seolounge
Want to improve your on-page SEO almost immediately? Try these 9 effective SEO strategies and you’re almost guaranteed to out-rank your local competition.
1. Short and Sweet SEO-Friendly URLs
According to an interview with Matt Cutts – Google’s head of web spam – the first 3 to 5 words in a URL are given the most benefit. Because of this, keep your URLs as short as possible.
If you’re using a content management system like WordPress or similar, it’s easy to set your URL structure by heading over to your settings as adjusting the permalinks. Once adjusted, any page or post your write will conform to your exact needs.
Try to avoid URLs like: visionisto.com/y=782
Or long URLs like: visionisto.com/2017/may/23/best-back-link-resources-to-use-in-2017
2. Take Advantage of Your Keyword in Your URL
Customizing your URL is one of the oldest SEO tactics. Using a your keyword in your URL will provide the most bang-for-buck on-page SEO, IMO.
Paid your shortened URL with your target keyword in your URL and you’re on your way to ranking higher in Google.
3. Use LSI Keywords
These are essentially keywords related to the keywords that you are searching for, and Google does this by using a system known as LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing). In a nutshell, it is based on user search patterns and behavior, how one keyword search is usually linked to another keyword search.
For example, let’s say you do a Google search for “cars”.
How does Google know whether you’re searching for?
Have a look at the bottom of your search results page on Google.
cars movie
cars disney
cars (film)
cars 2006
cars pixar
cars cartoon
cars games
car definition
The answer? LSI keywords.
4. Publish Content with LOTS of Words
Did you know that longer contentt tends to out rank shorter content on Google? Lots of SEOs know this, so they’ve historically kept their page content and blog post content in between 400 and 600 words. However, a new study suggests that anything less than 2000! words won’t get you close to the first page of Google. Did you know that the average word count on the front page of Google is over 1800 words??!!
Google is actively searching for authoritative content; they want facts, figures, charts, graphs, pictures, videos, and more. The more useful information you have in your content, the more of a resource you’ll become in the eyes of Google and you’ll be rewarded for it.
5. Optimize Your Title Tag for CTR (click through rate)
Most of you may know that including your target keyword in your title tag is great for SEO – this is SEO 101. But what you may not know is that you should optimize your title tag for CTR.
CTR is one of the factors Google uses to rank website higher in their search results. Now, while this is not the only factor, edging your competition with this little-known tactic will be great for your on-page SEO.
How to Optimize for CTR?
Include numbers in your title – numbers grab attention
Add brackets and parenthesis – boosts CTR by an average of 38%
Now, let’s practice:
A. Original Title Tag: SEO Tips to Boost Rankings
B. New Optimized for CTR Title Tag: 10 SEO Tips to Boost Rankings (Free Download)
If you were searching for SEO tips on Google and came across both results, which are you more likely to click on? Yes, that’s right, option B.
Let’s try this theory with a more practical search.
A search for ‘best beaches’ on Google shows us exactly what we’re talking about in reference to adding number to your title tag:
6. Use External Links
For every post your write, include 2-5 outbound links to authority websites. Think of these as attributations or citation in a book report. Remember when you had to write a report in school and the teach always asked for you to site your sources? Well, Google is that teacher.
Let’s have a look at a New York Times article about substituting your TV with a projector. In the first paragraph of the article, the author links out to two sources of information:
According to MOZ – one of the best resources for SEO – here are 5 reasons why external linking can be beneficial to your brand and website:
#5 – Linking Out Sends Trackable Traffic
#4 – It Makes Your Site a More Valuable, Scalable Resource
#3 – Search Engines Likely Reward the Behavior Algorithmically
#2 – Linking Out Incentivizes Links In
#1 – Linking Out Encourages Positive Participation & Contribution
7. Use Internal Links
Internal Links are hyperlinks that point at (target) the same domain as the domain that the link exists on (source). In layman’s terms, an internal link is one that points to another page on the same website.
Internal links are most useful for establishing site architecture and spreading link juice (URLs are also essential). For this reason, this section is about building an SEO-friendly site architecture with internal links.
Whenever you publish a new piece of content, be sure to link to 2-5 internal links to older content. Use these links strategically, only linking to pages that NEED a boost in rankings.
8. Site Speed
Did you know that site speed is one of only a few ranking factors that Google has publicly confirmed? From our own testing, a faster website can lead to a better user experience, and higher rankings.
How can you boost your website speed for better SEO results?
Better optimized hosting – Cheap $5 a month hosting may seem like a good idea, but in actuality, weak hosting can have a major impact on your site speed and affect your rankings. Invest in better hosting for about $20 a month and see the difference.
CDN – CDNs deliver your site’s content closer to where they live, allowing pages to load faster and provide a better user experience
Leverage the data found in website scan tools like GT Metrix and Google Speed testing
9. Leverage Multimedia
Everyone likes a good blog post. But what do they like even more? Blog posts with lots of relevant content filled with helpful images, videos, graphs, and more. The more time a users spends on your page, the better signal it sends to Google that your page is filled with useful, engaging content. If a user clicks onto a page and notices 2000 words with no attention grabbing media like images and videos, they may leave, indicating to Google that your page is NOT the best resource for a particular keyword.
