Living in an era of digital marketing, video and content marketing, the need to stay up-to-date with the current market, and the need to stand out from your competitors is now imminent more than ever. You've probably been hearing a lot about SEO and the power it can endow you with as a business owner. Whether you're creating a brand new site or revamping your content strategy, adopting certain SEO techniques is vital if you want to attract as many relevant clicks and potential customers as possible.

What is SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the practice used by businesses to expand the number of high quality users visiting their website, and to boost traffic volume originating from organic search engine results. Unlike paid advertising, SEO will help you gain traffic without paying Google. Featuring on the first page of Google is every business' dream, and by following certain SEO procedures, you can start gaining rank in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

How does Google decide which websites to feature first?

Millions of websites swarm Google in this time and age. How does it sort out through all the possible results? Who are the lucky ones awarded a position on the first page? Using a crawler, Google gathers all the data on the web, creates an index with this data, and then transfers it to its complicated set of algorithms. These will in turn filter relevant content to provide the most relevant results for each query. Once you acknowledge what these algorithms scan, you have a higher chance of improving your ranking on the SERPs, and thus attract new potential customers.

Which are the most crucial factors which will improve your SEO?

1. Content:

• High-quality content: Write evergreen content based on keyword research. What are users searching for? What's the search volume? How difficult is it to rank for a particular keyword phrase?
• Long, in-depth content: You'll increase your chances of providing relevant points and targeting different users.
• Unique content pages: Google filters out duplicate content which doesn't offer unique insights and true value.
• Video content: The demand for videos has skyrocketed in this time and age, with Youtube becoming the second largest search engine, and videos getting integrated in SERPs.
• Visual content: Embedding images in your content will make it more shareable.
• Optimised images and videos: This will boost page speed.
• Fresh content: Since Google's top priority is delivering relevant results, frequently-updated sites and pages which feature current events and continuous engagement will be given preference by Google.

2. Keywords:

• Ranking for the relevant keywords: Google wants to deliver the most relevant content for each search. If your site is coming up in irrelevant SERPs, Google will realise that people are not spending too much time on your page (short dwell time) and are returning to the SERP after visiting your site, and will drop your ranking. Make sure you target the most relevant search queries.
• Attractive title tags and meta descriptions: Display the right information within the recommended length to attract more relevant clicks. The higher the CTR (Click Through Rate) the more traffic your site will benefit from.
• Keyword insertion: Insert relevant keywords in the title tag, URL, meta description, image alt text and in the H1s, H2s and H3s. Do beware of keyword stuffing though.

3. Links:

• Backlinks: The more the better.
• Internal and external links: Both quality and quantity of links is important, but steer away from manipulative links.
• Descriptive anchor text: This increases the relevance of the links.

4. Backend:

• A crawlable website: Can the crawling bots access your site? Is the content readable? If Google encounters frequent crawling errors with your site, it will drop your ranking.
• Multi-device compatibility: A website which is optimised for multiple devices will generate higher satisfaction and engagement.
• Mobile-friendly website: With 60% of searches generated from a mobile phone, Google has started indexing mobile sites before desktop sites.
• Fast page speed: The faster your whole site uploads, the lower the chances the user will click the back button.
• Voice search optimisation: Voice searches are gaining ground rapidly. If your website is in the top 3 search results, in a featured snippet and has a Q&A content format, the higher the probability of featuring in a voice search result.

5. Design:

• Organised layout: A structured website with H1s, H2s and H3s is more understandable by Google and will generate more traffic since it would be easier to read.

6. Reputation:

• E-A-T: How does your website rank in expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness? Your website reputation plays a role in how Google ranks it.

7. Social:

• Social media shares: Sharing content on mediums such as Facebook and Instagram will help generate more clicks and engagement, affecting its ranking on Google.
• Enabling blog comments: These will boost engagement and show Google you have an active audience following your webpage.

How can Yellow help your business?

Search engine algorithms are constantly evolving and updating in a bid to provide more refined searches to its users. Keeping your website up-to-date with the algorithm revisions is no easy feat and you can lose rank as swiftly as you gained it.

Why not entrust Yellow with your online marketing strategies and with your digital transformation? As a leading expert in SEO techniques, we have the necessary tools and a team of qualified people to help you give your website the SEO boost it needs to gain rank and organic traffic on Google. By optimising your webpages we will help your business become more visible in Google's result pages.

Get in touch with us today to benefit from one of our holistic packages which will up your SEO game.

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