By targeting Google’s important elements in deciding search results, outperform the competition. Eight “white hat” approaches are provided below.
Stagnant in a loop of ineffective optimizations? This article uncovers white hat strategies that might potentially increase your organic search traffic by a factor of 2, 3, or even 10.
A number of algorithms are used by the Google website ranking system to produce the “best” results.
The words in a query, relevancy, page usability, source expertise, geo-location, and settings are just a few of the variables that these algorithms take into account.
Furthermore, a query’s nature affects how these parameters are weighted.
Freshness is very important when discussing current events.
For a definition akin to one from a dictionary, page trust and authority are more important.
Google uses a large number of Quality Raters to make sure the algorithms are working as planned.
They adhere to stringent parameters created by Google to guarantee that the algorithm output meets the criteria set for Page Quality and Needs Met. Anyone who is serious about creating a high-performing website should read these recommendations.
Google claims that in order to choose which items show up at the top of their search results, their search algorithm takes into account five important factors:
- The purpose of your enquiry.
- The usefulness of websites.
- Content of high caliber.
- Website usability.
- Environment and context.
You will be putting yourself in a position to surpass the competition by taking care of these five factors. Here are some details on how to go about it:
Contents
- 1. Mobile Usability
- 2. Take control of your business listing
- 3. Make the page experience better
- 4. Put The User Experience First (UX)
- 5. Perform a keyword search
- 6. Develop a comprehensive content marketing strategy
- 7. Take On-Page Optimization Carefully
- 8. Link building gives all other efforts a boost
- The Final Verdict
1. Mobile Usability
After coining the term “mobilegeddon” for Google’s impending mobile update in March 2015, I started to advocate for a “mobile-first” approach to SEO.
The name became popular, however on April 21, 2015, the upgrade didn’t cause the significant disruption that was initially anticipated.
However, it served as a warning to everyone that mobile was no longer “the future” but rather here and now. Those who disregarded the advice to go mobile later suffered the consequences.
Google is now totally committed to mobile.
If you’re unsure if your website satisfies the requirements for being mobile-friendly, sign in to Search Console and look at the Mobile Usability Report.
Google will report mobile issues there, allowing you to take the necessary steps to comply.
2. Take control of your business listing
A free business listing is available on Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business.
Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Shopping all display business profiles. You can create a Google Business Profile if your company travels to clients or has a physical location.
Top 5 Benefits of a Google Business Profile:
- It is FREE advertising that is both quicker and less expensive than paid search.
- Geographically related businesses are given preference in Google Maps/3-Pack.
- A profile that has been optimized creates a favorable first impression.
- A positive star rating fosters confidence and offers social proof.
- The capacity to assess profile performance and gather knowledge.
Having complete and correct information in one’s Google Business Profile is crucial as Google works to improve its capacity to give hyper-local results.
As many companies have yet to even claim their listing, this continues to be a straightforward victory.
3. Make the page experience better
A set of signals that are intended to gauge how consumers respond to a webpage constitute Google’s page experience. This measurement extends beyond just the value of the information.
It makes use of Core Web Vitals, a set of metrics that assesses mobile friendliness, HTTPS, obtrusive interstitial guidelines, and page loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability.
How Does Page Experience Affect Rankings?
Page experience is more important when multiple pages may meet the search criterion for relevancy.
A page that provides the information users are looking for still outperforms a page with lower relevance but a superior user experience.
In other words, page experience might decide a tie in the SERPs.
4. Put The User Experience First (UX)
Google has always pushed webmasters to prioritize the user experience as their main goal.
Websites who follow this strategy will stand to gain the most as the algorithm becomes “smarter.” More goes into creating a pleasant user experience than writing clean code.
The purpose of UX design in business is to increase customer happiness and loyalty through the usefulness, ease of use, and enjoyment provided in the engagement with a product, according to this report from the Oxford Journal.
Your website serves as the product for our needs. The goal is to first ascertain a user’s aim before developing a system for easy navigation — a methodology that inspires a favorable feeling and results in a great experience all around.
It’s simple to include UX best practices. There are many templates and tips available online.
A/B testing is what sets experts apart from novices.
Each of us has personal prejudices that can affect how a webpage is put up.
You can quantify what is working and what isn’t by doing a number of trials, and you can keep testing until you get it perfect.
5. Perform a keyword search
Yes, keyword research is still essential.
In response to Google’s decrease in keyword data, third parties like Ahrefs and Semrush have created their own keyword tools.
However, thanks to RankBrain and BERT, how keyword research is performed and how the results are used has altered.
RankBrain is fundamentally a machine learning system. Instead of relying merely on strings of metadata, this enables Google to place items in context. Google now recognizes linguistic details like stems, synonyms, and solutions.
Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers is abbreviated as BERT.
The main objective is to provide better search results for queries that are lengthier and more conversational, where prepositions like “for” and “to” might change the meaning of a question.
Google predicted that BERT would have an impact on 10% of all US searches at the time of debut in October 2019.
This is taken into account by the latest generation of keyword tools, which produce pertinent information like Parent Topics, Keyword Groups, and Search Intent.
Users can create material that is contextually appropriate using this knowledge.
6. Develop a comprehensive content marketing strategy
The Content Marketing Institute reports that 51% of all respondents believe it is harder than it was a year ago to grab the attention of the audience.
It’s crucial to get the content properly because it ranks highly on Google. Once more, those who are prepared to put in the work to make that happen will have a tremendous chance.
Everyone mentions producing “excellent content,” but what exactly does that entail?
The key is to have helpful material, identify the correct audience, and then connect with them.
It need not be a challenging exercise. It all comes down to showing empathy for your consumers and prospects. To summarize it, Ann Handley developed the following formula:
Innovative content is useful, enjoyable, and inspired.
There are many different ways to create great content. A comprehensive content marketing strategy will incorporate several of the following:
- Blogs.
- Data-driven graphics (Original Research).
- Images.
- Infographics.
- Presentations on SlideShare.
- Videos.
7. Take On-Page Optimization Carefully
Did you know that Google has its own Starter Guide for Search Engine Optimization? Now you do.
Despite the name, anyone wishing to increase their chances of showing up in Google search results should definitely check out this article.
The manual goes through important on-page fundamentals, such as the very best techniques for optimizing:
- Page headings.
- Headers.
- Meta descriptions
- Alt-text for images.
- Structured Markup
- Pages’ URLs.
- Internal linking
Additional sources to enhance on-page SEO include:
- Google Search Central Blog
- Google Search Central Help Forum
- Google Search Central Twitter
- Google Search Central YouTube Channel
- How Search Works
8. Link building gives all other efforts a boost
Links may one day become less significant to rankings, but that day hasn’t come yet. Obtaining the proper links is crucial.
Those links that are pertinent to your website. Links that need to be reviewed by a human editor. links that have been earned.
Creating a resource center is my preferred strategy for gaining relevant links. Almost any type of website can benefit from having a resource center. A good resource center not only draws links but also establishes credibility and authority.
Check Link Building for SEO: A Complete Guide to learn more about this strategy.
The Final Verdict
The game of inches is organic search. There isn’t a single, effective approach to take over the SERPs. But it doesn’t have to be too much.
You can double, quadruple, or even ten times your traffic if you only concentrate on the eight areas listed above.