How to improve your SEO

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization.

When you built your website, you likely designed it with your users in mind, trying to make it easy for them to find and explore your content. One of those users is a search engine, which helps people discover your content.

Key best practices

While there are many things you can do to improve your site's SEO, there are a few core practices that can have the most impact on your web content's ranking and appearance on search engines:

• Create helpful, reliable, people-first content.
• Use words that people would use to find your content, and place those words in prominent locations on the page, such as the title and main heading, and other descriptive locations, such as alt text and link text.
• Make your links crawlable so that search engines can find other pages on your site via the links on your page.
• Tell people about your site. Be active in communities where you can tell like-minded people about your services and products that you mention on your site.
• If you have other content, such as images, videos, structured data, and JavaScript, make sure you're following those specific best practices so that we can understand those parts of your page too.
• Enhance how your site appears on search engines by enabling features that make sense for your site.
• If you have content that shouldn't be found in search results or you want to opt out entirely, use the appropriate method for controlling how your content appears in search engines.

Every change you make will take some time to be reflected on the search engines' end. Some changes might take effect in a few hours, others could take several months. In general, you likely want to wait a few weeks to assess whether your work had beneficial effects in search engine results.

Keep in mind that not all changes you make to your website will have a noticeable impact on search results; if you're not satisfied with your results and your business strategies allow it, try iterating with the changes and see if they make a difference.

Evaluating your own content against these questions can help you gauge whether it is helpful and reliable. Beyond asking yourself these questions, consider having others you trust who are unaffiliated with your site provide an honest assessment.

Also, consider an audit of the drops you may have experienced. What pages were most impacted and for what types of searches? Look closely at these to understand how they're assessed against some of the questions outlined here.

Content and quality questions

• Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis?
• Does the content provide a substantial, complete, or comprehensive topic description?
• Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information beyond the obvious?
• If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid copying or rewriting those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
• Does the main heading or page title provide a descriptive, helpful content summary?
• Does the main heading or page title avoid exaggerating or being shocking?
• Is this the sort of page you'd want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Would you expect to see this content in or referenced by a printed magazine, encyclopedia, or book?
• Does the content provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
• Does the content have any spelling or stylistic issues?
• Is the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don't get as much attention or care?

It's not always easy to know what's working and what isn't. In such cases, implementing A/B tests is essential. Experiment with various elements such as headlines, color schemes, copywriting styles, layouts, and calls to action (CTAs) to identify what resonates best with your audience. Embrace creativity in your experiments. Consider testing completely new CTA formats or reworking your copy structure.

Users don't convert if they don't trust you or experience friction in the process. So, how can you increase trust?

Several tactics can be used, such as updating your site content regularly, avoiding spammy links, and making the site easy to use. If it seems that you haven't posted a blog in two years or there are many broken links, that's friction, and it fosters distrust.

Additionally, you can include team bios to inform your audience about who is providing the information.

Have you ever ordered something at a restaurant that looked completely different from what you imagined when it arrived?

You don't want this to happen when people click on your links. To avoid this, include images and videos of the products or services you're promoting on your pages. Multimedia elements make your site feel more trustworthy. Plus, it's the preferred way to consume content.

A pivotal element in driving conversions is the strategic implementation of your call-to-action (CTA).

To maximize their effectiveness, it's essential to position CTAs thoughtfully across your website. This often involves placing them in prominent, easily accessible locations.

Typically, a page focuses on a single CTA, but this can be presented multiple times to reinforce the message. For instance, a blog post might feature the same CTA in the introduction, midway through the content, and at the conclusion. This repetition ensures that users encounter the CTA regardless of how far they scroll.

Positioning CTAs "above the fold"—the area visible without scrolling—can capture immediate attention, especially for straightforward offers. However, placing CTAs after providing sufficient context can be more effective for more complex propositions.

Moreover, it is crucial to ensure that CTAs are clear, compelling, and aligned with user expectations. Utilizing action-oriented language and highlighting the benefits can enhance their impact.

A huge obstacle to mobile conversion is page speed, which refers to the time it takes for your content to appear on the screen.

Did you know that 40% of people abandon sites that take more than 3 seconds to load(new window)?

On mobile specifically, a one-second delay in page response can lead to a 7% reduction in conversions.

If your mobile page isn't converting as well, evaluate your page speed using Google's PageSpeed tools(new window). This will assess your mobile page speed(new window). To enhance your page speed, images need to be smaller and compressed. Additionally, your site should be responsive and optimized for mobile.