Social media and paid advertising are all excellent ways of generating traffic. However, in the long-term, you need natural and organic search traffic via the search engines.
Organic search results cover the largest chunk of the digital space. They also appear more trustworthy and credible to the searchers. Also, they receive way more clicks than advertisements. It is estimated that SEO gives over 20x more traffic than Ads.
SEO is also the only way (when done correctly) that continues to yield results over a long period. With PPC and other paid advertisements, you need ongoing funding, and the results are also short-lived.
But, even though Google algorithms are getting smarter and more sophisticated, they still need guidance to tell them what the site is about. That is why SEO can never lose relevance. SEO connects the gap between search engines and searchers by indexing the information to help deliver better search results. If it sounds too complicated, web agencies like Developer Gang Web Development & Services can help you navigate these challenges.
With that said, let's take a look at some crucial SEO factors one should never ignore:
SEO Factors You Should Not Ignore:
Backlinks
Easily the #1 ranking factor, backlinks are super important. They are the basis of Pagerank which basically provides a foundation for Goog; e's ranking algorithm.
According to this study, there's a close relationship between organic traffic and backlinks. However, you cannot just go on creating backlinks blindly. You need to ensure the authority of the site as well as the relevance. Make sure the site that is backlinking to you belongs to the same niche as yours.
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Crawlability
Google or any search engine can only index and rank a site when it’s able to find it. That's why crawlability is so essential. It allows search engines to scan and review a site, its content and accordingly assign it a rank.
Below are some ways to ensure your site's crawlability:
- Submit a sitemap to Google and other search engines.
- Check the index status to review and see the number of pages that have been crawled.
- Use robots.txt to tell the search engines which pages to ignore and which pages to access.
Mobile Friendliness of the Site
This factor determines how well your site appears across hand-held devices, including mobiles and pads. A website that looks good and responds/adjusts itself according to different screen sizes is essential.
The majority of traffic comes from mobile devices which is why you simply cannot ignore mobile-friendliness of your site.
To know more, you can submit your site to the Mobile-Friendly Test By Google and get the report to see the responsiveness factor of your site.
Page Load Speed
Sites that take forever to load lead to a bad user experience. Google's focus is on giving relevant answers to the queries - quickly! That's why it prefers fast loading sites and gives them higher rankings. To check your site's speed, you can use the PageSpeed Tool by Google.
A few ways to speed up a slow loading site is by using website caching, reducing the total number of redirects, compressing the files and a bunch of other methods.
High-Quality Content
Always publish high-quality content regularly on your site. This is one of the top factors that influence SEO rankings. Google likes websites that offer well-crafted, researched, and in-depth content.
Fresh content is always an excellent way to ensure crawlability and remain visible in the eyes of search engines.
Picking The Right Keywords
Randomly picking your content and keyword is like shooting arrows in the dark hoping for it to hit the bull's eye. You need to choose the right target keyword by doing your research. See what specific topics and target keywords belong to your niche.
Keyword research helps you identify which keywords might drive the most traffic to your site.
- With an increase in voice search, more people are using long-tail keywords, so make sure to pick those. More or more than three words quality for long-tail keywords. Pick a nice blend of both short and long keywords.
- Understand 'Search Intent' which refers to the reason behind a query. The intent can be to buy, to learn, or to navigate, etc. If your content matches the intent, your site should score higher ranking. Learn how different keywords relate to different types of content.
Structured Data
Also known as Schema Markup, Structured Data is essentially microdata at the backend of a page that tells search engines about how to interpret the content and under which category to place it. For example, it tells whether to put it under book title, business address, recipe, or something else.
Consistent Business Listings
If you're a local business, this point is particularly important to you. Think of it as getting yourself included in a directory of local business that belongs to Google. The fact that you have got yourself listed as a local business makes you sound credible for Search Engines.
Business listings also go by 'citations'. As a brand, you should perform these basic steps -
- Go to Google My Business and create a page.
- Create a business profile.
- Make sure that details like your address, business name, contact details, etc. are consistent throughout all your business profiles.
Final Thoughts
SEO is a combination of tricks and technique. There's no one-size-fits-all approach for those in the game of online marketing. You need to keep experimenting with a bunch of different techniques and see which ones turn out best for you. With that said, make sure not to miss on these aforementioned-tips.
Also Read: What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Meaning, Understanding From Scratch