Even in 2020, the race for ranking high on search engines remains as heated as ever. Once-held beliefs that only the quality of your content was all that mattered when it came to rankings remain no more than myths today. In today’s turbulent digital space, curating and structuring your content to appeal to search engines’ requirements gives you better results and reach than merely improving your work. But with dozens of sites out there that offer outdated information or tips that are more harmful than helpful, it’s a daunting place for a newcomer who wishes to boost their web page’s traffic.
With ever-rising competition and ever-deprecating attention spans to contend with, there’s never been a better time to delve into the world of digital marketing. With the right techniques, your sites can rank on Google, giving them a phenomenal boost in incoming traffic. Here are five strategies that will give your site an edge over the millions of sites being created every single day.
1 – Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly
In an age where smartphones have become ubiquitous, creating a site that is tailored towards offering the same experience across devices is a no-brainer. But it affects rankings as well and changing the structure of your website to ease the user experience will certainly improve the number of visitors who interact with your site. The users of today demand more from their websites than ever before. It just isn’t about your content or how you present it to them. Factors such as the time it takes your website to load can have a detrimental effect on your rankings. Most people get frustrated if a site takes over 3 seconds to load. They may abandon your site for one that may offer subpar content, but content that reaches them in time nonetheless.
Companies across the globe such as Swag Swami and Buzzfeed rely on intricate web page design to drive traffic to reel in followers as well as people interested in buying their products.
2 – Pick The Right Keywords
Keyword research can mean the difference between your page showing up at the top of the results and remaining obscured behind a sea of similar websites. Think of it as a lending direction to your website and your marketing strategy as a whole. Once you’ve figured out the keywords that will lead visitors to you, implement it across your services, be it a blog or a shopping site. This works exceptionally well if your area of expertise is in a niche field that does not consist of a lot of competitors. Offer people distinguished features to get to your site and they’ll remain devout followers.
3 – Structured Data
In 2011, most of the world’s top search engines, namely Google, Bing, Yahoo! And Yandex teamed up to create a list of attributes that they had decided to support, known today as Schema.org. Think of structured data as data that has been organized into tables with rows and columns based on the information stored. Once data has been structured, numerous advantages come with it. It gives search engines a better understanding of the content you offer on your site, which gives your work the ability to be featured in rich snippets, rich cards, etc. that let you gain an edge over your peers.
4 – Use Top-Notch Backlinks
Another important thing to keep in mind is the usage of backlinks to structure your website. Backlinks are effectively links from one page to another. Several search engines think of them as a valuable means of determining the quality of your content. The higher your backlinks, the higher your organic rankings. They remain one of Google’s top three factors that determine your position on their rankings. While all backlinks help, some carry more weight than others. Those from established sites will give you a notable boost in viewership. Create content that people will want to share and the more they are shared, the more traffic they will bring.
Pitching your content to a reputed website to feature your site on their link roundups(think of articles such as “10 Great SEO Resources That Get You Results”). On that note, some solid blogs that you should check out are Backlinko and Neil Patel’s blog.
5 – Dive Into New Forms Of Content
With the advent of TikTok and other forms of sharing videos, people have come up with several new means of branding their pages. The ever-present behemoth in this sphere, YouTube, is a great platform to showcase what you bring to the table. Just as websites need to tailor their content in adherence to SEO practices, there exist techniques to rank higher on YouTube lists. Things such as keywords matter here just as much as they do on regular websites. Other factors that contribute a great deal to rankings are video comments, shares and even the length of your videos(longer videos rank better). YouTube’s incredible transcribing algorithms mean that your videos rank higher even when you say the keyword out loud during your video!
Additional Resources
While this is by no means an exhaustive means of skyrocketing your site’s reach, these steps will certainly go a long way in improving incoming traffic. Here are some great sources of information that will serve as a stepping stone from the methods suggested above:
- Backlinko
- Neil Patel’s blog
- Moz
- WordStream
- Yoast
These resources pop up at the top of search engines’ lists, standing as a testament to the fact that these methods work. They offer a comprehensive means of grappling with terms that may initially seem confusing but will soon become tools in your arsenal. None of these techniques require prior knowledge, especially concerning coding or data analysis. Someone who has never run a page before can still reap the rewards that these tools have to offer.
The world of digital marketing can seem intimidating, but all it takes are a few changes to the way you present your information along with patience and hard work. While results won’t pop up out of the blue, following these methods can greatly enhance your traffic in the long run.
