Every business wants to reach the top of the search engine rankings. They know doing so will drive traffic to their site and increase conversions and revenue. However, they may wonder which elements to focus on to optimize their website. They may focus on the technical aspects or off-page elements. If they don’t have the basics down, these techniques won’t help. Where should they start optimizing the website to see excellent results?
Webmaster Tools
Every webmaster must use tools for better website SEO. They must ensure they have the Google Search Console (GSC) or Bing Webmaster Tools to monitor their performance in search engine optimization. Without these tools, they won’t know where changes are needed and cannot submit their pages to the search engines. In addition to monitoring SEO performance and allowing submissions to the search engines, these tools identify crawl errors preventing the site from moving up in the search engine results.
Google Analytics
The web admin must also download Google Analytics to monitor site traffic and gain insights into user behavior. This tool allows the webmaster to see which pages generate the most traffic and where this traffic originates. The webmaster can view page views, bounce rates, and other valuable search performance information.
XML Sitemap and Robots.txt File
Search engines must understand a site’s structure when indexing its pages. An XML sitemap ensures they can. WordPress users find this sitemap is automatically created, but webmasters using other programs must rely on a sitemap generator tool. When the sitemap has been created, the webmaster submits it using the abovementioned tools. The robots.txt file tells the search engines which pages are crawlable.
Penalties
Search engines impose penalties if they detect hidden text, thin content, spam, or unnatural links. Check the Google Search Console regularly for penalties for detected issues. If any appear, make the necessary corrections to remove the penalty.
Competitor Keywords
Every webmaster must know what keywords its competitors are targeting. Look for keywords that competitors are ranking for that the company isn’t using and weak keywords that competitors rank higher for. Focus on correcting those omissions or gaps to increase search engine rankings.
Money Keywords
Money keywords are those keywords that drive traffic or revenue. These high-volume, high-competition words are highly relevant to the company’s core offerings. Domain Overview helps determine which keywords drive the most organic traffic based on the selected domain.
Long-Tail Keyword Variations
Use long-tail keyword variations to rank higher. These keywords have lower search volumes but lead to better conversions. In many cases, long-tail keywords are phrased as questions. Answer these questions using informational content to move up in the search engines.
Search Intent
Google will rank content that matches the search intent higher. There are four elements the search engine looks for. Navigational is when a person tries to find something, while informational is when they want more information about a topic. Transactional is for users trying to carry out a specific action, and commercial is when they request more information before purchasing. Ensure the content matches the search intent of the keyword to drive traffic and boost ratings.
Incorporating these elements into a website will help boost its ranking on the search engines. Doing so will drive traffic to the site and improve conversions. However, other steps must also be taken to ensure the site can be found by consumers and easily navigated. SEO is a complex undertaking, so business owners should consider seeking outside help to ensure they are doing everything possible to move up in the search engine rankings and bring in more traffic.