Top 5 Important Techniques of SEO

SEO is something that is forever changing. Google pushes out new updates, both minor and major, every single day. You can expect the search engines to go through multiple updates per day. As a result, it becomes almost impossible to truly figure out what the search engines actually require for you to rank well. With many SEO specialist still trying to find this out today.

When it comes to keeping track with all these changes, that’s something you definitely shouldn’t waste your time with. All you want to do is focus on the more significant updates, that way you can stay ahead of the competition. Statistics tells us that over 70% of web surfers never go past the first page of any search engine results page. It’s for this reason why you want to garner some kind of understanding of how the search engine works. That way you can at least, get your site to the first page of any keyword search term you intend to rank for.

In order to help you get a lid on things, so that you don’t spend your time stuck on the update pages of the major search engines. I’ve put together a list of 5 SEO techniques that you should know about.

1. Mobile Optimisation

If you’ve been a webmaster for any real length of time, then you should already know how important it is to have a site that is mobile-friendly. Having a mobile optimized site does not only improve its user experience, but also impacts how well it ranks in the search engines. Currently, over 60% of all web surfers access the internet via a mobile device. For this reason, the search engines have started to prioritise mobile traffic. This has led to the search engines giving sites that are optimised for mobile search, a little boost in the rankings.

2. Featured Snippet

Snippets are the results that are featured on the top of any search engine results page. Google will automatically go through the various pages for that specific keyword search term, and choose the page that best answers the query, the user is asking. When it does that, it will display it, in the form of a featured snippet. The best way to optimise your site for these kinds of ranking slots is to properly organise your content. Make sure your content is clear and concise, answering any questions associated with the keyword(s) it’s targeted for. You also want to use images, and use tables if possible. Make sure you use headings and subheadings to properly organise your content, this makes it easier for the search engines to find what they’re looking for.

3. Google’s EAT Principles

Google confirmed a long time ago that the quality of your content was one of the most important factors in ranking in their search engines.

But what exactly does Google mean, when they say quality?

To put it into simple terms, they’re looking for content that fulfils their Google EAT principle. EAT stands for expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Google uses these elements to best determine whether or not the content is of high quality.

Google will then use its algorithm to deliver the best possible pages to its visitors.

For example, of its many algorithms, Google Panda was known specifically for ranking websites based on the quality of their content. It essentially removed or demoted sites that was made up, primarily of low quality and/or duplicate content.

RankBrain is another algorithm that was created for the same purpose. RankBrain however, is an AI that is designer to interpret what the user is looking for, based on their search query.

For example, if a user was to search for car maintenance support, they may also receive results on car parts, cheap parts, and everything else associated with that query.

Both RankBrain and Google Panda use spiders to crawl the content of the websites that feature in their search engine. From their findings, they rank the most relevant and highest quality content, on the top of their search engine.

4. Create New Content

Of all the techniques, this one is probably the most obvious, but the reality is many webmasters can get too hung up on on-page SEO, and neglect to put the majority of their efforts into the quality of their content. Keeping in mind that over 4 million new posts are published every single day. For this reason, it can be quite easy to fall behind, in the event that you’re not regularly cranking out new content.

When creating new content, this also provides you with the opportunity to optimise using the latest SEO practices. You want to focus on content headings, page titles, image alt tags, subheadings and the keyword(s) you intend to rank for.

Users also see new content as being more valuable or relevant than older content. When an end user searches for an answer to a particular query, oftentimes the age of that answer becomes a factor. If all the content on your site is outdated, then you could end up losing visitors, in the long run.

Another thing for you to consider is freshness, which is actually a ranking factor. The more content you create, the more frequently the major search engines will index it, and the more quickly your content will rank, over time.

5. Build up Your Backlinks

Backlinks are one of the most crucial elements of SEO. If you want a SEO strategy that is fool proof, then you cannot possibly do that without building high quality links for your site.

Why? Because backlinks is one of the ways the search engines recognises authority in your site. Expertise, authority and trustworthiness are more important than ever, making it critically important that you have the right links. If you’re able to get a reputable site to link to your site, this will significantly boost the EAT factor for your site. Increasing the chance of the search engine seeing your site as a valid answer to a user’s query.

This is a very broad subject topic, which encompasses backlink strategies, email templates (for sourcing links), dos and don’ts. So it’s important you do additional research on this particular subject. However, in the meantime, here are a few tips:

• Prioritise guest blogging, if you can.
• Go for quality over quantity. The authority of the site linking back to you, is more important than the amount of links.
• Use online forums to both share content and also reach out to individuals in the industry.
• Consider social media, for sharing your most valuable content, and also for attracting backlinks to your site.

–AUTHOR INFO—

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is a former IT Manager who now runs his own computer support website https://www.compuchenna.co.uk