
Expert SEO Techniques for Improving Organic Traffic
You don’t need us to tell you that having a strong presence online isn’t optional – it’s essential, whatever the size of your organisation.
Clearly, you boost your chances of ranking more highly in the search results with the likes of Google if you optimise your content for these big search engines. And what you want to be aiming for is organic traffic, i.e., visits from search engine results where you haven’t paid for advertising.
This is effective because those who see your content are actively looking for it, making them high-quality leads.
SEO is cost-effective and has massive long-term potential. In paid advertising, your audience vanishes once you stop paying. The impact of SEO can last for months or even years. So, it’s definitely worth the greater upfront effort.
But of course, you need to do it properly – the days of ‘black hat’ or questionable SEO techniques and keyword stuffing are long gone.
Here are some tips for getting started on your SEO strategy – or refreshing it if yours is stuck in a rut:
Keyword Research – The ‘People Also Ask’ Section
This won’t cost a penny and is a fantastic way of understanding your audiences’ interests. Research topics surrounding your business in Google; the ‘People also ask’ topics often pop up. These frequently suggest helpful related issues to address in your content.
Competitor Analysis
They say know your enemy, but in business it pays to understand the competition since this can help determine your SEO strategy. What are your competitors doing? What keywords are they ranking for? What are they writing about? What are others saying about them? How is their backlink profile?
You may need a SEO tool like SEMrush for this – use it as a free trial first to see if it’s worth paying for.
Don’t plagiarise a competitor’s strategy but use it to inform your own decisions.
Internal Links and Backlinks
Search engines view links as helpful since these give readers more information. They also encourage viewing of your content, and you can use them to link to helpful external resources.
Backlinks, which link your website to others, are a key ranking factor. Quality is vital – if a dodgy site links to yours, it can have a negative impact on your search ranking.
Update Old Content
Review older, well-performing content regularly and update as needed. What can you add or take away from it?
Google typically likes bang up-to-date, highly relevant content – this also attracts more backlinks.
Core Web Vitals
Don’t overlook these; they’re integral to search engines’ ranking factors. A Core Web Vitals report involves genuine user data, and assesses things like:
- Full loading time for main page content (should be no more than 2.5 seconds).
- How long it takes for users to interact with your content (should be no more than 100 milliseconds).
- How much your content moves on the page until it settles.
Meta Information
Title tags and meta descriptions are pieces of HTML code in a web page’s header which help search engines understand a page’s content. These remain a key part of SEO and can affect user behaviour.
Try experimenting with different keywords and changing of tone.
Headings
Headings, including H1s and beyond, send clear signals about page content. Again, they’re essential. Try adding more sub-headings, breaking up chunks of text or including keywords. Don’t be afraid to be creative.
Other general factors to which you need to pay some attention include page speed, mobile responsiveness, and image optimisation.
Also, look at word count. This isn’t a direct ranking factor, but longer content could rank more highly, since it gives Google a better understanding of what your page is about. Well-written, longer pieces help establish you as an authority on a particular topic.
Finally, if you feel you could improve your current strategy, experiment by making an observation, asking a question and forming a hypothesis before coming to a conclusion after analysing the data. Try something new.
Talk to us
At Front Page Advantage, we’ve been helping all kinds of businesses with their SEO for years, both when they’re starting out in search optimisation and with regular reviewing and updating. Get in touch today for an informal, no-obligation chat about what we could do for your organisation – in terms of SEO or PPC services.