13 Tips to Improve Search Engine Rankings

By Maurice Ondoy

Search engines are looking for the right combination of qualifications in order to give them first page rankings and we’re here to show to how to achieve that.

Tip 1.

What’s most important is that you write your posts specifically for the audience that you are targeting. While doing this it’s important to be mindful that you don’t compromise what the search engine algorithms need in order to find your content. What’s the point of having great SEO rankings if the content that you are writing doesn’t convert, right?

Tip 2.

Previously, keyword density had been a major factor that dictated whether your content would be able to reach the first page of search engines. Now, search engines such as Google, Bing  or Yahoo favor a specific density that differ from each other. Yes, it is significant to utilize keywords that are relevant to what your content is all about, however, keep in mind that you have to use those keywords naturally. Putting excessive keywords into sentences or paragraphs where they do not really belong is no good. It harms content entirely actually. Thus, in order for you to perfectly use this strategy, use the keywords and forget about the detailed predefined ratio.

Tip 3.

Utilize grammatical variations, synonyms as well as related keywords. Search engines such as Google use LSI or Latex Semantic Indexing to match the intentions of the individual doing the search from its search results. Using these three will give your content more relevance without using excess keywords. Moreover, this is also a very effective strategy to target different search queries.

Tip 4.

Write content that is top-quality, in-depth as well as long. Usually, results that are on the first ranking page of Google contain 2,000 words on average. Also, articles that get shared frequently are ones that are in-depth , so, write content that will provide real insight. Do not write longer content for the sake of just writing a long post, because it won’t help. Write longer because you have have expertise in the given subject and are able to go in depth while still keeping things concise.

Tip 5.

Utilize Long Tail strategy. Ranking “fat” and “big” keywords in search engines requires huge effort. Thus, long tail phrases have smaller search volumes and will also result in higher quality traffic to your website because the visitors are more motivated.

Tip 6.

Answer your prospects questions. Prospects will type questions into search engines if they want to know more about your products and services. Providing answers to all of their possible questions ahead of time will give your content more credibility, and in return, generate more visits to your site. Providing your prospects with better answers will help you win the competition, meaning they will buy from you. Also, answering questions is one great way of taking advantage of the long tail.

Tip 7.

Make sure that your content get noticed and they’re shared. Traffic and links are what you get when your content gets shared, and the more traffic you get, the more popular and relevant it will seem to search engines such as Google. Make an effort to get your content noticed — – via relevant blogs, forums, newsletters, influencers and social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn among others.

Tip 8.

Set up your Google + profile, add your authorship markup, form your content ownership, build AuthorRank, be active. Following these steps will help boost the authority of the content that you produce — – regardless of where they get posted.

Tip 9.

Do not forget title tags and snippets. In categorizing individual web pages, Google looks at the title tag. Furthermore, in the SERPs, “snippet” (Meta description) and title tag combination is what your prospects will be going to see. Including keywords and making natural tag and snippet combinations will motivate your prospects to click. CTR, or Click-through Rate, is definitely a ranking factor and the more clicks that you get from the SERPs, the better the outcome.

Tip 10.

Never engage in Keyword Stuffing. Use keywords where they might appear natural. As mentioned above, keyword stuffing does more damage than help when it comes to helping you rank up on Google. Make your content appear natural as much as possible.

Tip 11.

Link text over optimization is a no-no. This used to be an effective technique in improving rankings, but Google has become aware of these “link schemes” and they will penalize you if you do this. Keep it natural with naked URLs, long tail phrases and branded URLs.

Tip 12.

Keep in mind the ALT text in your images. Today, images seem to play a bigger role in helping your content or website in general rank up on search engines. A great idea is to use original but relevant images, and include keywords in its ALT text. Use the copy from the title tag as your image’s ALT text. For Google to be able to “read” it, keep it snappy and short. Furthermore, including a keyword that is relevant to the image is also a good idea.

Tip 13.

For inspiration purposes, utilize Google Suggest and ubersuggest.com to find and combine additional keywords, and Google trends to see changes in the search behavior as well as its seasonal spikes.