The only way to stay ahead of the competition is to stay on top of SEO – it’s the best way to generate leads and target the right audience. Your SEO campaigns need to grow and change alongside it, so here are some ways you can boost your SEO in 2022, writes digital growth expert, Nick Brogden.
Optimisation
Optimise your website by eliminating unnecessary scripts and code, optimising your images, and ensuring it is mobile-optimised. Visitors won’t stick around if your site is slow to load. Data from Portent found that for every additional second it takes for your page to load, conversion rates dip by almost 4.5 per cent. Fast loading sites climb up the SEO rankings much quicker.
The easier your site is to use, the more likely you will attract and retain visitors. You want helpful content and a responsive site. So, ditch the cluttered design and replace it with a sleek look and web-optimised images.
The first thing to review on the optimisation front is page load speeds. Your image loading time can impact your overall loading time. And it can also make mobile navigation more challenging. Over half of web searches are now from mobile phones, so you can’t afford to ignore how your site performs on mobile.
In addition to optimising your site for mobiles, you should consider whether creating an app is the right move. Believe it or not, it can boost your SEO. It means spending, but Google indexes apps, so your app will appear in the search results when people search for specific keywords. It’s a valuable resource to consider, though a considerable investment.
Content
Content marketing is a crucial element of your SEO strategy, from raising brand or product awareness to generating direct sales. It’s generally a faster way to drive traffic and boost your SEO rankings if you produce high-quality content that is optimised to rank for specific commercial queries. You can also add internal links to your product service pages to move the traffic to more sales-focused pages on your site.
If you provide visitors with newsworthy or exciting content, they will also spend more time on your site. Make sure your content is written for people, not the bots. It should also be easy to read for your target audience.
Also, don’t be afraid to revisit old blog posts and optimise them to give your site a faster traffic boost.
Keywords
The keywords you use will also influence the last point. Using the correct phrases and words in your content will help you climb the SEO rankings. It’s important to avoid ‘black hatting’, which is keyword stuffing, to boost your ranking. It may work for a time but you won’t retain visitors, and search engines crack down on that type of content.
Not just any keyword will do. If you operate a laundry service in Sydney, ‘laundry service’ is a good keyword. But, you may attract people from all over Australia rather than someone local who needs your service. That’s why including local-based keywords are more likely to drive converting traffic.
Always remember that commercial viability must be the focus, not the keyword with the highest traffic volume.
Traffic tracking
Analytics tell you a story. This information tells you about website engagement, how many visits you’ve had, and which posts work better than others.
You can use Google Analytics (GA) to get as much detail about the customer journey. GA will also highlight the keywords your page ranks for that show which types of content perform better.
Link building
Links create connections between various pages, and when other websites link yours, it creates a backlink. Your website will rank higher on search engines with more quality backlinks. The key is ‘quality‘.
However, there’s a lot of false information or misinformation rolling around the internet, so not all links are ranked equally.
Plenty of free backlink checkers will allow you to check whether a link is from a top-ranked page. You can use this to propose your content to editing teams, showing that your site is a better link.
Internal links are another excellent way to improve your SEO, simply linking to other pages on your website. You will also want to check to ensure your website regularly doesn’t feature dead links.
Driving organic traffic is an essential element for businesses to keep down your overall client acquisition costs. Planning an always-on SEO strategy is of high importance for the majority of businesses and as algorithms evolve, so too does your SEO strategy.
Hopefully the above tips will help keep you on the right track.
Source: Flying Solo August 2022
This article by NICK BROGDEN is reproduced with the permission of Flying Solo – Australia’s micro business community. Find out more and join over 100K others https://www.flyingsolo.com.au/join.
Important:
This provides general information and hasn’t taken your circumstances into account. It’s important to consider your particular circumstances before deciding what’s right for you. Any information provided by the author detailed above is separate and external to our business and our Licensee. Neither our business, nor our Licensee take any responsibility for any action or any service provided by the author. Any links have been provided with permission for information purposes only and will take you to external websites, which are not connected to our company in any way. Note: Our company does not endorse and is not responsible for the accuracy of the contents/information contained within the linked site(s) ac www.flyingsolo.com.au
