Back to Basics: You Can Make SEO Simple
In the SEO world full of numerous options at hand, haste, and superficiality, simplicity comes as the only alternative.
The process of securing the top rank of search engines has always been a challenging feat.
With so many SEO practices that promise you to boost your rank fast, they surely can be daunting.
After all of the never-ending items on the checklist, you might even question, “Is SEO worth it?”
To help you simplify things and still work the best for your site, here are five simple steps you can focus on.
#1. Quality Content is King
As the leading search engine, Google encourages creators to focus on people-first content.
Therefore, creating content that is informative and delightful to digest is the most important.
Most importantly, your content must be able to satisfy visitors and meet their expectations.
Through its helpful content update, Google recommends you give first-hand expertise or knowledge depth into your content.
You can share valuable insights, experiences, and recommendations based on your niche expertise.
On the contrary, it advises creators to prevent creating search engine-targeted content. Avoid covering many topics without in-depth values, using extensive automation, or providing irrelevant information.
#2. Implement Targeted Keywords
Keywords may not be the leading factor of SEO, but they remain essential for optimizing your page.
Specific keywords help you avoid oversaturated competition and reach more relevant audiences.
Many experts recommend using long-tailed keywords that focus on very specific topics.
For example, instead of using Nike shoes, it’s better to be more specific, like the best Nike running shoes, Nike vintage shoes, or affordable Nike shoes.
The benefit of using long-tailed keywords is that you get fewer competitors, which can lead to a higher ranking on organic search.
You can also include local keywords by including your location name to promote your business better.
Even though there is less search for long-tail keywords, they effectively drive traffic and reach potential customers.
#3. Build Quality Backlinks
A backlink is a link on another website that links back to your page.
The more backlinks you get, the better search engines rank your page.
Backlinks are included as the most substantial ranking factor by Google, which was confirmed by its employee Andrey Lipattsev in 2016.
However, not all backlinks perform equally because some may hardly impact your site.
Unfortunately, Google doesn’t reveal what defines the perfect backlink.
But, it encourages creators to build backlinks from other prominent websites related to your niche or topics.
#4. Avoid Large Files on a Page
Visual and auditory elements can add value to your page, but be mindful of their sizes.
Large files on your page can affect its load speed.
Search engines also look into your load speed to decide your ranking.
Moreover, as large files slow down your page load, it can affect mobile friendliness.
The most recommended rule is to keep your images or videos at most 500 KB.
Today you can find many tools and plugins that can help you reduce images or videos instantly without decreasing the quality.
#5. Enhance Your Technical SEO
Enhancing your site settings means you optimize the technical SEO.
Technical SEO deals with the backend elements of a site to help improve your site ranking.
The goal of enhancing your technical SEO is to make your website load faster, be easy to crawl, and perform better on search engines.
You can use tools like Google Search Console to monitor your website’s performance, identify and fix errors and track your search engine rankings.
Besides, here are some other aspects you can optimize:
- Use a clear and logical website structure
- Try minifying code and using a content delivery network (CDN)
- Include descriptive file names and alt tags on images
- Use a robots.txt file
- Optimize for mobile devices
- Input schema markup
- Use XML sitemaps
- Implement hreflang tags
- Check and fix broken links
SEO is a long-term process, not an overnight success. The most important thing on the journey is consistency.
You can create a content schedule and choose topics that resonate with your expertise.
Even if it takes a while, you can ensure your website stands a better chance of being found on search.
