5 Steps to Increase Growth Through SEO
Search engine optimization is one of the most time- and resource-intensive digital marketing strategies. But because SEO has such a high impact on search results, websites that take an intentional, well-planned approach to SEO tend to see a significant return on their investment. Fortunately, there are ways to increase your site’s visibility without breaking the bank. By following these five steps, you can optimize your site for growth and see measurable results almost immediately.
1) Set a goal and strategy
Before you embark on any SEO journey, it’s important to set a goal and strategy. Goals can vary, but generally you want to focus on growing your audience and increasing your site’s authority. Once you know what you’re aiming for, you can develop a strategy that targets your audience and achieves your goal. Ideally, your SEO strategy should include both short-term and long-term goals. Short-term goals include growing your rank and driving referral traffic, while long-term goals include increasing your website’s authority and ranking for specific keywords. Knowing what you want to achieve from the get-go will help you prioritize your SEO strategy. You can also use your goals to create a timeline and keep yourself accountable. This is especially useful if you’re working within a team or have multiple clients.
SEO basics: On-site and off-site SEO
On-site SEO: This refers to the way you structure your website and its contents. By following best practices in on-site SEO, you ensure that search engines can easily understand and navigate your website. To begin, you’ll want to use semantic HTML tags and a website structure that’s easy to navigate. This will allow search engines to crawl your pages more efficiently and understand what each page is about. You should also make sure your content is legible and written with the user in mind. This means using correct spelling and grammar, as well as using natural language. Finally, you should optimize your website’s URLs to be short, relevant, and readable. Off-site SEO: This refers to your ability to get others to link to your website. The more reputable sites that link to your site, the more authority your site has. Authority, in this case, refers to your site’s ability to rank highly in search engine results pages (SERPs). There are two main ways to get others to link to your site: link building and content marketing. Link building refers to your ability to get other sites to link to your site. This is the most effective method of off-site SEO, but it can also be the most challenging. For example, if you run a fitness blog, you might approach fitness websites and ask them to link to a specific article on your site. Link building can be a time-consuming and frustrating process, but it’s an essential part of SEO. Link building is also a more sustainable long-term strategy, as you can continue to get others to link to your site for years to come.
2) Content Marketing
With SEO, you want to create content that ranks on the first page of SERPs for a variety of terms and keywords. To do this, you want to create content that’s directly related to your target audience’s needs and questions. This ensures that your content is highly relevant to your target audience. If your content is highly relevant, it’s more likely to rank highly in SERPs, bringing more organic traffic to your site and increasing your site’s authority. Another way to build authority and rank highly in SERPs is through content marketing. Content marketing refers to the creation and distribution of content, like blog posts or videos, with the goal of driving traffic to your website and increasing brand awareness. There are a number of different types of content you can create, such as blog posts, guides, or videos, and many can be repurposed for use in different platforms.
3) Paid Advertising
Paid advertising refers to any paid investment in marketing, including pay-per-click (PPC) and display advertising. PPC advertising is an advertising model where advertisers pay a certain amount each time someone clicks on their ad. This is a great way to increase your site’s traffic and gain new leads, though it requires some upfront investment. You can use PPC advertising to drive traffic to a specific landing page on your site, like a sign-up page for an email list, and convert those potential leads into customers. For example, you might use PPC advertising to drive traffic to a sign-up page for an email list. This will allow you to collect email addresses from interested customers, while also building brand awareness. Another excellent way to use paid advertising is to drive traffic to your website’s homepage. This will allow you to diversify your traffic and exposure, while increasing brand recognition and authority.
4) Increase your website’s usability
Your website’s usability not only affects your conversion rate, but also your authority and search engine optimization. Website usability is often measured by the number of visitors who complete a desired action, such as clicking on a call-to-action, purchasing a product, or signing up for a service. The more usability your website has, the more likely your visitors are to complete these desired actions. This will not only increase your conversion rate, but it will also make your website more authoritative. Authority is one of the most important factors in search engine optimization, and it’s directly related to your page’s rank. The higher your page rank, the more likely it is to appear on the first page of SERPs. A few ways to increase your website’s usability are to make sure your content is easily readable and navigable, and that your design is consistent and on-brand. You should also make sure your website is responsive and accessible across all devices, including smartphones and tablets.
5) Organic growth hacking tactics
There are a number of organic growth hacking tactics you can use to increase your website’s visibility and authority. One of the best ways to increase your visibility is to guest post on other websites in your industry. Guest posting is a mutually beneficial activity that can lead to links back to your website, as well as backlinks from other authoritative websites. Another great way to increase your authority is to create and publish long-form content. Long-form content is anything over 1,500 words, and it’s a proven tactic for boosting your authority and increasing traffic. You can also use tools like Screaming Frog and Ahrefs to audit your website for any issues that might be harming your SEO. You can also create a content calendar to organize your content. This will help you stay on track, as well as help you plan for future content. Another tactic for boosting your authority and visibility is to diversify your content. You can do this by creating content in various formats and on different topics. Conclusion Search engine optimization is an intensive, time-consuming process that requires patience. The more time and effort you put into optimizing your site, the more likely you are to see results. Remember that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. And while it’s an important strategy to consider, it’s not the only one. It’s also important to focus on other areas like content creation and distribution, as well as PPC and paid ads.