Are you looking out for some SEO hacks?
SEO is not complex, but for most of the SEO marketers, it seems like one.
There are even many businesses that find it difficult to rank their website higher than their competitors even after practicing the basic things, like generating rich content, targeting relevant keywords, creating an XML sitemap, and more.
No matter what industry it is, SEO still remains a challenge!
There can be numerous reasons why a website is unable to rank higher than its competitors. But the best way to figure out is to try out different ideas and see which of them is working for your site.
So, what these ideas are?
These are SEO hacks that have higher chances of improving your website ranking.
Why SEO Hacks?
In order to gain success with SEO, it is vital to try experimenting and implementing new techniques in order to achieve better rankings with less effort and time.
The good thing is that you don’t have to spend too much money in order to reap results from these SEO hacks.
But before you start applying these SEO hacks, first check for these 3 issues!
The SEO Mistakes You Might be making
There might be some SEO mistakes, which you might be making while practicing SEO to your website. It is best to rectify these mistakes while implementing SEO hacks in order to gain adequate results.
1. You are Still Using Outdated SEO Practices:
Google is regularly improving or changing. Hence, you must update your website with the latest SEO practices and techniques to achieve favorable results.
If your SEO campaign is not fetching sound ROI, you might be still using outdated SEO practices. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to change them at once.
2. You Are Not Working on Your Site:
These were days when SEO was primarily related to external factors like links to your site, and more. But presently, things have changed. Right now, it is essential to create a user-friendly site design that contains rich content.
Moreover, your website must deliver a great experience to the users. It must entice them to take the necessary call to action.
3. You Are Still Playing the Blind Game:
No matter to which niche or industry you belong, or what kind of business you operate, you must improve the SEO. It means you have to establish website analytics and track the business goals.
To boost the overall SEO game for your website, you must access the right data and utilize it effectively to determine the reason behind the failures.
It is best to gain the real vision of your SEO campaign and work accordingly.
Best SEO Hacks to Beat Your Competitors:
1. Create Evergreen Content:
It is not complicated to create evergreen content. This form of content is self-explanatory and refers to the content that remains valuable and valid for a long time period.
This form of content is not time-sensitive and does not decay. It holds the ability to attract readers on a consistent basis. For such reasons, publishing evergreen content is an important SEO hack.
Evergreen content focuses on topics that are relevant to your industry. They help in generating leads both social and organic and also help to generate high-quality leads for years.
Further, by using such a form of content, you can build trust in your brand in the long run and stand out from the competition.
2. Homepage Link Authority:
The homepage of a website is its most important page. It is the page where most people enter the site through. In comparison to other pages of your site, the homepage can naturally attract a maximum number of backlinks.
Applying homepage link authority is a simple SEO hack. It ensures that your visitors get directed to other vital subpages of your site.
It is best to link the navigation bar of your site to the main category pages of the site. But at the same time, it is vital that you add links to those pages on your home page. Also, they are contextual in nature and pass more link authority than the navigational links.
3. Use Rich Snippets:
By using rich snippets, you can make your listings in the search engine page appear different, informative and unique.
Though you can use different SEO hacks in order to rank higher. But in order to earn higher CTR, rich snippets are of great use.
For those who don’t know, rich snippets are structured data markup, which adds to the website’s existing HTML. This way, search engines are able to better understand the content of your site as well as offer more information to the visitors about your webpage. This means rich snippets can also lead to enhanced user experience.
The main benefit of using rich snippets is that it leads to better SEO results. With the help of a rich snippet, your website can stand out from other listings. It also tells the ratings of your website to the searchers and hence delivers an ultimately positive experience.
4. Utilize AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages:
AMP is coding standards for publishers and a useful SEO hack. With the increasing number of mobile users, it is becoming important to deliver a rich user experience. By using AMP, you can help publishers offer their visitors rich user experience. It is because it helps websites to load faster.
AMP combats most problems of a mobile website, particularly related to the speed.
In order to implement AMP on your site, you must maintain at least two versions of the content page:
- The original or main version of the article or blog post.
- The AMP version of that page.
5. Use HTTPS and not HTTP:
Google is highly concerned about the security of its website. It always favors websites that use HTTPs over HTTP. Even, the same has been officially announced that websites with HTTPs have a higher chance of ranking.
HTTPs websites are highly secured because they are more trusted and secured. Since Google always prefer to serve users in the best possible way so it obviously prefers one that is better for the users.
HTTPs, also known as Hypertext Transfer Protocol secure explains itself. In comparison to HTTP, it follows a similar protocol but is highly secured. It implies when data moves from one point to the other, the route is safe and secured.
The other benefits of using HTTPs are:
- Enhanced security and privacy
- Increased ranking in long-term
- More data referring to read into
6. Increase CTR or Click-Through Rate:
Numerous companies or brands are focused on improving their search engine rankings only. This is good but not enough!
When it is about SEO, boosting CTR is vital to get a high return on the investment. A good CTR shows that your site is ideal to the search query. It is important that more people click and find the website in search results.
In order to fetch more number of clicks, you must focus on other aspects too. Here are certain things you must work on to make sure more people click on your website.
- Meta descriptions – Your SERP listing can stand out from others with the help of an effective Meta description. A clear Meta description informs potential visitors about your page, which increases the chances of clicking on the link.
- Long-tail keywords – Design content around the long-tail keywords as they are easier and specific to rank. By using long-tail keywords, it is possible to increase the volume of relevant search queries which you can rank for.
- Title Format – When individuals scan through search listings, they first notice the title of the page. Avoid making it complex by adding the brand name. Simply focus on the core benefits of visiting that page so that people are enticed to click on it.
- Descriptive URLs – No matter which keyword you target, you can include the same in page URL and create it more descriptive. This can get more people to click on the site.
- Headline Testing – There is no correct formula to design a click-worthy and great headline. It is best to check headline variations with numerous free tools online.
7. Optimize the Images:
If you are using images in the content, make sure you optimize the same for search engines. When it is about SEO hacks, optimizing the images is an important SEO hack.
But if the images are not optimized for SEO it can boost down your SEO rankings. In order to optimize the images, you can do the following things:
- Use plain or simple language to name the images.
- Optimize the image ALT text properly.
- Define each image descriptively.
- Select JPEG for the image file type for high-quality.
- Reduce the size of image files.
8. Publish Long-Form, High-Quality Content:
It’s true that online visitors have short attention time, but well-executed and properly formatted long-form content can bring you more SEO traffic.
Longer articles may also make visitors spend more time on your site. The longer readers stick to your site, the higher are chances you can excite them to sign up on the email list. Even long articles let you include more internal links and backlinks in the content. Ultimately, your SEO efforts will improve.
The other benefits of publishing long-form content are:
- It lets you appear like an expert having great knowledge in the field
- Boosts the level of engagement and shares received by your content
- Improves search engine rankings for a specific keyword
- Helps to increase your audience’s size
- Generate more brand awareness
9. Create Unique Meta Descriptions:
Search engines such as Google prefer using Meta descriptions along with the title tag and URL of each site when showcasing the search results. A unique Meta description also helps you stand out from others.
Avoid posting duplicate Meta descriptions as it can lead to a penalty. If you have different websites for various services, use unique Meta descriptions for each one of them.
10. Incorporate Readable URLs:
It is vital to use long URLs. Nowadays, search engines think more like humans. If the target audience and search engines do not understand your URL, it can reduce your rankings.
Hence, try to use meaningful and readable URLs, which users can find easily. Avoid including numbers in the URL and separate the URL with 4-5 short dashes.
11. Link Other Sites with Relevant Content:
A lot of individuals think that linking to authority websites is not good for their business because it takes visitors off their website.
But in reality, you can expect results from others only when you first offer them something. One such effective way is to avail inbound links from authority websites by linking them from your content.
Linking to other websites that offer high-quality content is a good SEO hack. Even the influencers can be notified to your posts and they can share the same with followers to bring more traffic to your website.
12. Design an Impressive YouTube Description:
It is no surprise that videos on YouTube are shown up on the first page of Google search.
You can take benefit from this by positioning your videos to rank higher for highly competitive keywords. One way to achieve this is by creating a 150+ high-quality content with relevant keywords to your YouTube video description.
13. Incorporate Long-Tail Keywords in Title Tags:
Including one keyword in the title tag reduces the chances of your website turning up in search engine results.
It is best to include long-tail keywords into the title tag in order to drastically boost the search engine traffic.
14. Use Social Media Channels:
Though Google does not consider social signals as an important factor in their algorithm, social media creates a strategic impact on SEO.
You must create rich content, which can be shared across numerous social platforms. Add share buttons in the post and share them across platforms.
15. Design Original Content:
Creating original and amazing content makes sure you are always favorite among the readers. Also, this is a great way to bring more traffic to your website.
To Sum Up:
SEO is not complex but a vast subject. It can reap appropriate results if done the right way. Hence, follow these SEO hacks in order to boost your website rankings and become an SEO expert.