With the market becoming ever more competitive, it has become difficult to run a successful website just by writing enjoyable content. Most of the online traffic on Google comes from the first page, with the first search result getting over 30% of the traffic alone. If you want your website to be found and your content to rank high in search results, you need to start using smart Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tricks and techniques.
What is SEO and why do we need it?
Search Engine Optimization or SEO refers to the process of optimizing the content within a website to increasing traffic organically rather than through paid traffic.
Thus, SEO is crucial for the discoverability of a website. Without SEO the visibility of a website diminishes. As previously stated, most of the traffic for Google searches goes to the search results that pop up on the first page. If your website is not listed on the first page, it is unlikely anyone will ever discover it.
Proper SEO, helps the business to:
- Improve website traffic
- Generate more leads
- Establish Brand Identity
- Build Credibility
- Gain Market Share
- Get ahead of competitors, and
- Promote the growth of the business.
Now that we know what SEO and its importance is, here are the top 15 SEO Tricks that will help you take your SEO to the next level.
Top 15 eCommerce SEO Tricks That Work
1. Creating timeless content.
Writing content that will always stay relevant is a fantastic way to increase website traffic. Content like tutorials, case studies, product pros and cons, etc. always stays relevant and will have new traffic coming in regularly, thus, it is recommended to create a significant amount of content for this category for your website.
2. Create content that matches search intent.
For creating search engine optimized content, it is important to first understand what people are searching for. By understanding what searches are trending, you can focus on creating content that matches those searches. For example, when someone does a Google search for “Best Mobile under 10,000”, the browser understands that the person intends to find reviews of a product, not buy it. Thus, the browser returns results with blogs that have recently reviewed the mobile phones under the given price range. So, it is necessary to create content that is focused on your target audience for improved SEO.
3. Focus more on Long-Tailed-Keywords
One of the essential elements of SEO is Keywords. SEO keywords are frequently searched terms, that are added to the content of a website to improve search engine ranking. There are two types of keywords, long-tailed-keywords consisting of 4-5 keywords and short-tailed-keywords made of 1-2 words. When researching for SEO keywords, it is advised to focus more on long-tailed-keywords, not only because these keywords have lesser competition, but it also narrows down searches and provides a more focused result.
4. Identify core and related keywords.
When using keywords, you need to identify a core set of high-traffic keywords that defines your website. To create a set of relevant keywords, search for words related to your website on Google Trends. It will show you how many people are searching for that word along with similar frequently searched words. If you enter these frequently searched terms to Google Keyword Planner, you can get the search volume, competition, and bids for them. You can now use these words to generate your list of keywords and start optimizing your website.
5. Have optimized title-tags.
The title tag is what browsers look through when trying to find a match for a search and is the thing that is returned to the user as the search result. Thus, the title-tag needs to be informative, optimized, and interesting. Try to create title tags that briefly describe the content of your webpage in a fun and interesting manner and contains relevant high-traffic keywords. Make sure the content of the page reflects the title-tags. If the content is irrelevant, users will back out of the page immediately, leading to lowered search engine ranking eventually.
6. Create links to established websites.
Creating backlinks to larger, high-traffic websites are an essential part of SEO. The more your blogs have backlinks to these high traffic websites, the better. Browsers identify these websites as having more authority and credibility and thus, having links to these websites improves your rating as well. The backlinks, however, need to be relevant and make sense in comparison to the content of your webpage. It is mandatory to make links only to pages that are related to your blog and its content. Not following these guidelines can lead to penalization.
7. Resolve broken backlinks.
Broken backlinks are external links to deleted or non-existing webpages. A backlink that leads to nowhere is a backlink that is wasted. These backlinks do not help with SEO and are required to be resolved immediately. There are a few ways to achieve this. If the webpage that it was linking to, got accidentally deleted, reinstating that webpage will resolve all the broken backlinks. If the dead page was moved to a new URL, redirecting the old URL to a new URL will fix the issue and if there was an issue in the linking process itself, it is better to reach out to the person overlooking to linking process to fix the issue.
8. Use the ‘Meta’.
If you are trying to do SEO for your website, you might have come across the term “meta description.” Unlike title tags, meta descriptions do not play any role in SEO, however, it doesn’t mean they are not important. If a user searches for a keyword that is present in your meta description, the browser will bold that keyword, making it stand out more for the user. This can make your website appear more relevant to the user and hence increase site traffic.
9. Make headings with keywords.
Using keywords in your headings and paragraphs is the most common trick for improved SEO. Keywords are a critical component for a browser’s ranking algorithm, and they depend on these keywords to identify if a piece of content is relevant to the user’s search query. That is why your content should try to have as many relevant keywords in it as logically possible.
10. Make reader-friendly content.
Content that is hard to read, will cause the user to lose interest fast. So, make sure to create content that is easy to read with proper formatting. Proper formatting means breaking up the content with proper heading and subheadings, having two to three sentences per paragraph, bolding or italicizing sections that are important and require emphasis, etc. Most people skim through blogs than reading them thoroughly, so it is important that the flow of content easily readable.
11. Be device-friendly.
With mobile phones becoming the more common platform for users to access the web, having a website that is optimized for desktop browsing only, is no longer feasible. If you have a website that is only optimized for desktops, it is essential that you update it to be more friendly on all types of mobile devices, like tablets, smartphones, etc. The website needs to be responsive and easily readable on all devices. Sites that perform poorly when accessed from a mobile device will not rank well.
12. Have optimized URLs.
Having optimized URLs is another critical element of SEO. It is helpful to have a short, descriptive, and organized URL for search engines and users. Short URLs with keywords help web crawlers to better identify the content of your webpage and help the user to know where they are on your website. Thus, when creating URLs, make sure to include the core keywords, if possible, have the URL to be within five to six words, use hyphens (-) to separate words, use lowercase text for the URL, and make sure to avoid apostrophes (‘) and hashtags (#).
13. Collaborate with Influencers
Collaborating with social influencers can have a huge impact on how your brand is perceived. Along with important social influencers, it is also important to collaborate with experts, especially if the subject matter is technical in nature. No matter what type of content is being posted, having the seal-of-approval from an important influencer or expert adds an extra layer of credibility to your content which in return attracts more traffic.
14. Have a fast website.
In the impatient world we live in, how fast you can deliver your services can make or break a deal. A website that takes ages to load, will make the user think that the website is broken or unreachable and make them back out from the site. This will in turn hamper SEO rankings. Optimize the load speed of your website by using compressed media files and website friendly fonts from Google fonts.
15. Setup a Sitemap
Having a proper Sitemap can come in real handy for the SEO of your website. A sitemap is an XML document that contains the blueprint of your website. This sitemap helps web browser easily find, crawl, and index all your website’s content. This also helps browsers to identify which webpages on your website are more important and directs traffic accordingly. Sitemaps are especially effective for eCommerce websites that contain a lot of webpages. If all the webpages on the eCommerce website are not perfectly linked, it would be difficult for browsers to catalog all those pages, this is when the sitemap becomes useful.
Final Thoughts
Everyone requires a boost once in a while, and these SEO tips will definitely help boost your site traffic and help grow your business. All of the tricks mentioned here are quick and easy to implement and with them, you should be well on your way to creating a more optimized site in no time.
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