SEO ideas

Descriptions

Overview

SEO is now one of the most important factors in ranking websites on Google.

We can implement these four SEO ideas to skyrocket our rankings:

1. Increase page speed by compressing images

Images are one of the biggest culprits to slow loading times. Images make up 68% of a web page’s total weight.

But even though many people know that page speed is an important SEO ranking factor, when it comes to optimization, the image size is often overlooked.

One of the reasons for this is because if you are loading (and reloading) your website on your own computer or mobile device, the page has likely been cached.

A web cache temporarily stores the data on a web page to reduce server lag (aka page speed).

In other words, once a page has been loaded and cached, the server will provide the cached version to save time when you return later on to bring up the site.

While caching once a week is a good idea if you want to increase fetched response time, it can inadvertently give SEOs the impression that their website is loading faster than it actually is.

2. Improve CTR with Google Search Console

While CTR isn’t a proven ranking factor, improving your organic CTR will help boost your organic rankings.

Back in 2009, the head of Google’s webspam, Matt Cutts, answered questions related to CTR on YouTube:

“It doesn’t really matter how often you show up. It matters how often you get clicked on and then how often you … convert those to whatever you really want (sales, purchases, subscriptions)… Do spend some time looking at your title, your URL, and your snippet that Google generates, and see if you can find ways to improve that and make it better for users because then they’re more likely to click. You’ll get more visitors, you’ll get a better return on your investment.”

Increasing CTRs means better rankings, more traffic, and increased brand awareness. To increase CTRs, use Google Search Console to guide your next steps.

3. Use linkless mentions to build ranking value

It goes against traditional understanding of SEO, link building without links is becoming a key part of ranking strategy.

Gary Illyes, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, said during his keynote at Brighton SEO:

“If you publish high-quality content that is highly cited on the Internet — and I’m not talking about just links, but also mentions on social networks and people talking about your branding, crap like that. Then you are doing great.”

The idea is that brands that garner a lot of mentions, both in social media and on websites and long-form content, are trusted and therefore authoritative in search engines’ eyes.

While this ranking strategy has flown under the radar a bit, both Google and Bing have indicated that linkless brand mentions factor into how the search engines measure authority and quality.

In fact, Duane Forrester, former senior product manager at Bing noted back in 2016 that Bing had already.

4. Optimize your content for voice search

Images aren’t the only places you can squeeze out more SEO value.

With the advancement of Siri, Google Assistant, and other smart AI systems, voice search has become increasingly common among mobile users.

In fact, as many as 40% of online adults use voice search at least once per day.

Some estimates are putting voice search at over one billion queries a month, and more than 50 million voice-activated devices were in circulation as of January 2018.

Conclusion

SEO has a basic premise: build links and authority to rank in SERPs.

But with ever-changing algorithms, competing data, and hundreds of tools, strategies, and approaches, it’s easy to see how an SEO can get lost in the to-do lists.

I’m getting a headache just thinking about it.

Since SEO has a significant impact on business revenue, digital marketers can’t afford to overlook any strategies that provide added SEO value.

Optimize your image sizes to boost page speeds. Resize them as needed.

Add descriptive image file names to your images so that Google ranks them for keywords, too.

Use linkless mentions to build your ranking value.

Finally, be sure to optimize your site for voice search.

Though some of these hacks may seem deceptively simple, their combined value can have a profound effect on your overall rankings.