Techblog
Boost Your Search Traffic using SEO
Improve your SEO in five simple steps and make it easier for customers to find your business through Google Search.
In the first two parts of our series on digital marketing basics, we looked at understanding your audience and talking to your customers. In part three, we look at getting Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to improve traffic to your website.
SEO is an important factor in increasing your site’s organic search traffic. How can you attract more organic visitors, i.e. visitors who come to your site through search results, not through paid ads? Here are five easy steps you can take to improve your site’s SEO.
1. Have a mobile-optimised website
According Hootsuite’s and We Are Social’s Digital in 2018 study, we spend 58% more time on our mobile phones than laptops and desktops. Your website should be primarily built for mobile browsing, if not, you risk losing a significant amount of organic traffic from visitors searching via mobile.
If you are creating your website from scratch, ensure that your site content is optimised for mobile. Alternatively, you can also opt for a mobile-responsive website, that automatically adjusts your site to the visitor’s screen size.
If your site isn't mobile friendly customers will still be able to find it on their mobile device but they won't be able to read it. Most importantly though, Google search will prioritise results with mobile friendly websites.
2. Fast site speed
The average time it takes to fully load a mobile landing page is 22 seconds, but 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to start showing content. Site loading speed is crucial in preventing visitors from leaving, and it is also a key factor in optimising your site for search engines.
If images and videos are an absolute need, use lower resolution images and embed videos instead of uploading them directly onto your website. Also, use a dedicated server to improve your overall site loading speed. You can create your site with Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to make sure they open quickly and are Google friendly.
3. Include internal and external links
One simple way to improve your SEO is simply by including internal and external links on your website and blog. Internal links are links from one page to another within your website, while external links are links to other websites.
While you might not want to send traffic to competitors, including links to partners and other relevant sites is one way to inform search engines that your website has authority and credibility. If possible links from other sites - say your partners or suppliers - are a great way to boost SEO.
4. Incorporate keywords
Although Google is moving away from the meta keywords tagging within your site source code, it still has its place in improving SEO. Brainstorm a list of topics relevant to your business, and sub-topics that include long-tail keywords (perhaps make use of Google search console) that your customers are likely to search for. While there is a move away from keyword importance meta descriptions are still required. A meta description is a tag in the HTML code which is a 320 character summary of the page's content.
If your industry is highly competitive, be specific in choosing your keywords to carve a niche for your brand. For example, if you are a beauty e-commerce retailer, you might want to include keywords like “how to choose the best sunscreen for humid weather.”
5. Regular blogging
Creating valuable and relevant content is a long-term strategy that reaps long-term results. In short, it may not be the best way to attract the most traffic quickly, but it is certainly a good strategy to attract organic visitors in the long term.
When creating content, consider what is important to your customers, and incorporate the keywords that you have selected into your blog posts. Ideally, you should be blogging 1-3 times a week and actively sharing your content on your marketing channels.
Summary:
- Ensure your site is mobile-optimised to capture the significant amount of organic mobile-only traffic.
- Prioritise a fast site loading speed to discourage visitors from leaving
- Internal and external links inform search engines that your website has authority and credibility.
- Incorporate long-tail keywords that your customers are likely to search for in your content.
- Regular blogging helps to build organic visitors in the long run.