Advanced SEO Techniques to Improve Your Site Traffic
Understanding and meeting your target audience’s needs can considerably increase your site’s traffic and your overall conversion rate. Evidently, there are thousands – or even millions – looking for your website, even if you do not know it.
It is your job to help them look for your site in an easier and more efficient manner, and the only way that you could help them is to learn SEO. Becoming an expert in this online field is actually easier than most people make it out to be, and you can save a lot of money by not having to hire an SEO service provider.
Based on B2B marketing, every month, Google’s search engine goes through an average of 10.3 million searches. In the U.S., an estimate of 78% of the population uses the internet to search for products and services.
Consequently, if your website is highly ranked in Google, you will notice an increase in revenue because of the increase of clicks that you receive. Similarly, people have short attention spans, and want to find the right website at the first page of the organic search results; that is why the sites that are ranked in the first page of Google searches receive higher traffic than those located in the other pages.
It is common knowledge that a website’s traffic primarily comes from search queries, which only necessitates the need for high-quality search engine optimization. So, here are advanced SEO techniques that you should implement immediately to increase the rate of visitors you receive, search traffic, and your conversion rate.
Audit Your Site Structure
Auditing is more commonly known as a systematic process wherein you assess, examine, and determine which areas are underperforming in events, results, concepts, and financial matters. After auditing, you can make smarter decisions regarding the area that you audited. In SEO terms, auditing is a technique that can help attract and retain a handful of customers. Basically, auditing a site structure is done to discover why a website is not getting enough search traffic and sales.
When you audit, you should examine your site’s performance as closely as you can, and proceed to implement a new set of goals that are based on your assessment. This will enable you to have an increase in profit while still having the same workload as before.
If you are knowledgeable enough, you can conduct the auditing yourself, but if you do not have any knowledge whatsoever of auditing your site’s structure, here are some simple steps:
- There are websites that can assess your web page, and one of them is Quicksprout. Go to the website and input your page URL into the search box
- Click the “Log in with Google” button to start the assessment
- Analyze the results from Quicksprout
The analysis that Quicksprout provides includes your website’s SEO score, speed score, errors, warnings, load time, page size, and requests. The great thing about Quicksprout is that it gives you details on the problems of your site. By taking into consideration what Quicksprout gives, you can already remove or improve the page elements that are deemed as red flags.
The common warnings that webmasters experience are related to the heading tags; because the optimal heading tags should only contain 15 to 65 characters, but most of us create heading tags that are more than 70 characters.
SEO experts might tell you that this simple change in one element will not improve the overall page rankings, but it will definitely get you more clicks, and more clicks mean improved traffic. This is all due to the fact that heading tags and meta descriptions are important SEO elements and should be created properly.
Google expects to see them in pages because they are a basic, standard-compliant HTML element. That’s how you can gain more traffic when you properly create heading tags and meta description. Similarly, properly created headings can give your visitors a much better experience because the subheadings and the body stand out, which will enable your readers to understand and better enjoy your content.
Data Research from End-User Value
Essentially, Google is a data company which makes every platform, tool, or algorithm that they send out primarily for one purpose: to get data from users and use it to improve and build a stronger system called the search engine. Similarly, you need to use the data that comes from your target audience. The feedback that your ideal users of a product or service give will help you create content that is in accordance with their own tastes and standards.
Basically, the public is responsible for the sharing, funding, or production of a certain idea or concept. Obtaining that relevant data can be hard, but if you know which social media platform your target audience spends the most time in, you can already assess what their preferences are. Here are some basic steps that you can use to collect data from your desired users (Quora is the social media platform that will be used as an example):
- Go to Quora., and input your primary keyword in the search box
- Click search
- Assess which of the results has the most answers, or click on the most relevant headline and read the answers that the users provided for that certain thread.
- Extract the ideas, brainstorm on how you can convert the ideas into an SEO-worthy content, create the content, and publish it.
The important thing to remember is that data research is only useful if it is applicable to your users. Also, as long as you can create content that can answer user queries, your site’s search traffic and conversion rate will significantly improve.
Creating More Optimized Landing Pages
Most B2B companies do not regard the importance of having landing pages that are in search results. They do not know that by creating more high-quality landing pages can improve and open their doors for improved search traffic; because a well-made, optimal landing page can improve sales and lead generation.
A considerable amount of clicks in a B2B company’s website direct the user to the homepage, and not a landing page. Obviously, homepages are important, but the landing pages are where you try to build a relationship with each and every visitor.
Unbeknownst to most webmasters, optimal landing pages can generate more income than other pages in a website. Take Moz for example, Conversion Rate Experts made $1M from a single, optimized landing page and some email promotions. This only necessitates having more optimized landing pages for business websites and having quality link building can definitely help as well. The goal is to create more clickable pages with an impressive value proposition.
Here’s a simplified version on how you can optimize your landing pages:
- Choose a long-tail keyword, and create a landing page for it so that you can gain results from search engines
- Add title tags, meta tag description, and keywords
- Use the keywords as naturally as you can, so that you can avoid keyword stuffing.
- The content of the landing page should be 2000+ words because that is the standard on how you can prove to Google that your page is more valuable than others, and that it deserves to be ranked higher.
- Your landing pages should be useful.
- Write the landing page to persuade visitors to take the next step
- Always remember that the perfect landing page contains a headline, secondary headline, bullet points, and CTA’s (call-to-actions)
The primary purpose of your landing pages is to engage with your audience without ever having to meet them. When your landing pages start to rank up for their main keywords, you can tweak the content, or add more CTA’s to increase your conversion rate; while also improving your skills in SEO.
Also, having a beautiful design will help your landing page succeed, because if you have a well-written landing page, but your design is not up-to-par, then the whole landing page will downright fail. This is because the design of your landing page is as important as the content itself. It makes your page unique, and it gives your readers a different experience than just reading the content.
Lastly, build link in your landing pages. Links are an essential part of Google’s ranking factors. Without links, your page will not rank – even if it is full of quality content and unique designs. So, always incorporate a link to all your pages!
Site Responsiveness and Being Mobile Friendly
The growth rate for mobile search queries has unexpectedly multiplied over the last couple of years; which will entail more traffic if you make your website more mobile friendly. Since the introduction of smartphones, people have begun to use their mobile gadgets to access and scour the world wide web.
Similarly, mobile users are more passionate shoppers because of the fact that they can buy anything from anywhere; which is impossible to do when you are a desktop user. Again, there is unlimited potential for gaining more search traffic when you make your website more mobile-friendly.
Improve Your Infographics
Using infographics is one of the simplest ways that you can increase your site’s search traffic. Infographics have so much potential when it comes you increasing your web traffic. You can imagine for yourself that when you create high-quality content that is visual in nature. However, most people do not focus enough on the information part, while wasting their time on the graphics part. That is why you have to make sure you have a balance between the two whenever you make an infographic.
You may ask yourself: Why do people prefer infographics? Well, the simplest answer is that the human brain processes visual information faster than just plain text. Also, research has concluded that 90% of information that enters the human brain is purely visual.
Generating Increased Search Visitors through infographics is something that most people do not know. Here’s something that can help you:
- Create an infographic through thorough research about trending ideas or topics.
- Couple your infographic with fresh, high-quality content that introduces your audience to a more detailed discussion of the “information” part of the infographic.
- Submit your infographic to infographics directories.
- Focus on building quality links because it is never about the quantity.
Use Latent Semantic Indexing
Through the years, SEO has evolved to adapt to the regular algorithm updates made by Google. One factor the Google uses to determine the rank of a page is Latent Semantic Indexing or LSI. It is essentially an indexing and retrieval technique that makes use of mathematical formulas to identify any patterns in specific parts of a text.
Simply put, LSI constantly finds the synonyms of keywords. It helps your website rank higher because it aids Google in understanding the topic that your content is talking about, and how relevant it is to the search query every user inputs.
Here’s an example: Whenever you use the word “Apple”, through LSI, Google determines that “Apple” is the company that Steve Jobs headed, and not about the fruit. Also, always avoid keyword stuffing in your content to avoid being penalized. However, if you LSI keyword, which is basically the synonyms of your chosen keywords, then it will not be regarded as keyword stuffing.
Here are a few reminders when you use LSI keywords:
- Always look for LSI keywords that are synonymous to a specific keyword, but has different spelling and structure.
- Never overstuff your content with LSI keywords. Only use them when they flow naturally within a certain paragraph.
- Write naturally. Avoid making the LSI keywords become more important than the keyword that you are trying to rank.
- Always remember that the LSI keyword is there to provide additional meaning to your content, and help Google understand the topic at hand.
Essentially, Google always looks for these key terms in your content. If they find these keywords, Google believes that the readers will benefit from them as well; which will enable you to have higher rankings.
Your Competitor’s Keywords
Researching your competitors is a move that is widely acted out in the business industry, and it is also common in the online business platform. You can research your competitor’s keywords that they are ranking for, then you create much better content for those keywords that will be published in your own website. Also, knowing which keywords that your competitors are using is easy, here’s how:
- Go to SEMrush
- Input your competitor’s site URL
- Set the country to wherever you are located in, or the country your target market is in
- Click search
- Analyze the live keywords that pop-up
- Verify the ranking of the keywords by doing a quick Google search, and inputting the keywords that you have researched
After doing all of these, you can now create much better content for the keywords that you have researched, and you should also build link in that particular page to boost its capability to rank. Also, it would be helpful if you research the sites that link to your competitor’s site.
Then, contact the sites that you have found, and tell them about your article that is closely related to your competitor’s. There is a high possibility that they will link to your page as well, which will give you additional referral traffic. One site that you can use to find the pages that link to your competitor’s pages is Backlinkwatch.com.
Being Active on Authoritative Platforms
You can get ranked better in Google, generate more traffic, and build a new following, by simply being active on an authoritative platform. Authoritative platforms are websites wherein millions of users visit, and sites that rank for whatever keyword they target.
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are not authoritative platforms but are helpful in user engagement rather than being direct ranking factors. Examples of authoritative sites include: Quora, Slideshare, Blogger, and Docstoc; these websites helps you engage your followers while directly affecting your ranking factors. Here’s an example of how you can improve your rankings using authoritative sites, in this instance, Slideshare is what we are using:
- Find a trending topic or idea that you can use as your presentation topic
- Create an outline for your intended presentation
- Find images that you can use to support your content
- Study and use successful Slideshare presentations to improve your own presentation
- Finally, create your Slideshare presentation
Another thing that can help you establish your authority in search rankings is to share your presentation to websites like Docstoc, scribd, and animoto. You will attract fresh, younger audience, and boost your link through the use of SEO service tools.
Deep Linking To Internal Pages
Deep linking is basically the act of creating anchor texts that link to other pages in your website. This helps Google determine the depth of your web pages. Most people directs their focus on acquiring visitors for their website, but they fail to regard the importance of having to rank their internal pages. Unbeknownst to people, their older landing pages, and blog posts can actually pull in a lot more traffic; which is why it important to link to those internal pages frequently. Interlinking to your pages will not only help you improve the SEO value of those pages, but will also help those pages rank – even for tough keywords.
However, before you start creating links to your internal pages, you should first assess the rate of inbound links for your homepage, you can do this by:
- Going to Moz’s OpenSiteExplorer
- Input your site URL into the search box and click search
- Click on the “Top Pages” in the top-left menu
- Examine the inbound links
- If you have more inbound links on your homepage, you will have a higher bounce rate; which is where deep linking helps.
Here are additional reasons why you should deep link to your internal pages
- It improves page authority
- Google has an inkling for fresh content because recent information is more beneficial to the users.
- So, when you link to your internal pages, you give them more authority.
- It is important that you work towards improving the page authority of internal pages – and not just your homepage.
- Google give a “freshness score” for content based on the date that it was published. This score can decay over time, but when you link to it and give it additional traffic, it will help stop the ranking decay of the specific page.
- Your internal pages will be indexable
- Constantly linking to your internal pages will help search engine crawlers find and index your landing pages
- Then, you can ping high authority search SEO service directories like Weblogs and Newsgator. These pages are easily found by search crawlers because they are in the same space and they use similar backend codes.
Lastly, it is important to remember that when you link to internal pages from other blogs, the ideal action that you should take is to use your brand name + keyword or use LSI keywords.
Your Archive Pages
If you have been blogging for a considerable amount of time, you should revisit your archives to re-use them for great results. Some of the content that you have written are still generating organic traffic even if you do not monitor them on a regular basis. You can improve these pages and use their authority for higher search rankings.
Start by identifying which of your archive pages performed best, and from there, create a much better content that is based on recent trends and ideas; which will significantly improve your search traffic. Here’s how you can know which of your archive pages performed best:
- Log in to Google Analytics
- Click the Behavior tab on the left side
- Go to Site Content, then All Pages
- Look for the best-performing pages from 3 to 6 months ago
From there, you can double your search traffic by:
- Writing a shareable headline
- The most crucial part here is to generate a headline that will persuade people to share your archive page
- It should give viewers a sense of curiosity, while still retaining the clarity of the page
- Back it up with some facts and statistics
- Always include research or experiments conducted that are related to your topic.
- If the viewers only have you as the only one making an assertion, they might not open your page, but if you have supporting data and statistics; there will be a higher chance that they open the page.
Key Takeaway
Your content pages, or blogs, are powerful marketing tools that can help you significantly improve sales, lead generation, and conversion rate. However, it is not easy to produce content on a regular basis, and you may even have the urge to give up at times.
But, the most important thing to remember is that nothing ever comes easy – especially when it comes to the online landscape of your business. Knowing these advanced SEO techniques will significantly help you gain traffic, and in establishing your brand.
Can you now implement these advanced SEO techniques to your own website? Do you have other advanced techniques that will help improve the SEO scene? Let’s discuss.