Don't you feel a slight rush every time Google Analytics shows an uptick in website traffic? Who wouldn't?
If your content is Google-worthy, there’s a good chance you’re doing something right. However, there may be times when your website is showing few or even no visitors, which definitely stings.
If your website is experiencing a bit of a traffic slump, you could be making a few SEO mistakes. There are proven SEO strategies that can help you overcome this obstacle. Read on to learn 10 basic SEO techniques that boost your organic search traffic.
1. Keep Your Content Fresh and Focused
Writing original blog content that can reach your audience is not a new concept, but when improving your SEO strategies, viewing your content through a new lens is necessary. Instead of focusing on content for the sake of having ample content on your website, try thinking about your content from the reader’s perspective.
Search engines aim to provide users with the perfect answer every time. Using the “Queries” tool on the Google Search Console can provide insight into what your content is ranking for. Use this information to tailor your content to satisfy your users’ search intent.
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2. Give Your Old Content a Makeover
Refreshing your content is a great way to bring your website up in search engine rankings. Simply choose the post you want to update, remove any content that isn’t relevant, and then provide new information. Be sure to refresh the date on your post and promote the content so it’s available to new users.
3. Earn Backlinks to your Content
Earning backlinks from authoritative websites in your industry or niche is one of the best SEO strategies for boosting your content.
Link building requires creating amazing content others would want to link to first. Then it requires diligent efforts in contacting site owners about your content.
The best way to cultivate backlinks from authoritative websites is to return to step 1: create fresh content that's better than what they are linking to now.
FYI - When your content effectively answers readers’ questions, it will generate backlinks naturally over time.
4. Have a Piece of Content Go Viral
Creating a viral post is about more than just the website traffic you’ll earn. A viral post will send thousands of signals through Google Chrome, causing Google to boost its organic rankings. The bottom line: If users share unprovoked content, there must be something great about it.
5. Use Topical Relevance to Enhance Posts That Are Stuck in Rankings
Topical relevance is an on-page ranking factor that can have a huge impact when it comes to site rankings. When analyzing your content, you may find that articles featuring “common” topics rank significantly better than new subjects. In fact, most authoritative websites write about similar subjects repeatedly.
If a piece of content hasn’t taken off in terms of rankings, try boosting the page by writing at least five more posts about the new subject. Then, link each piece of content to the original post. Anchor texts can be used to highlight the text you want to rank for. Essentially, you are optimizing this content to appeal to search engines.
6. Avoid Over-Optimizing Your Anchor Texts
Google’s Penguin 4.0 algorithm, which was released on September 23, 2016, can greatly penalize sites with overly-optimized anchor texts. This penalty can be avoided by creating natural-looking anchor text.
One way to do this is to vary your text as much as possible. You can draw inspiration from websites that are already ranking from your chosen keywords.
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7. Perform a Technical SEO Audit
Sometimes, technical changes to your website can prevent search engines from crawling them correctly. Grade your website, checking for duplicate content, slow loading times, blocked content, or other issues that can create issues for search engines.
Sometimes, old content just needs a simple makeover to become relevant again.
8. Write Great Meta Titles, Descriptions & Headlines
Creating stellar content is only part of the job of writing content. The other part is crafting catchy headlines in your body content that build trust with the reader and directly address their search query.
Use Meta Tags to your Advantage
Set up your meta tags for success in Bing and Google searches. Start with writing a compelling meta page title and meta description that encourage the visitor to explore your website. Headlines shouldn’t be “clickbait” but relevant to the content of the article.
There are several strategies for writing SEO-friendly headlines and meta descriptions. You can use shock value to evoke an emotional response, write partial statements to pique interest, or add magnet keywords like “ultimate,” “best,” and “how to.”
9. Promote Your Content
Getting your content in front of as many eyes as possible is key to increasing your site rankings. Popular posts receive more positive ranking signals, causing them to rise in search engine rankings.
A great way to syndicate your content is to post a high-quality article on LinkedIn and gain followers.
10. Create Content for Users but Optimize Content for Search Engines
When creating effective SEO strategies, the most important thing is to write great content targeted to your audience. While optimizing your content using these SEO marketing techniques will boost your rankings, your users’ experience should be your top priority.
Every user who clicks through to your page should feel satisfied after viewing your content. If users are happy with your content, search engines will take notice.
