When making an online search, how often do you go to the second results page? Many of us would say rarely, if ever.
According to Hubspot, 75% of people making searches never look past the initial page.
In an age overrun with content, it’s getting increasingly more difficult to meet that standard.
That’s where SEO comes in.
SEO, meaning search engine optimization, includes methods to boost your website and improve your rankings. Learn about some of the top SEO methods to help you accomplish this.
1. Think About the Search Intent
When potential customers make a search, they have a specific reason in mind. Some people want to research a product they hope to buy, while others want to learn about a related topic. Knowing the search intent will help you target your language better.
There are four types of search intent: informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional. Informational is just that. People are looking for an answer to a specific question. These searches are about what the weather will be like or a word in a different language.
Navigational is when the user is looking for a specific location online. This would be someone searching your business’s name to find your website. Those are pretty straightforward. The commercial begins to get into market-based searches.
Commercial searches are when a person will potentially buy a product but want to research their choices first. With these, the results page will see keywords like “the best” or “top products”. The last intent is transactional. This is when a person knows what they want and are looking to buy.
Keep the intent in mind when you're trying to make your pages for the greatest optimization. If you are targeting your page to viewers who haven’t made up their minds about purchasing, you will use different language than you would for people who know what they want.
2. Have an effective headline and description
Another way to get your web pages noticed is through title tags and meta descriptions.
Title tags are the headlines, typically the first thing people see about a page. Google describes them as “the primary piece of information used to decide which results to click on.”
Headlines should be an original description of the page in 60 characters or less, or else they won’t be entirely visible. They should be informative and contain keywords, but don’t overdo it. You should also keep in mind the search intent when creating them.
Under the title tag, there is the meta description. A meta description is a one—to two-sentence summary. Some describe it as a sales pitch to get users to visit your page.
This can be up to 160 characters and should be different for every page you have. Like the headline, don’t keyword stuff the meta description. Too many keywords can seem tacky and unauthentic.
3. Incorporate Image Optimization
Optimizing your images can improve your SEO and the user experience.
The simplest way to optimize your images is through the file types. The files you use can impact the loading speed and quality of the images.
When it comes to photographs, JPG is the way to go. However, for drawings and text, PNG ensures the best quality.
Recently, Google created the WebP file type, which is the best version of both JPG and PNG. However, other browsers, like Firefox and Safari don't support it.
The next optimization method is image compression. Larger files take longer to load, so compressing them makes your site faster and more efficient. TinyPNG and ImageOptim are two tools that can be used to compress images.
Another is the alt text that is attached to the images. The text allows you to provide context for your images to help search engines better recognize them. You can do this by providing keywords.
Be careful not to keyword stuff because the Google algorithm might mistakenly read this as spam.
Lastly, you can install plugins to lazy load your images. Lazy loading is when your images load as the viewer needs to see them on the page and not when the page is opened. This stops all the images from loading at once and slows down the loading speed.
4. Increase Your Page Speed
Google has created a software called PageSpeed Insights that tells you how to optimize your speed better. But you can start optimizing it yourself by compressing your images, disabling plugins you’re not using, and decreasing how much you include redirects on the page.
5. Take Advantage of Internal Linking
Internal linking is when you provide a link to another part of your website for the user to be redirected. By including internal links, you’re giving your site structure. Search engines favor websites with more internal links, and it can increase your ranking on the SERPs.
SEO is a broad topic that continually changes over time. As algorithms get smarter, companies must adapt to how they use SEO and create content. But these simple tips can help you gain headway in the digital marketing world.