Did you know that 93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine? Think about that for a moment. Nearly every time someone uses the internet, they’re looking for something via a search engine. As far as search results go, nearly 32% of people will click on the top organic search result, while the top 3 results account for 60% of organic traffic.
These numbers are probably not surprising to anybody who has used a search engine. However it does highlight the importance of search engine optimisation (SEO) when trying to generate website traffic and leads. Here’s four tips to get your site ranked higher on search engines in 2020.
Content has never been more important, but the key is making it topically relevant and useful to readers. Research has shown that relevant content outperforms content that doesn’t cover a topic in-depth. The average first page search result on Google contains 1890 words.
What this tells us is you need to be creating content that users find useful. Not only does it boost your reputation as an authority, but people are more likely to share and link to content that is genuinely relevant. Backlinking is a significant part of SEO too. Establishing yourself as a credible resource for others to link to can also help boost your search rankings.
Ensure your content answers a customer’s question, and has an easy-to-read, logical flow. Focus on relevant keywords (without keyword stuffing), and include links both internal and external.
Mobile search has now overtaken desktop as the preferred method for online searches, and Google is continually building the mobile search function to improve the user experience. By providing enhanced search results (rich snippets – we’ll touch on them later), Google is making it easier for customers to find websites that are properly optimised for mobile search. Therefore, ensuring your page is optimised for mobile users is a crucial part of survival in today’s online world.
Keep in mind that many mobile searches are local, meaning people are looking for businesses near them. So, if you rely on a lot of walk-in foot traffic, optimising your website for mobile performance should be high on your radar.
For both mobile and desktop searches, Google now ‘rewards’ websites that use structured data or Schema for optimisation. These rewards come in the form of ‘rich snippets’ or ‘rich search results’.
These visually enhanced search results are more interactive, and encourage more people to click through. By optimising for rich snippets, your search result could include extra information such as images, Google star ratings, maps, opening hours and a host of other useful information that engages readers more than a standard text-based search result.
Optimising for rich search results involves ‘tagging’ important information on your website making it easier for Google to find and display. Many website builders have Schema plug-ins for example, but we recommend contacting an SEO expert to fully implement this optimisation.
It’s well-known that people will bounce right back to the search results if your page takes too long to load. It may seem minimal, but even an extra second delay can result in users not even reaching your page.
There’s plenty you can do in the back-end of a website to improve load speed – some of it requires some coding knowledge to improve the Javascript and HTML, but there’s also other things you can do like decreasing image size.
For mobile sites, your best option to ensure your site loads quickly is to use Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), which increases page load speed by removing unnecessary HTML code to focus on just the page a user has clicked on.
The importance of focusing on SEO has never been greater, and it should form a big part of your digital marketing strategy. At Cemoh, we understand the importance of quality SEO practices to help your business stay ahead of your competitors. Contact us to find out how we can help today!
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