to improve your website’s SEO. From improving onsite SEO to working on the technical aspects, everything needs to be considered.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is one of the most effective mantras that can ensure your website’s success. If until now Google preferred keywords to search and index results, today they approach SERP a lot differently. Though keywords continue to remain the focal point, Google now prefers throwing results that match user intent (and which can go beyond keywords).
Users have become the key focus for Google which means that whenever any result is shown, it reflect the user’s intent more than anything else. Through machine learning, Google today ranks those websites that optimize their site not for search engines (primarily) but for users. While keywords continue to be important (especially in indexing on search engines other than Google), the focus today is how well a website/ web page addresses user requirements.
If you want to improve your website’s SEO score, it is time you think beyond keywords. Below we will cover a few things that will make your website user friendly without ruining your SEO prospects.
On-Page SEO
Isn’t it quite obvious that if Google has renewed interest in users, you should too? It’s important for the success of your website to pay attention to your customers. Tracking customer journey has become essential. Only when you know what the user wants, can you build an informative website that helps customers research and take a favorable actions. Instead of focusing completely on keywords, build your content around phrases and terms. This way you can improve your rankings on other search engines and also make Google happy.
Know What Users are Looking For
You should be using your H1 and H2 content for answering potential questions often asked by users. On the following paragraphs, you can add more information that will make the content relevant. If you aren’t sure what are these questions take help from your marketing and sales team. They can study your social media pages (and other platforms) to know what’s trending and what can improve onsite optimization.
You can also conduct your own research on user intent. They are several ways to do so –
- Quora is a great platform to understand user questions and answers. You can gather lots of information about what your users like and dislike. You can then add information to your website accordingly.
- You can become the user (of your product or service) and Google search the most likely questions. Not only do the subsequent results throw light on what users are searching for, but you will also find additional information through the ‘related searches’ at the bottom of the page. That’s your place for getting additional information that can potentially improve your SEO.
- Browse through your competitors’ websites to see what and how they address user questions.
Remember that while meeting user intent, you cannot go overboard with information. They have to be simple, concise and in bulleted lists for easy reading and of course, for improving SEO.
Cut Short The Conversion Time
A clear call to action will improve your onsite optimization. Tags such as ‘buy now’, ‘get a free estimate’, and ‘schedule an appointment’ are examples of possible call to actions. For e-commerce sites, the common CTA are ‘only few left in stock’, ’offer valid until 9PM’. Adding a countdown clock also works to create a sense of urgency. Not only do these tricks cut the conversion time but they also give users a clear path to proceed. They also encourage faster conversions.
These tags help users know where to go once they are on your site. Even if you have a long-form landing page, you can include your call to action tags after each section. This will allow your users to do the needful without unnecessarily scrolling up and down. Cutting conversion time becomes even more important if users browse via their smartphones.
Another fast way of conversion are popups. But you need to be careful and judicious while using them. Not everyone likes them. You must test their conversion rate before implementing them completely. If you want to better SEO rankings, you must cut down on the number of clicks to reach intended pages on the website. Consolidating content and removing unnecessary pages are also good practices.
Do Not Ignore Technical SEO
Improving the customer journey cannot simply be achieved by improving the content of your website. You must take care of few technical things that will ensure onsite optimization.
- Keep Things Simple – When it comes to website designs, you don’t need to complicate things. A simple, intuitive layout that can be easily navigated works great. Such designs help bots and customers alike to understand the site. An updated sitemap is also crucial if you want web crawlers to index updated content. There should be no blocked URLs, error messages or pages redirecting somewhere else. You must ensure that the internal linking structure is such that they do not get viewed as click bait by search engines.
- Pages Should Load Quickly – Users do not like to wait for a page to load. Pages that load slowly are also penalized by Google. Loading a site fast will not only improve SERP but also reduce bounce rates while increasing conversion.
- Images Must Be Optimized – How you use images on your site will go a long way in improving your SERP. Always use best quality images, reduce unnecessary sources and distorted images as much as possible.
- Lessen Server Response Time – Your site’s response time should be below 200ms, should support both IPv4 and IPv6 along with HTTP/2.
- Take Third Party JavaScript Before The Fold – Third-party JS libraries increase the rendering time. Make sure they are below the fold. You must also use async with the <script> tag so that it blocks rendering time.
- Responsive Design – Most people browse using their smartphones. Your site must be mobile-friendly. Keeping Meta descriptions and title tags short your SERP on mobile improves without hampering onsite optimization.
There is a lot of work that must be done on a website to improve its SEO. You need concerted and continuous efforts because SEO isn’t a one-day job. Cyrusson Inc. has a great SEO team that works diligently to improve your SERP. Get in touch with us today to know more.