5 SEO Basics You Need to be Pro At

Organic search makes up most of the traffic to company websites.

In fact, it accounts for more traffic than paid and social put together!

Therefore, this means that SEO is as relevant as ever.

If you have your own business, blog, or work in marketing, it is important that you at least the basics of SEO.

However, the problem is successful SEO requires extensive knowledge of how search engines work. In addition, you need to be patient and it takes practice to get better at it.

Moreover, as SEO best practices keep changing and developing, one needs to stay updated about the latest search engine algorithms.

And to think there is more than 200 ranking factor that Google looks at when analyzing your website.

So, what should you do?

Well, if you get the basics right, you’ll be off to a good start. You can go deeper and look at the more complex metrics later.

1: Backlinks

Links are still one of Google’s key ranking factors. If the number of links your site has decreased, your ranking will also decrease.

How does one make backlinks?

You can publish an original study or case study to get people to link back to your site. If your study is interesting and liked by people in the industry, they will want to mention your study in their own blog posts and link to you as the source.

That’s one way of getting a backlink.

Second, write testimonials for other companies you’ve worked with. If they accept your offer for a testimonial on their site, you can politely ask for a link.

There you’ve it. You’ve got yourself a backlink.

2: Content

Content is another ranking factor that is at the top of the list.

Here are some of the things you can do to optimize your content.

1. Create long-form content.

According to Brian Dean’s research, the average first-page result on Google is 1890 words. It’s tough but it will work if the content is providing useful information or utility to your readers.

2. Spice up your Content.

Different types of content or blog posts can spice up your content. A great idea is to include your own videos in your articles to provide more value for your audience.

Videos are more highly shareable and linkable content. Hence, it makes them beneficial for traffic and SEO.

3: Meta Descriptions and Headlines

Whenever you publish a blog post, the headline and meta description of your post is displayed in the search results. It’s the first thing the visitor sees.

Basically, it’s the first impression of your article. So, you should try to make it a good one.

Meta description isn’t a direct ranking signal for search engines. However, what makes it a significant factor is that it helps people decide whether to click on a post or not.

Moreover, the way people engage at this point is called the click-through rate (CTR). It compares the number of people who click on a result and how many people see it.

More importantly, CTR is a vital ranking factor. Therefore, you should optimize your headline and meta description to improve the click-through rate.

And if people aren’t clicking on your link, Google will notice and consequently, your ranking will drop.

When it comes to optimizing your headline, your focus should be on making your headline catchy as well as optimizing it for SEO.

A study by Contently shows that longer titles have a better click-through rate. So, have a longer title and include your focus keyword in it.

Keep in mind, the headline should be relevant to your article.

4: User Experience

User experience is another key ranking factor. Bad user experience will negatively affect SEO.

A few things can help improve the user experience of your site.

1. Increase site speed.

You can crop images so they’re the right size and compress them using any easy tools. This will reduce the time it takes to load. Moreover, delete plugins which are of no use to you because they might be slowing your website down.

2. Keep it clean and simple.

A user comes to visit your site to read valuable information or to find whatever they’re looking for. So, your site you should be designed in a way that makes it easy for the user to explore it.

3. Limit ads.

This is a no-brainer. No one visits a site to look out for excessive ads. Too many ads will put any user off.

5: Mobile

These days the medium used by most people for searches is mobile.

According to Google, more than 50 percent of searches have come from mobile. In the future, this number is only going to increase.

So how should one optimize for mobile?

You can check whether your site is mobile-friendly or not with Google’s mobile-friendly test. Just copy and paste your URL. It will only take seconds to show you the results.

Let’s look at some of the things you can do for mobile SEO.

1. Optimize for local SEO.

Majority of people search for a local business on their phone once a week and more than 50% do it daily.

Many times when you’re out and need to find a restaurant or a shop, what do you do?

You search it on your phone. Don’t you?

Hence, you should improve your local SEO to get the best results on mobile.

2. Don’t hide content.

Don’t display content differently on the mobile version of your site. There should be no content hidden behind expendable sections or menus.

In the future, if Google is going to look at mobile first for SEO, then it needs to be able to view all of your content on mobile.

Are you looking for SEO services Adelaide? Do you want to hire a professional SEO company? If so, Digitally Up Australia is the right company for you.

Visit: www.digitallyup.com