To make it in the world of online marketing, you are going to need to stay ahead of the curve and your competition. This means knowing the best ways to rank in the search results while also keeping an eye on how Google is ranking some sites over others.
A good example of this would be if you had to choice between choosing to market your site through SEO or paid advertising in 2016. The concept of SEO has been consistent over the years, but has changed heavily on what works and what doesn’t. On the flip side, if you are going to focus on paid advertising, it doesn’t matter what’s worked in the past for ranking sites — you simply just need to find a third-party advertising company or start buying paid cost-per-click advertising through Google.
No matter what method you choose, content is still going to play an important part in the process — whether for SEO rankings or call-to-actions on a landing page. There are millions of ways to attract new audiences to your site, but keeping an eye on what’s working best in demographic targeting, increasing conversions and SEO will help you earn your visitors from Google in the long run.
SEO: Basics that Still Work Today
To recap on some of the most basic, yet effective ways to increase traffic, search rankings and conversions, make sure you to have the follow methods implemented into your sites.
- Provide the Important Site Data Google Wants to See
If you are inputting your content into WordPress or the like, there are a bunch of different regions just begging to be filled out. These include the Metadescription, Tags, Topics, and various other details. Lots of rookies blow over these regions, thinking them unimportant, or just not thinking about them at all. Problem is, these are some of the best ways to attract Google’s roving band of search algorithms. In many ways, these regions are the shorthand by which search giants quickly skim your material, looking for the most convenient and relevant material for their customers. - Create Eye-Catching Titles that Grab Attention
Great titles are attractive to search. Make a title that is provocative to real live persons like yourself. Make sure also that it includes relevant search terms, two at least. Entertainment and link bait sites like BuzzFeed not only have a ton of social shares and media buying sending traffic to their site… they also know rank very well in Google too! - Make Your First Paragraph the Meat of Your Content
While every well-constructed article should contain relevant search terms throughout, it’s most effective to have them near the beginning. This is because Google, again, skims your content. Relevant content, in the view of search algorithms, is content that has its clients’ answers right at the beginning of the content. If your search terms are buried beneath piles of introductory paragraphs, the search bots might not even read far enough to find the key points. The common saying “Keep it simple stupid” can definitely apply here. - Use Relevant Links within Your Content
Links are your friend. A great way to rank previously posted content from your site is to internally link back to them in new articles. Whether your content is new or old, you should reference them whenever and wherever possible as long as it provides value. You also want to put links in prominent places that are not your own. Make alliances with other bloggers and content creators. Link their stuff on your site and get them to do the same for you. The more exposure you can build for yourself around the web, the more chance you’ll have at earning new unique views and improved site rankings.
In most cases, you’ve probably seen and heard of the methods before — however, that doesn’t mean that you should forget about them! Hopefully this article has reminded you about some of the most basic and still effective ways to improve both your on-site and off-site SEO.
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