Nithin David
This guide provides instructions for optimising your website's SEO to help you rank on the first page of Google. After putting in your creative and technical efforts to design your new website, you may notice that you're not receiving the expected amount of inquiries, contact form submissions, or sales notifications. Don’t worry; this is a common problem that boils down to your business/brand visibility on the internet. The ultimate goal of any website is to make it easy for online visitors to find your products or services.
Nothing is more frustrating than seeing your website rank on the second and third pages of the search engine, especially after all the hard work that went into setting it up. And trust us, not many users like to click through to discover what lies on those search engine results pages. Think about it, when was the last time you intentionally went to the second page of Google's search results?
That's why, in this guide, we want to take you through certain actionable steps that can help you rank your brand-new website on Google’s first page.
Writing meta titles may seem simple, but it's crucial for your website's ranking. Neglecting it can harm your efforts to rank well. In this article, we'll explain how to write effective meta titles for each page and maximise your SEO potential. A title tag is an HTML element that is used to define a specific web page.
Here is an example of a basic title tag: <title> How To Get Your Brand New Website On Google’s First Page? </title>
The title tag communicates to search engines and website visitors the main information about a page concisely and clearly. It is crucial to express the most important details about the page in the shortest way possible.
Also, this is how your title tags show up on the search engine results page:
This is how the title tag is displayed on social media platforms:
It’s absolutely vital that you write compelling title tags to improve the click-through rate on your page.
Here are two quick tips:
As you can see in the image above, the title tag of this blog gets cut off. This is a self-defeating exercise that will do a great disservice to your web page. Title tag truncation occurs when the title of the web page is too long to fit in the available space, resulting in it being shortened with an ellipsis (...) at the end. This can cause important information to be cut off, making it difficult for users to understand the content of the page.
Therefore, it is important to avoid title tag truncation by keeping the title concise and within a reasonable length limit of 50 to 60 characters. A properly constructed title tag can help to improve search engine rankings, increase click-through rates, and enhance user experience.
Top Tip: Here’s a free title tag length checker you can use: Pixel Length Checker Tool
In the world of SEO, writing effective meta descriptions is the real deal. While Google has declared that there’s no relationship between meta descriptions and rankings, one can’t ignore the role a well-written description plays in making pages more discoverable.
Our SEO experts will teach you effective techniques to write meta descriptions that can enhance brand perception and improve click-through rates of web pages. Well-crafted meta descriptions have the power to change people's perception of your pages.
First up, find an established set of keywords that can work well for your website. Now, where should you place your keywords on the page? Before you figure that out, you need to start creating relevant meta descriptions. The meta description tag in HTML is a 150-160 character snippet used to convince the users to click through to a web page. If you’re using WordPress with a Yoast SEO plugin, it’s super easy to write meta descriptions and optimise them. Like in the screenshot below you can use the Google Preview section to create the text:
The plugin will also give you a point-based breakdown of your SEO analysis, helping you find out if you’ve got adequate or too many keyphrases/keywords in your meta description. See the screenshot below:
To improve your search engine rankings, it's important to find popular keywords that your industry competitors are using. This can help you identify any gaps in the market that you can target with your keyword optimisation. As such, starting with the keywords that are already working for your competitors is a good approach.
Create a spreadsheet and input all competitor data into it. This will allow you to monitor and track their developments efficiently without any extra costs.
Although Google has stated that meta descriptions do not directly affect search rankings, they can still have an impact indirectly. This is because a well-written and accurate meta description can increase click-through rates and user engagement. This may signal to search engines that the page contains valuable content, which can ultimately impact its ranking.
Therefore, optimising meta descriptions can still have a positive impact on overall search performance. That said, every time you perform a search in Google, you may have noticed the highlighted keyword in the result. Is Google trying to tell you something here?
To help people find the most relevant search results, you can use keywords. The idea is to include the right keywords in the meta description that matches the search intent. When the keywords are highlighted in the search results, they can attract users' attention and increase the click-through rate. However, it's important to be careful when adding keywords to the meta descriptions. Avoid stuffing them randomly and instead, use targeted keywords where they fit naturally.
To improve the ranking of your website, it is important to have a good grasp of how to use internal and external links effectively. These aspects are key components that should be incorporated into your SEO strategy. If you're unsure about how to get started, we can guide you on how to enhance your website's search visibility and improve its ranking.
Internal links are hyperlinks within your website that lead to other pages. When used effectively, they can increase the time visitors spend on your site (which Google favours). Additionally, having easily accessible internal links can reduce your website's bounce rate.
It's also important to avoid overloading your site with internal links. The number of internal links recommended to be added to new content can vary depending on the type and length of the content, the website structure and architecture, and the overall SEO strategy. Internal linking should be done naturally and relevantly, without overloading the website with too many links. There is no set limit for how many links should be included in new content. The focus should be on linking to high-quality sources related to the content.
To prioritise the user experience over search ranking manipulation, it's advisable to include a healthy balance of internal linking. For new content, adding 2-3 internal links to relevant pages is a good start, but the number can increase if there are other high-quality and relevant pages to link to on the website. However, it's important to follow SEO best practices when deciding on the optimal quantity of internal links to include.
It's important to note that external links to your website may come from other sites or companies. For example, if you create a blog post with valuable information, another company may link to your URL as a reference for their blog. These links are crucial for improving your Google search engine rankings.
Don't forget to include outbound links on your website as well. These links direct your viewers to other domains. By linking to reputable sites and earning backlinks from them, search engines will consider your website as more reliable and trustworthy. Avoid linking to spammy websites, as this can harm your site's SEO.
Top Tip: Ahrefs Website Authority checker is a great tool to check if a site is worth getting a link from. Simply enter a website URL as in the image below:
Domain authority values can vary depending on the industry and competition level, but in general, a score of 30-50 is considered average, with 50-60 being good. A domain authority score of 60 or above is generally seen as a strong authority score that can improve the website's search engine visibility and ranking performance.
While domain authority is an important factor to consider when building high-quality links and improving search engine rankings, it should not be the only metric to focus on. Quality content, user experience, and technical SEO also play a critical role in ranking well in search engines.
It’s perfectly fine to use exact-match anchor text in your internal links. The anchor text should give people a clear-cut idea about the specific page you’re linking to. For instance, if you’re linking to an article on eCommerce SEO, you probably want to give “eCommerce SEO” as the anchor text, as simple as that. Now, using the exact text may appear spam to an extent which is why you need to mix the text up a little.
Here’s how we like to stay on the safe side:
To help search engines and readers understand your linked page easily, keep the anchor text simple and straightforward. Internal linking is a technique that quickly helps bots discover other pages on your site. By including internal links, your site's pages will become more accessible and navigable, making indexing easier.
Always link to not just the most relevant but high authority pages on your website. Why? Because every time you link to a different page on your website, you’re essentially transferring a share of link value (link juice) to that page. This should help the specific linking page rank better in Google. Of course, these internal links are not as effective as the inbound links you earn from other websites, but they can still help your cause.
Here’s how you can link to the most important page on your website:
Make sure that you’re not passing on link juice to all the low-priority pages on your website. This is bad SEO practice which can hold your website back from ranking in Google. Also, you need to conduct a proper link audit twice every year to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Also, try to put your link high up on your page as it may engage the readers better and reduce the bounce rate. If you manage to keep people for longer periods, it can send out positive signals to Google.
It’s not just about the quantity of the links you put in. It’s the quality of your external links which is important. Remember, adding high-quality external links will certainly improve the overall credibility of your website. On the contrary, using low-quality, irrelevant external links will do your website more harm than good. As long as your external links point towards high-quality websites, you should do just fine.
If you want to pass PageRank value all across your website, you should make good use of 'dofollow' links. Noticeably, people assign 'nofollow' attributes to internal links, not knowing that it could affect their chances to rank in Google. While it’s common for website owners to add nofollow tags to external links, you should make sure that you don’t use nofollow for internal links.
Nofollow tags are generally applied to external links. It’s used by webmasters who don’t want to pass link authority to other websites. Of course, it’s pretty natural to feel concerned about overusing external links, and thus attribute nofollow elements. However, you should stay away from using nofollow in your internal links as it could stop you from passing link juice across your website.
So, there you have it, keep tabs on your internal and external link portfolio to get desired results.
“78% of online buyers claim they would never return to a website if they had a bad experience with the page load speed”
Who is going to stay on your website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load? Most websites try to engage visitors with their content and designs but are not concerned about website loading time. Since a slow website generates fewer page views and less ad revenue, you won’t be able to achieve your marketing goals. The speed at which your website loads is critical to its success, down to fractions of a second. An optimal website speed is directly linked to user satisfaction, search engine rankings, and conversion rates.
Here are some actionable tips for improving your website's speed. Keep in mind that several factors can directly or indirectly impact your website's speed. If you've already worked on optimising your site's speed, you may have addressed some of these factors, but it's important to review everything to ensure everything is in its proper place.
A vast majority of a web page’s loading time is used up by downloading and rendering various elements on a page. The page sends out separate HTTP requests for all the elements on the page, meaning that the page will only be rendered when all the HTTP requests are completed.
First up, you need to find out the exact number of HTTP requests your site makes. Google Chrome’s developer tool will help you do just that. Analysing the nature and number of HTTP requests will help you determine whether you should send requests for these elements in the first place.
Your goal is to separate the wheat from the chaff and retain the requests that matter to the functionality of your website. Cutting down on the HTTP requests will give a much-needed boost to your site. You need to cut the deadweight loss. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see any immediate results.
You have figured out the number of HTTP requests your website sends out, now it’s time to cut down its number. The most effective way to start this is by checking the HTML, CSS, and script files on your website. The aforementioned files essentially shape the look and feel of your website.
The files stack up the requests whenever a new visitor lands on your website. If you developed your website using a template builder, your site may be having speed issues, primarily caused by redundant codes and scripts. Reducing or combining the files into one document can improve site performance, and in turn its speed. The minification process involves getting rid of unnecessary elements like whitespace and code.
If your site is built on WordPress the minification process is even easier. Simply use WP Rocket to combine CSS and JavaScript files into a single file. Once you have minified the files, don’t forget to look them up using the developer tool to confirm the changes.
The goal is to strip your site of all the unnecessary elements and trim it down to a lean, user-friendly website.
Have you ever wondered how fast your DNS provider functions? If your DNS provider takes too long, then it could affect the page load time of your website. Your domain name system contains a database of innumerable IP addresses and their corresponding hostnames. The DNS server is responsible for translating URLs into matching IP addresses so that searchers are taken to the right location.
The DNS lookup process saves searchers the trouble of memorising lengthy IP addresses to search for information on the internet. Make sure to refer to this DNS speed report before you look for a fast DNS server. If you find that the slow DNS provider is starting to take its toll on your site’s speed, it’s time to change your DNS provider.
Once that issue is sorted out it's time to look at your hosting. Do you currently have the cheapest hosting option that doesn’t support your website effectively? Well, something needs to change.
While it’s understandable why you may get the cheapest option available when you’re just starting, you may want to upgrade the hosting option once your websites start attracting more traffic. Also, don’t just buy one hosting service, do your homework before making the decision.
You've Got Three Different Hosting Options to Choose From:
Every time you visit a webpage, all the elements on the page get stored as a cache in your hard drive. So, the next time you visit the place, your browser can render the whole page without having to send a series of HTTP requests.
When a visitor lands on your page for the first time, they download an HTML file consisting of scripts, stylesheets, and images on the page. Once the download which may take up to 2.5 seconds (depending on their internet speed) is completed, visitors can start using your page.
For a visitor who has already had their page elements cached, it will only require them to download a few more elements on their next visit. So, it’s all the more important to improve the loading time, especially for first-time visitors to your website. You’re looking at 40-60% of users who visit your website without browser caching. Activating browser caching will help you offer a better user experience on their subsequent visits.
If you have a WordPress website, simply install W3 total cache to activate catching.
Website images are large files capable of affecting the site speed. When left unoptimised they slow down your website. Properly optimised images are central to improving the load speed of your website.
To improve your website's performance, rather than removing images, try reducing their size. Website images can heavily influence visitors' buying behaviour, especially on eCommerce sites where images often act as CTAs. Would you like to explore how the images impact your site's performance? Simply run a speed test on Pingdom to find out.
One of the easiest ways to reduce image file sizes is cropping your images to the correct size. For example, if you want an image to appear 570px wide, resize the image to that width. Don’t just upload an image that is 2000px wide and set the width parameter to the size you want. This requires your page to load the full image, and then adjust it to the appropriate size, slowing your page.
Top Tip: Use TinyPNG, a free image compressor tool that can make your website load faster.
If you’re a WordPress user, you may already be familiar with plugins which form an essential part of CMS and other drag-and-drop websites everywhere.
Plugins are deployed exclusively on WordPress sites for everything from reducing the image size to minifying messy codes and optimising the site performance. Plus, these plugins are super easy to install.
Although plugins can enhance your website's functionality, loading it with too many can ironically reduce its performance. Additionally, keeping up with plugin updates can be tedious. To ensure your website's optimal performance, regularly review your plugins and remove any that are outdated or ineffective and may slow down your site.
Try uninstalling and removing the plugins. You will start seeing improvement in the site speed in the long run. Install Plugin Performance Profiler to accurately spot the plugins responsible for causing performance issues on your website.
Get things started by running a check on Test My Site to see how your site performs on mobile devices. The free tool from Google will give you real-time insights into the performance metrics and help you follow the best practices.
Our article provides tips to help you determine how many users may have left your site due to slow loading times. You can also compare your site's performance to competitors in your industry. Although it may be tough to accept that your mobile site needs improvement, following these tips can help. Please note that this process may take some time and will require patience and persistence.
Make sure to read our separate chapter on mobile optimisation. By now you probably see the link between slow-loading web pages and high bounce rates. It’s time to fix things now.
If you're not seeing the results you want on your website, it could be because your content isn't attracting enough organic traffic and isn't showing up high enough in search results. Simply adding more words to your blog posts won't solve the issue; the quality of your content is just as important as the quantity. To get better results, you should apply the latest SEO guidelines and content-creation best practices when creating your blog content.
Every blog or piece of content should be aimed at solving some kind of problem faced by your target audience. This means that In addition to producing high-quality content, you need to provide a unique solution to their problems. Now let’s look at some indispensable parts of your blog.
The headline is the first thing your readers come into contact with. It should be compelling enough to hook the readers and make them want to read further. So here’s your one fine chance to get creative and catch people’s attention, make it count.
Pictures can put things into perspective and explain away the most complex subject matters with minimal effort. Whatever image you use on your blog, make sure that it’s aligned with the theme of your blog.
Here’s a screenshot that combines a compelling headline and an eye-catching image:
This is your second chance to hook the audience with something exciting. Here’s where you tell the audience why they should continue reading your article. Make sure to keep your introduction short and simple.
This is where you start listing out key parts of your article, whether it is a list of tips, chapters or a checklist. For instance, if you’re writing a detailed guide on digital marketing, you may have multiple chapters covering various aspects of the subject. It would work well if you were to mention those chapters or sections at this point in the blog. It gives the audience a sense of what to expect.
Include actionable practical tips that readers can readily use. For instance, if you’re creating a piece on Google Ads, give them a practical tip to optimise the landing page and increase the conversion rate.
Remember it’s a blog post, not your college dissertation. So, instead of repeating all the key points, simply summarise the key takeaways for readers. Give them a sense of resolution by acknowledging their pain points and reiterating why your proposed solution is the answer.
The comment section on your blog is a great place to build an online community and make your audience feel part of something larger. Something along the lines of “What do you think about” will encourage people to give their feedback. Additionally, share the blog across your social media channels to grow your readership and that aforementioned community.
Optimising your blog is not just about including as many keywords in your piece as possible. Indiscriminately stuffing keywords in your content will undermine your chances of ranking in Google. More importantly, it can make for a terrible reading experience. You need to directly answer users’ search intent by including keywords most naturally.
Conducting proper keyword research will help you understand what people are searching for. Learn about the true search intent, for instance, are they doing informational research, comparison shopping, or are they all set to purchase a product or service? This will help you look at things from the users’ standpoint. It’s the best way to find relevant topics that resonate with your audience.
Let’s say you’re writing a piece on clinical psychology, you can use Google’s Keywords planner to discover the perfect keywords to optimise for. This will help you find relevant long-tail keyword ideas that you can include in your blog. See the screenshot below:
Now that you’ve got the most relevant set of keywords, you can start incorporating them into your blog. Now, where do you enter these keywords so you can improve search ranking? Ideally, you want to include them in five parts of your post, namely: title tags, headlines, body text, URL and meta description.
Example of keywords in the headline:
Clinical Psychology: Steps To Find Industry Experts
Top Clinical Psychology Experts: Psychologists You Must Know
If you want to optimise your blog content with proper attention to detail, there’s no better place to start than Google’s Search Console. Search Console is equipped with a Search Analytics Report that will allow you to assess all types of clicks coming in from Google. It essentially gives you insights into the range of keywords browsers use to discover your content. This will in turn help you optimise your blogs based strictly on the search intent.
Here’s a Screenshot of the Search Analytics Report giving you insights:
Your blog is not going to be an overnight hit. It’s going to take a while before it can get going and reap the rewards of your SEO efforts. This is why it’s vital to frequently publish the content types, optimise your content, and deliver an intent-driven user experience for your readers.
This brings us to the larger point of creating evergreen content on your website. Read about it below.
When planning and writing your blog articles, ensure it’s evergreen content. Meaning, the content is about topics that are sure to remain relevant and valuable over a long period of time (with only minor changes or updates). Let’s look at a few reasons why evergreen content is so important:
Evergreen content is created with the future in mind, meaning that your content will rank not just now, but for a longer period of time. This type of content will also generate a sustained amount of traffic to your website irrespective of the time it was published. The steady organic traffic also means that you will start seeing more and more leads over a period of time.
As a general rule of thumb, everything you create in the form of a content piece, be it a long go-to-guide article, tutorial or checklist, should be evergreen.
Many websites let their evergreen posts get buried amid newly created blogs. You must make sure to give special attention to all your evergreen content. Create separate sections on your blog to make sure that your evergreen content gets all the attention it deserves. For instance, create sections such as “Go-to-guide” and “Actionable Checklist”. Make sure to link from your evergreen content to other related pieces on your website as it will improve your content’s authority.
Keep updating the content regularly and keep building the web of internal links to your newer stuff so nothing ever truly gets buried.
Top Tip: Here are a few practical tips to keep in mind while creating evergreen content.
Simply creating a long piece of content and publishing it in the hope of being discovered by people is not the best way to get your website to the top of Google. Likewise, creating evergreen content is not enough, you need to create it around a proven framework.
Here’s a set of content frameworks you can incorporate into your blog.
Go-to guides are arguably the most authoritative content framework you can use on your website. From attracting organic traffic to climbing rank charts and earning high-quality links, this content framework is a must-have for your blog strategy.
A checklist is a great option that can deliver a great deal of value to your users in the most condensed manner. It’s certainly an evergreen content framework that can even be repurposed to meet your exact needs.
The longer a piece of content, the higher its chances of earning links from good quality sources. When you create long pieces, they will appear more authoritative and linkable to readers.
Before setting out to create blogs, look up the top high-performing content for similar topics. The idea is to draw inspiration from the topics and create something even bigger and better. Once you’ve got linkable content ready, it’s all about going that extra mile to make it even better. Here’s how we do just that:
There’s more to keeping your blog mobile friendly than just checking its responsiveness. You need to take into account how your blog content is displayed on the mobile screen.
Firstly, break your content into chunks of three to four sentences or paragraphs. This could make your content more readable on mobile devices. Next up, make a point to use creative media and white space to break the monotony in the content layout. Incorporate relevant HTML subheadings into your blog.
Stats suggest that Voice Search comprises about one-third of queries on queries. Voice Search is growing by the minute and looks set to cement its position as the most preferred search in the future.
Here’s how you can optimise your blogs for voice search:
Make sure to include question-based phrases starting with “how to” or “how many”. It’s a great practical idea to optimise your local queries, especially for those asking for directions on Google.
To increase traffic to your site, it's helpful to get backlinks from influencers. This means creating engaging content and grabbing the attention of the right audience. If your content is high-quality, you can attract the right influencers and earn valuable links.
Here’s an example of a link-building outreach message:
Hi Josh,
I loved your blog on “I just read your website blog “6 Tips for Creating Professional Websites”. Loved it! So much so that I included it in our blog on “Seven Colours to Improve Conversion Rate”. I thought the section about “Choosing the Colour Palette” will offer additional insights for your readers if you link to our blog.
Please take a look and let me know what you think.
Thanks, Josh, Cheers!
The most important part is getting your pitch right. You can’t be too pushy, but you want to get your foot in the door. It's a balancing act.
Updating your blog content regularly with the latest information can increase your chances of ranking. Google favours updated content. Be mindful of broken links and strive to improve user experience. Instead of creating new blogs, focus on optimising your updated posts for better ranking opportunities.
Top Tip: As mentioned earlier, including the publishing date will make your content look rather outdated. However, adding the date of your latest update to the blog title will make your article more valuable to readers.
Why not focus on a long-tail keyword that is very specific to your product or services and can improve your website’s rankings? If you have just created a brand-new website, then it is recommended to focus on long-tail keywords for your SEO campaign.
Even though long-tail keywords have low search volume, they generally have a higher conversion value. Yes, fewer people search for long-tail keywords but every time they do, they are looking for a specific product or service. Think of it like grabbing the attention of people who are already coming in and intending to make a purchase. Though a smaller number of people, it translates to a higher conversion rate because you are tapping into a niche area.
For instance, target the long-tail variation of the keyword “Plumbers”. In your new marketing campaign, try “Emergency Plumbers Near Me”. You will find that the latter has less competition compared to the former.
Lead-generating long-tail keywords can be easily discovered from Google Suggest, Google’s related searches, keyword research tools, Analytics reports, Q&A sites, and competitive sites.
Here’s the list of things you need to know to get started:
Before you kick start your long-tail keyword research and start incorporating your chosen keywords into your content, you need to spend time defining your content’s purpose.
Just conducting some basic research alone will not help you achieve that. Once you’ve clearly defined your content’s purpose, your audience will find you organically using the relevant long-tail keyword. We’ll show you how to do just that.
Who are you targeting online? Creating a buyer persona will help you answer this question. Your keyword research will be based on the type of buyer persona you created. Once you get a hang of the audience, you will be able to identify long-tail keywords with real search intent that could drive more relevant traffic.
Marketers kick off their marketing campaigns without doing proper keyword research. They use wrong long-tail keywords, targeting in the process high-competition keywords they have very little chance of ranking for.
According to endless studies and our own experience conducting SEO campaigns, long tail keywords rank quicker, and produce desired results. Of course, these long-tail keywords may not bring you high-volume traffic, but they do attract people that are highly likely to convert.
Precision combined with a high conversion rate makes long-tail keywords an integral part of your content strategy. Users who are serious about buying will latch onto long-tail keywords appearing in search results.
Type in your main keyword to a keyword research tool ( Google Keyword Planner, Uber Suggest) and click search. Next up, identify the right long-tail keywords that comprise 4 or more words. Filter down to high-volume, low-tail keywords that are easier to rank for. Search those keywords in Google to conduct a thorough competitor analysis.
Here are a few things to look out for:
By following these things, you are taking the right steps towards ranking for those long-tail keywords.
It is one thing to write content and a whole different ball game to use long-tail keywords in your content. Here’s how you should go about using them in your content:
Writing a compelling headline is essential to making your content discoverable to your target audience. Your audience is probably looking for pages that can solve their specific problems, so you need to write headlines with keywords they might be searching for. This way your headline is directly addressing the concerns of the audience.
Of course, there’s no single rule to implement long-tail keywords.
See how the following headlines revolve around long-tail keywords:
You should subtly include your keywords so that they blend in with your topic. Keep in mind that long-tail keywords are notorious for sounding unnatural. If you plug these keywords in as they are, you could get penalised by Google.
Here are the ‘do’s and don’ts’ while using keywords:
You should avoid using at all costs the aforementioned keyword patterns. Try using the same long-tail keywords in ways that connect with users.
Something along these lines:
Your subheading should elaborate on the headline, which is why you must include your keyword in it. If your subheading reads off-topic, people will leave your page immediately.
Top Tip 1: Keep your subheading short and relevant. The idea is to keep your subheading relevant to your headline. For instance, if your headline is about digital marketing, then your subheading should be around the same topic.
Top Tip 2: To improve your strategy, consider adding synonyms of your keywords to your page using Latent Semantic Indexing. To find the most relevant variations of your long-tail keywords, use an LSI Keyword tool. We have created a dedicated chapter on LSI keywords for you to reference. Please read on for more information.
LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords are words and phrases related to your main keyword. Search engines like Google use LSI to comprehend the content of your webpage. LSI keywords help produce more accurate search results and provide visitors with valuable content relevant to their search.
Back in the day, Google used keyword density to identify a page’s topic. For instance, a page about web design would have many keywords about web design. Today, Google has evolved into a much smarter body that analyses the contents of a page at a deeper level.
LSI Keywords are the portal through which Google grasps the scope of a page’s topic. If you’re writing a go-to guide about Zoom, Google will look for the keyword “Zoom” in different sections of your article including, the title tag, body text, alt tag and so on. Today, Google scans for keywords like 'video conferencing' and 'online conference' to make sure that the page is indeed about Zoom. Those keyword variations are your LSI keywords.
However, keep in mind that LSI keywords are not synonyms of your keywords in the strictest sense. Rather, they are just words closely related to your target keywords and give context to the search engine.
Of course, there are plenty of tools available to discover LSI keywords. However, you don’t have to break an arm and leg to do basic LSI research. Use some of these free techniques/tools to help you achieve just that. Google’s Autocomplete offers the easiest way to locate LSI keywords online. Check out the screenshot below:
Let’s say you’re going to create a piece on landing page optimization and you need some ideas to bounce off. Well, simply dial in your primary keyword like the above and get the suggested LSI keywords that you can include in your article. In essence, these are related terms people have in mind when they look up landing page optimization.
This is similar to Google’s Autocomplete in that they offer insights into a range of related keywords about a specific topic. It’s a proven way to pick up keywords for your web page. See below:
Check out the highlighted keywords in Google’s snippet description. This is another excellent way to find relevant LSI keywords on Google. See if the bolded terms in the snippet match your keywords. You can add as many LSI keywords to your web pages as you want, you simply need to make sure that they appear natural.
Here’s where you should include LSI keywords for optimum effect:
Imagine that a friend of yours sends a website link via WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger and you find it difficult to open it on your mobile device. Surely, you will not give it a second chance. Most smartphone users search for information on their mobile devices.
Mobile-friendliness is not just about having a wonderful site design; it’s also about improving user experience. To provide a great mobile experience, you must create a responsive site. With a responsive website design, your website will look and function perfectly on mobile phones, desktops, laptops, or tablets.
Mobile optimization is the new SEO! Don’t believe us? Well, mobile searches constitute about 58% of searches in Google. Since Mobile is the future of the internet, it’s only natural for Google to make algorithmic changes to accommodate mobile search.
In the current era, mobile devices take precedence over desktops when it comes to retrieving search results. This means that even when searching from a computer, the same results that appear on a mobile device will be displayed. Previously, Google ranked pages based on a combination of desktop and mobile data, and offered an option to specifically search for "desktop results". However, this method has since been replaced with mobile-first indexing.
So essentially, when you searched for something on Google using a phone, you would be delivered exclusively the mobile-based results. However, today, whether you search from a mobile or desktop, you will be delivered mobile-first results.
“That’s right, everything you see on Google results comes straight from the mobile index”.
Your website is in good shape and ready for mobile if it:
Now, let us show you how to optimise your site for mobile and get in the good books of Google. Google’s usability test is perhaps the best place to find out how effective your website is. Go to the Search Console to start using this powerful tool. Simply click on mobile usability to view results.
The Search Console will show you just how the mobile version of your site is performing.
For instance, mobile usability tests will reveal whether you’re using Flash or a font size that’s too small for mobile readers. Make sure to run a mobile-friendly test. Simply dial in your URL and click enter.
But is this a good idea? You may be thinking to yourself now. Well, people used to block bots from crawling different aspects of your site including Javascript and CSS. However, following this practice today can land your website in trouble.
Google will not be able to determine the mobile-friendliness of your site unless you let it crawl the whole website. Do you know what happens when Google can’t decide whether your site is mobile-optimised or not? You will have a hard time ranking in Google’s mobile-first index.
So, how do you figure out whether your site is facing this issue? Watch out for any Robots.txt file on your website. This little file instructs Google bots not to crawl certain areas of your site. You can look for this file at site.com/robots.txt. You can also find it inside your search console.
Simply click on “Google Index”, and see if you’ve got “blocked resources”. This is where you can find out if the file is blocking different areas of your site.
Not too long ago, it was common to see people blocking out certain sections from mobile users. For instance, webmasters would hide parts of content, blocking javascript from loading. Of course, they were not doing anything bad. They were just blocking off the resources that kept a page from loading faster.
These pages could even deliver a faster experience for mobile users. However, when a user has to click on read more to expand the content on the page, it will send out bad signals to Google.
Remember, if your content is not readily accessible to users, the Google bot may not crawl or index it. They could treat your content differently.
As things stand, Google will first check the speed of your website's speed on mobile devices. Does it mean that desktop optimisation is no longer effective? Definitely not. However, your priority should be the mobile version.
Top Tip: Once upon a time there was a tool called “Test My Site” that businesses used to test their website’s speed on. However, that option is no longer available on account of Google changing so many things every day. However, there is an alternative. You can use the PageSpeed Insight tool to check your mobile page's speed.
Here are some additional tips for improving page speed:
You may already be familiar with this type of schema-structured data found in mobile search results.
They are essentially cards that make your structured data even more compelling and click-worthy. Many website owners equip their pages with structured data to improve overall engagement and click-through rates.
If you want more clicks for your pages, make sure to implement your structured data. Now, if you don’t know where to start, don’t fret! We are bringing you an entire chapter devoted to showing you how to implement structured data on your website.
To improve your website's ranking on Google, it's important to consider all aspects of SEO, including schema markup. Schema markup is a code that can be added to your website to help search engines display more detailed information to users. This can be seen in the example screenshot below.
The semantic vocabulary in schema markup allows search engines to understand the content of your web page and return information-rich results. The structured data markup comes in handy when Google can’t quite figure out what a page is about.
Structured data markup is a tool that compiles all information on a web page to improve accessibility. It involves coding, which can discourage some users who are not comfortable with technical details. However, it is essential to understand that it is merely metadata or information about information. We all know how an Excel Spreadsheet works. You have the head of the columns and the corresponding value under each. Similarly, schema markup is made of a structure that clearly defines something, in this case, page data.
Search engines use schema markup to display "rich snippets" in search results. Rich snippets contain more information than regular results, which helps them stand out and catch the user's attention. Your page will look significantly more attractive and click-worthy if it featured rich snippets like in the image below:
The screenshot of the coding you see below is probably not the most attractive thing you’ve seen all day. Yes, it may look crazy for someone from a non-technical background. But the point is that if you spend some time understanding certain aspects of it, everything will start to fall into place.
Here’s a useful video that sheds light on different aspects of Schema and how you can use it to improve your website’s visibility in Google.
Schema is not just a one-size-fits-all thing you can implement on your website. Instead, they come in different types that you can use on your website to produce desired results.
While not a rich snippet per se, organisation schema always gets features in all kinds of snippets. It essentially showcases the authorship of the content. It helps search engines and users know that a piece of content is connected to a specific individual or brand name.
This type of markup gives you the option to showcase your website’s structure. Google and users will be able to see the structure of your website. Check out the breadcrumbs markup below.
Alright, now you’re looking at the most used schema markup, namely review/product schema markup. With this type of schema markup, you can include the whole range of key details from product/service name and description to star rating and price tag.
You can use FAQ schema markup to showcase commonly asked questions around your page in a drop-down format. People use FAQ Schema Markup to significantly increase organic traffic.
If you’re running a local business, you should certainly add schema markup to your website. The schema markup will include details like business name, logo, contact information and reviews. If you want to use structured data markup on your website so that Google can pick it up, you’ll either have to code it or make use of some plugins/extensions that will add the structured data for you.
The thing is, you have to implement it correctly, otherwise, it might do more harm than good.
Alright, for someone from a non-technical background, it’s quite natural to be daunted by the level of coding involved in schema markup implementation. Well, trust us, nothing could be further from the truth! Once you get a hold of the basics, things could be super easy and we will show you just how to go about it.
Steps to take to implement schema markup on your website:
While there are coders who create Schema Markups on their own, you don’t have to create one to implement on your website. If you happen to own a WordPress website, there are lots of plugins to get the job done for you. Plus, you can even find online markup generators that work like a charm. Please, remember that any of these tools you may find online will only generate basic markup. If you want things customised, you may need to make changes to the code yourself. We will get to that in a bit.
We suggest using Google’s recommended JSON-LD format to generate your Markup code. We’ve selected it for the simple reason that it is a lot easier to make sense of and implement on a website. You may have come across Microdata format, something which is compatible with CMS and its plugins. But we’re only dealing with JSON-LD format here.
You should always test your Markup code before publishing it live. But don’t worry, Google has your back here with its user-friendly testing tools. Rich Result Tool is the most standard tool you can use to test Markup. The tool is designed to analyse the rich results. You have the option to enter either the URL or Code:
Click the test URL to find out if your page is eligible for rich results:
Schema markup implementation will be determined by the website and tagging set-up. In this particular instance, since we are using JSON-LD as the schema markup model you can implement it on a website. That said, we’re looking at three different implementation methods:
Copy the JSON-LD Schema you generated and place it in
of your HTML. If you’re not the webmaster, you may want to collaborate with developers to get the schema implemented. Developers will map out URLs and categories to their relevant schemas.There used to be times when people were sceptical about schema markup implementation through a tag manager, believing that it required Google bots to render javascript to crawl it. Well, for those of you who are still in doubt, Google has come out officially endorsing Tag Manager's implementation of schema markup. Keep in mind that this option is specifically suitable for marketers who already know their way around Google Tag Manager (GTM). You can think about it this way, if you figure out implementation on your own, you can save lots of time and avoid relying on developers to make SEO changes.
To implement this feature, go to GTM and create a custom HTML tag with the generated Schema Markup. Then, create a new trigger based on the page view. Please note that we only recommend using this method if you are comfortable managing your marketing tools with GTM.
This is arguably the easiest and most user-friendly way to implement schema markup. However, with the growing number of CMS and plugins available in the market, things could easily get all too confusing in no time. Also, no matter which plugin or CMS you use, you will have to make things work for you. Now, if you have a more advanced schema markup in place, you may have to use a combination of options.
Of course, this task may even involve making tweaks to your site template or inserting specific code. We’re giving a list of popular WordPress SEO plugins that you can always rely on.
Top Tip: As a non-developer website owner, you could probably do with some tool that can generate Schema Markup without having to worry about any coding. Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper will help you achieve just that.
Head over to Markup Helper’s landing page. Select the website tab and choose the right data type from the list (Education, Local Businesses etc). Now, dial in your webpage URL and click ‘Start tagging’.
See the screenshot below:
On the next page, you will see a rendered version of your landing page. Now click on the “add missing tags” tab. Now you can go through different parts of your web content, select content elements and assign corresponding tags. See the image below:
Once you have added all the tags, the tool will create a unique HTML for your page by combining your HTML with newly created markup. Now you can either update the markup using an HTML editor in your website on your own or get professional developers to place it.
While you’re still at it, let’s take a look at what goes behind structured data vocabulary. So, what is it and what exactly is it used for? To deploy structured data on your website you need two things: The number of item names and the order in which you want to list them. This is why you have certain vocabularies and formats which when combined can produce markup.
Think of it as a language. As you know, different words mean different things in different languages. And not everyone can understand every language. This is where schema comes in handy. Schema and vocabularies are available in different types.
Let’s look at two widely implemented ones:
Regarded as the most widely used vocabulary for structured data, Schema is accepted by all types of major search engines, including Google and Bing. You can think of it as a universal language. The Markup is compatible with all types of elements.
You may have already heard of Open Graph technology. It’s not intended for search engines, but instead for social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. Open Graph is used to collect and showcase titles and images of pages. The feature allows you to retain your keywords in the title, meaning it could help your site’s visibility in Google’s search results. The graph also makes sure your headlines for social media platforms remain compelling and click-worthy.
Implementing Schema Markup may seem daunting for some, but it is quite simple on most modern websites. By adding snippets, you can improve the visibility of your page and enhance its association with your brand. This message is written in English.
In today's fast-paced digital world, staying ahead of the curve and ensuring your website ranks high on search engine results pages (SERPs) is more critical than ever. Given the competitive nature of today's marketplace, content creators and businesses alike must keep up with the latest SEO trends so that they can develop engaging and compelling content that not only captivates users but also meets the ever-evolving standards set by search engines like Google.
In this chapter, we will be underscoring the significance of staying informed about the most recent SEO trends and best practices as you develop content for your website. These insights will allow you to adapt your SEO strategy to target your desired audience demographic more effectively, drive organic traffic, and boost conversions.
For quite some time now Google has valued online content based on the acronym EAT (Expertise, Authority, and Trust). However, as of December 2022, that all changed when Google added a new "E" to the formula, which stands for "Experience". In 2023 and beyond, Google will consider the experience of the author or content creator concerning the topics they discuss.
For example, If I, as a digital marketing specialist, with real-world experience as a marketer, were to create content surrounding, say, medical findings in a medical journal, that would undermine the quality of the content. That said, more websites need to take a closer look at the topics they cover and how well-versed their content creators are in said areas.
In recent years, prioritising SEO for local searches has become increasingly crucial. It involves optimising your website to ensure online content performs well and predictably in a specific location. By localising your content, keywords, and site sections, your brand can successfully compete with global companies like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba. These localisation trends are impacting all businesses, regardless of whether they're purely local or global.
Paying attention to quality reviews and improving your Google search ranking can lead to increased revenue and better conversion rates. It is also crucial to ensure your website includes the name of your location (city, state, or country) to avoid being overlooked by Google when it comes to ranking your site. One of the ways to approach this need is to create local pages for your website.
Speaking of Google's frequent changes in the past few years, Google has continually shown its commitment to improving user experience. For instance, in 2015 it launched RankBrain, which is a machine learning-based search engine algorithm that helped Google process search results and provide more relevant results for users.
Google introduced Mobile-first indexing in November 2016. Mobile-first indexing refers to Google's practice of primarily using the mobile version of a website's content for indexing and ranking purposes. Since more users access the internet via mobile devices than desktops, Google aimed to ensure that its search results accurately reflect the majority of users' experiences. With mobile-first indexing, Google prioritises the mobile version of a site when evaluating its relevance and usefulness, even for users who are searching from a desktop.
Neural Matching was introduced by Google in September 2018. It is an AI-driven technique used to improve the understanding of user queries and match them with the most relevant content. Neural Matching leverages machine learning algorithms to better understand the context, synonyms, and overall intent behind search queries. This helps Google provide more accurate search results, even when the exact words in the query do not appear on a webpage. By understanding the meaning behind search queries, Neural Matching allows Google to deliver results that are more closely aligned with the user's intent, thus enhancing the overall search experience.
Speaking of AI and Google, we know that AI has been used in the past by the search engine to understand the context of searches. And we know that for the most part, this was enacted mostly in the background. However, Google recently released a video on its YouTube channel, pointing to a new role for AI specifically in searches.
This new update will allow users to ask follow-up questions about a certain topic, which means they don't have to start from scratch every time they have a related but different query. It also means that this new AI function will be far more intuitive when it comes to latching the necessary keywords.
Essentially, every related search result is assembled in real-time, while also giving users results in a multitude of different formats. This AI technology will also continuously evolve, similar to Chat GPT, to provide the most accurate search results. Another neat feature is that as a user, you can ask it questions like you would a person, which expands the realm of dialogue between the person and the search engine to a whole new level.
We know that with the pandemic in 2020 and the lockdowns again in 2021, the usage of video and consumption of this format was at an all-time high. That trend seems to have stuck around ever since and looks like it will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
On average, people watch an hour and a half of video content daily. That said, in 2023 and beyond, your SEO strategy should be angled in such a way that it caters to video content.
One of the main reasons for this increased emphasis on user experience is that SEO content creation is expanding and has been for some time now. The truth is, businesses that maintain a content strategy that focuses on the final user's experience will see more success ranking their website in 2023, than those who generate content purely to push more search traffic.
Another important algorithm that Google introduced in August of 2022 was the helpful content update, which will shape how we as businesses create content. Now, we already talked about how Google prioritises high-quality content that is user-oriented, but how do we measure that or quantify the usefulness of the content?
Consider these as your rule of thumb:
You may have noticed increased usage of AI content creation software and platforms like Chat GPT and Jasper for example. It has been an emerging trend where more and more businesses are using AI to generate SEO-optimised content faster and with more accuracy.
While Google does frown upon auto-generated content, that doesn't mean that marketers and content creators can't use AI to speed up their overall workflow. There are ways in which you can improve your content creation workflow while still preserving originality:
Content briefs: Using content tools that provide content briefs can assist your writers in comprehending the critical keywords, topics, and subtopics that must be incorporated into their unique content.
Content outlines: Using outlines is a useful method to guide your writers on how to produce valuable content, rather than depending on AI to complete the task.
Content ideas: Using tools such as blog topic generators can help you quickly come up with ideas for your writing. Coming up with a relevant and useful topic from a single keyword can often be challenging, and these generators can prevent you from experiencing writer's block.
Similar to the takeover of AI in content, 2023 and the years ahead will also see an increase in SEO automation. As more and more of the industry turns to SEO software platforms like keyword research tools, site auditing and monitoring platforms, as well as web graders, it would be a good idea to start incorporating them into your everyday SEO strategy.
Towards the end of 2022, Google introduced an "endless scrolling" feature that is available on both mobile and desktop. This feature makes it much easier for users to scroll through multiple pages of SERP results to find the content they want.
This means that click-through rates will likely be impacted as searchers can easily navigate multiple pages at a time. Why, though? Simply put, the fewer clicks people have to initiate, the more user-friendly a piece of content is deemed.
Additionally, it was once beneficial to be on the first page, given that not many ventured past the second or third pages. However, with endless scrolling now possible, those often unseen SERP results will now be front and centre, meaning that businesses who want to capture those precious clicks, need to work double time on meta descriptions, page titles, and schema markup to make content more engaging than your digital neighbour.
Google recently issued its commitment to decarbonising its energy consumption so that by 2030 its 24/7 operations will be 100% carbon-free. To achieve this, Google has been considering reducing the frequency of its web page crawlers. Reducing crawlers will not only help conserve computing resources but will also impact businesses that are attempting to be discovered in search.
More specifically, it could take a longer time for Google to recognise any changes made to our websites. Therefore, it's best to optimise the content right from the start with all the necessary on-page elements to achieve a higher ranking. This is the most strategic approach for 2023.
While we can’t confine the best practices to just those aforementioned 9 chapters. Doing so would be self-defeating as Google is continuously changing its ranking algorithm. So, upon carrying out some of these recommendations, you may even experience your website ranking improving or dropping on a weekly or monthly basis.
The big idea is to experiment and track all changes until you get the desired results.
Now it’s your turn to get practical! Invest your time, effort and attention effectively to rank your brand-new website on Google’s first page. While you are at it use our free SEO checklist to keep all aspects of your website well-optimised. The easy-to-follow SEO checklist will guide you through every step to improve your chances of ranking on Google’s Page 1.
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