Tips to Transform Your SEO Strategy

The big question for every business or marketer is, “Where is SEO headed?” Whether you’re looking to grow your traffic or increase conversions and sales, the following SEO strategies have proven to be quite effective, and will likely continue to influence your site’s ranking in search engines. So, take a look at these tips to transform your SEO strategy, and take your business to the next level online.

1. Familiarize Yourself with Google RankBrain

Google introduced the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to filter search engine results in late 2015. But marketers had no idea about the amount of change that this single update would bring to the world of SEO.

Simply put, RankBrain is Google’s first algorithm specializing in machine learning to analyze how users interact with search engine results on the first page. So, when a user searches for specific keywords, RankBrain converts those keywords into different concepts and produces a set of results for each one of those concepts. The results that the user clicks on are considered more relevant, so their rank goes up. On the other hand, those results at the top that don’t get clicked are demoted.

So, the more relevant your content is to a search query, the higher you will rank. This algorithm is designed to make users happier by producing relevant results faster. Although RankBrain is only the third-ranking signal for Google search engine, after the other two, it just might take over in coming years.

To take advantage of Google RankBrain, you should try to improve your “dwell time” and reduce your bounce rate. If users leave your site after only 3 seconds, Google will assume that your content is bad and reduce its rank in search engine result pages (SERPs). You can increase dwell time by improving the quality of your content. By writing interesting and compelling introductions, you’ll be able to draw in readers and capture their attention long enough, so that they don’t bounce. Last but not least, you should remember to include a clear call-to-action (CTA) on all relevant pages.

Your content must be easy to read and relevant for the majority of Google search users, who rely on their mobile devices to view content.

4. Extend your Keyword Search and Placement

Compelling titles, headings, and description tags often get more clicks, which causes them to rank higher in the SERPs.

Here are some ideas to rank for more and better keywords to increase the number of your organic clicks:

Find New Keywords on Reddit

Reddit contains all kinds of information in different niches, so you can easily find out what your target audience is interested in. Simply search for the topic of interest, or go to the relevant subreddit, and scan threads for relevant terms that have been repeated over and over. There is a high likelihood that people are searching for the same terms they’re using in their communication on platforms like Reddit.

Include Google Ads Keywords in your Title and Description Tags

Marketers often don’t realize that Google Ads for competitive keywords are produced from thousands of split tests that are proven to maximize clicks. This means that you can look for interesting copy from ads to integrate into your title, meta tags, and meta description. For example, you can use terms like “durable,” “reusable,” and “BPA-free” in the description for “glass water bottles.”

Steal your Competitors’ Top Keywords

When looking for keywords to optimize your content, you can either use a keyword search tool by entering random keywords, or find out the exact keywords that have enabled your competitors to rank. The second SEO strategy is a bit easier, as it involves reverse engineering competitor sites that know what they’re doing and have been able to well. Simply go to that website’s homepage, copy the address, and paste it into a tool like “SpyFu” or “SEMRush.” This will give you a list of the keywords they currently rank for. Ignore ultra-competitive keywords, as well as those that don’t apply to your target audience. Begin by focusing on relevant keywords that you can create great content around and rank for easily.

5. Refresh and Recycle Good Old Blog Posts

Relaunching old content by upgrading it, updating it, and then republishing it is a proven method of increasing website traffic. Step-by-step guides, how-tos, and other general lists are fairly easy to update and publish. Make sure to include more up-to-date content to make the post relevant to your current audience. Remember to take advantage of your upgraded marketing and SEO strategy, which may include a bigger email list, multiple social media accounts, videos, and more.

In addition, rather than creating another post, you can republish the fresh content in a different format, such as a PDF, infographic, or video to make it more engaging — especially if the original blog post isn’t that old.

6. Get Rid of Form 404

404’s are mostly a problem for e-commerce stores that have many discontinued products. Unfortunately, sending a user to a dead end results in a high bounce rate, which can cause serious damage to your SERP ranking for some keywords.

Instead of leading users to a dead end, take advantage of the continuing demand for products that have been discontinued to generate interest in alternative products, or at least provide the user with a clear next step if they don’t find what they’re looking for.

7. Make your Content easy to Share

Sharing content is an integral part of link building, which is invaluable for ranking at the top of SERPs. To make your content worth sharing, think quality over quantity; people will only share content that offers valuable information, regardless of how often you share. Here are a few tips to make your content more sharable:

• Using odd numbers in your headers will make your content 35% more likely to generate clicks
• Using brackets in a header will lead to a 38% increase in click-through-rate (CTR)
• Using short URLs can result in a 250% increase in clicks
• Using descriptive URLs will lead to  25% more clicks
• Adding share buttons above the fold will result in 63% more visibility than lower page placement
• Using professional images will increase your Facebook shares by 45%
• Using short sentences and paragraphs can increase content readability by 57%

Bonus Tip: It’s Hard to Rank Well Without Links

Link building is still one of the top two components that influence Google SERP ranking. The other is content. Focus on getting quality links from authority websites in your niche, especially links that contain your keyword in the anchor text.

There are a ton of factors that should be considered when crafting your SEO strategy, and trends are always changing — that’s where TechWyse comes in. Our SEO experts can help you achieve the online presence your business needs to succeed. Give us a call at 866.208.3095 or contact us here to get in touch with one of our digital marketing experts today!