Top 10 SEO Tips to Drive Growth to your New Website

If you have just launched a new website, it is going to take time for it to become established on the internet and start attracting visitors. However, there are quite a few things you can do to speed up this process, helping your site get better search engine rankings and more traffic much sooner. Here are 10 SEO tips specifically chosen with new websites in mind.

1. Target low competition keywords at the outset

When you first launch your site, it will have a very low authority on Google, and this means it will rank less well than established competitors for high competition keywords. Whilst there is nothing to stop you from targeting those keywords, the quickest way to generate new traffic to your site is to target those keywords which are less competitive.

You can check how competitive a keyword is by using Google’s Keyword Planner. This will show you whether competition for a term is high, medium or low. Finding keywords that are less competitive gives you more of a chance of ranking for them and getting the traffic that they send. If you only target highly competitive keywords, you may not rank at all and thus get no organic traffic in the early days. This method is a good technique to use whilst your site builds up authority.

2. Always put your main keyword in your page title tag

How to Craft the Perfect SEO Title Tag (Our 4-Step Process)

Title tags and other meta information are used by search engines to determine the subject matter of each page or post on your website. It’s absolutely crucial, therefore, that when you create your new website, that the page title tag has the most important keyword or term included. This way, when someone searches for that term, search engines will see that your page has relevant content.

There’s a definite link between keywords in the title tag and search engine rankings, so make the most of this technique. You should also make sure that you include your keyword in the page’s meta description.

3. Write titles for searchers, not searches engines

Getting ranked number one in Google does not guarantee you any traffic. You’ll only get people coming to your website if your result gets clicked on. So, when you write the title of your page or blog post, you have to write it in a way that will make the reader want to click on it. It has to grab attention and be compelling.

If you run an online store, you can maximize sales by writing titles that attract searchers who are ready to buy. To do this, simply add the word buy to your keyword, for example, ‘buy handmade chocolate. If someone includes the word ‘buy in the search term, titles like these are much more likely to get clicked on and result in a sale.

4. Make sure your title doesn’t get cut off

Space is precious in search engine results and when it comes to titles, only about the first 70 characters get shown – sometimes less for mobile devices. The length for meta descriptions is about 100 characters.

If your titles and meta descriptions are too long, they’ll get cut off midway through. This can have a negative effect on click-through rates as searchers want all the information in front of them before deciding whether to click or not.

Make sure you keep within the limits and, if possible, put your keywords near the beginning. That way, they’ll always be shown.

5. Don’t put things in the way of your content

If searchers have chosen to visit your site, they expect to find the content they have searched for as soon as they land on your page. To make sure this happens, don’t force them to scroll halfway down the page before seeing the title and don’t bombard them with adverts and pop-ups.

Google pays particular attention to what it calls ‘above the fold’ content: i.e., the content you see before scrolling. They don’t want to see browser-sized images with no text, nor do they want them full of header ads.

To rank well and to keep visitors on your site, give them what they are looking for the moment they land.

6. Optimize your images

How to Optimize Images for Web and Performance 2021

A lot of people search for products by doing an image search. If they see something they like the look of, they’ll visit the site directly from the Google’s image results. If you sell products on your website and have lots of images, you can turn these into ranking opportunities by optimising them.

All you need to do is add a description to the alt text tag, for example, <img src=“photo-of-handmade-chocolate.png” alt=“delicious homemade chocolate” />

As you can see from the example above, it can also help to change the actual image name from the number given by your camera DCSN-846368.png to something search engines can read, e.g., ‘photo-of-handmade-chocolate.png

7. Use accelerated mobile pages (AMP)

What is AMP? - The Complete Guide to Accelerated Mobile Pages

You can improve your search engine rankings by improving the speed at which your website loads. One of the best ways to do this for mobile devices is by using accelerated mobile pages. These are lightweight versions of web pages designed to load very quickly on phones.

AMP pages already rank highly in mobile searches, so don’t miss-out. 66% of our surfing is now done on mobile devices.

Another key to faster loading times is to make sure that your web host runs your website on a high-performance, fast-loading server.

8. Keep your website fresh

Search engines like to promote websites that are regularly updated with new or refreshed content. If you’ve got a new website, you won’t have anything that needs updating straight away, but it can be a big help, SEO-wise, to add new content to it regularly.

One of the best ways to do this is by adding a weekly or bi-weekly blog post. The sooner you begin to develop a blog, the better it can be for your ranking. And remember, your blog post can be used to send people to your products.

9. Add internal links

How To Add Internal Links In WordPress Quickly

Theres a well-known phrase in SEO called a link juice and this refers to the fact that when you link from one page to another, some of the ranking power of the linking page is passed to the linked-to page.

So, if you have a page that gets lots of traffic and want other pages to rank higher, add an internal link from the high-ranking page to the pages whose ranking you want to see increased. Don’t overdo it, though: too many links will dilute the link juice.

10. Submit a sitemap to Google Search Console

How to create an XML sitemap and submit it to Google - Search Engine Watch

 

Google Search Console, formerly Google Webmaster Tools, is one of the most important sets of tools you can use to help your sites SEO. One of the things it enables you to do is upload a sitemap of your website.

When you upload a sitemap, Google will then crawl your site and index all the pages, posts, images and other content it can find. Only once these things are indexed can they be found on Google or turn up in search results. If you resubmit your sitemap every time you update your website, Google will always have up-to-date knowledge of your content.

You can open a Google Search Console account for free.

Conclusion

If you have just set up a new website, hopefully the ten tips given in this post will have shown you some of the ways to help your site start ranking in search engine results and how to get searchers to click through to your site.

SEO Basics: A Beginner’s Guide to SEO Success

Defining SEO and its best practices | Status Labs

The better your site ranks in search engine results, the more visitors you will get to your website. However, to achieve those higher rankings, you’ll need to do some Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). For many business owners, this can be a technical challenge. SEO is a big subject and one which is in constant flux due to the regular changes search engines make to their ranking criteria. It is impossible, therefore, to provide a comprehensive guide in a single article. Instead, this post will provide some simple, common sense tips to prepare you for your SEO journey.

1. All three types of SEO are required

What are the different types of SEO? (Complete Guide with Examples)

There are three main types of SEO and to effectively optimise your website, you’ll need to work on all three. These are:

  • On-page optimisation – this is essentially putting the right keywords in the right places on your pages and providing high quality content for your visitors.
  • On-site optimisation  â€“ a more technical form of SEO which requires things such as fast loading times, mobile-friendly pages, a well-structured site, easy navigation, good use of internal links and search engine-friendly URLs.
  • Off-site optimisation – improving the authority of your website and its pages by getting your content linked to on other high-ranking websites.

2. Learn from your competitors

10 Important Things You Can Learn From Your Competitors

The ultimate aim of any SEO strategy is to come top of the first page of the search engine results.  According to Smart Insights, the top ranking site gets 35% of all clickthroughs. Between them, the top five sites get 65%. Those in the positions between 6 and 21 share out most of the 35% which is left, while any website that ranks lower than that is unlikely to receive any clickthroughs at all.

If you want to be at the top of the list, then analysing the websites that achieve those positions is a good way to start. This doesn’t just mean looking at the website, it means using competitive analyses tools that go much deeper and can show you the number of backlinks a site has, how fast its pages load, where its traffic comes from, what search terms it ranks well for, etc. With high-quality information like this, it can be much easier to implement the strategies that have worked well for your more successful competitors.

3. Patience and perseverance

Overcome Frustration and Set Examples for Patience and Perseverance

Patience and perseverance are two essential requirements for those doing SEO. Patience is important because the things you implement can take some time to have an effect on your rankings. It can be weeks or months before you see the benefits. So, if you change some keywords and don’t see any improvements after 48 hours, it isn’t a sign that they have not worked and need to be changed yet again, it’s the fact that they haven’t been left long enough to have an impact.

Perseverance is equally important because SEO is an ongoing process. Search engines are always tweaking their ranking criteria and not responding to those changes can result in your website losing its hard-won position. At the same time, the search engines prefer to give their users the most up-to-date information, if your web content is old or out of date, it will eventually slide down the results page. You’ll need to regularly update your pages or add fresh content.

4. Play by the rules

Why I Don&#39;t Play by the Rules - AP LIT HELP

Search engines make it very clear about the expectations they have of website owners, as can be seen in Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Here you’ll find a list of things they expect a good website to do and a list of things they prohibit. The main aim of these guidelines is to ensure that users get the best experience from the search engine, for example, Google will not want to send its users to your site if there’s a chance their devices will get infected by a virus.

Another key element of the Webmaster Guidelines is the stipulation that website owners must ‘avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings.’ Failure to do so can result in your site receiving a penalty or manual action from Google. If these things happen, your site will disappear from Google results completely. With a manual action, you may be able to submit your site for reconsideration after you have made the necessary changes.

5. Team up with the right partners

Is Teaming Up with a Business Partner the Right Choice for You?

The complexity of SEO often means that website owners will outsource it to a third-party agency that has the tools and resources to undertake the on-site and competitor analyses and implement the necessary changes. When you do so, you need to choose a partner you can trust not to use unscrupulous black-hat SEO methods that can result in search engine penalisation. In particular, make sure that anyone offering content outreach (writing content containing a link to your website to publish on other sites) only publishes on relevant, quality sites. Creating lots of backlinks on poor ranking sites can have a long-term, negative ranking effect and lead to a penalty.

Another partner you will need to consider is your hosting provider. From an SEO perspective, you should identify a web host that can has the resources to help your site load more quickly on your visitors devices and which offers the security tools (firewalls, intrusion prevention/detection, SSL certificates, etc.) to keep visitors safe – these are both things that can help you rank higher.

Conclusion

Undertaking SEO is essential if you want your site to rank highly but there’s a learning curve to go through and so you cannot expect to achieve everything overnight. Indeed, the process is an ongoing one and will require regular monitoring and input. Hopefully, the information provided here will have given you the preparatory guidance you need before starting your SEO journey.

How to rank higher in Search Engine Optimization in 2019

7 SEO Trends That Will Matter Most in 2021

With the onward development of search engine algorithms, website owners everywhere will need to make changes in how they conduct their SEO. Today, with advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning at their disposal, search engines can better understand the intentions of a user and provide results which accurately meet their needs. In addition, the changes in how we use the internet, mobile searches, for example, are also affecting the way we optimise our sites. With these developments in mind, here we’ll look at how this will impact SEO in 2019.

Changing content to match algorithm updates

Google Algorithm Updates &amp; Changes - Absolute Digital

RankBrain is Google’s machine learning, AI-based algorithm. Although it has been around since 2015, its use of machine learning means that it is continually discovering how to produce better results. One of its key abilities is to ‘understand’ the content of a website. Rather than rely purely on things like keywords to discover whether a site was relevant to a search query, it is able to consider the entire content to give it a more in-depth understanding of the subject matter being discussed.

It does this by analysing the pages for subject-related terms and other content that help it identify the topic and purpose more precisely than ever before. For example, it can understand whether someone is searching for a web hosting product, information about web hosting or a technical web hosting knowledge base and can differentiate between these different types of content to ensure the right pages show up in the user’s result.

What does this mean for SEO? It means that rather than focus simply on putting keywords in the right places, you’ll also need to ensure your content includes information which contains all the other related terms that the algorithm will look for.

Optimizing for ‘Mobile First Indexing’

How to optimize your eCommerce store for the mobile-first index

Since the numbers of mobile searches overtook desktop searches, Google has moved its focus even further towards mobile devices. Last year, it introduced Mobile First Indexing, essentially using the mobile rather than the desktop version of your site as the one it uses to rank pages in results.

As a consequence, the focus of your SEO should now be on your mobile site. While the content may be the same on both, things to consider will include navigation, ease of use and, very importantly, loading times.

The latter will mean more webmasters using caching, CDNs, minification and image optimisation to speed up their sites, as well as a shift away from shared hosting to the much faster VPS. It will also see an increase in the number of sites using accelerated mobile pages (AMPs).

Structuring content for the way search results are displayed 

Anatomy of a Google search listing

As you may have noticed, when you type a question into Google, it is now able to produce an answer directly in the search results in the form of a knowledge graph. The knowledge graph is a detailed excerpt from a web page that is presented in a box right at the top of the search results.

Another change that Google has introduced is putting a list of related questions underneath the knowledge graph before showing the list of other ranking websites. Clicking on each of these questions produces a featured extract from other websites that answer those questions.

The rest of the top results also have features snippets which, in some way, give an answer to the question too. To get these most prized ranking positions, it means reconsidering how you present the information on your websites – such as in the form of questions and answers, lists and structured tables.

Providing search engines with structured data

The Beginner&#39;s Guide to Structured Data for SEO - Moz

Search engine have been calling for increased use of structured data markup for quite a few years and this year will see an increase in websites doing just that. The reason is simple, the more structured data you add to your HTML, the better a search engine can understand the content and structure of your site. Doing this enables the search engine to see your page’s relevance to a search query far easier and thus helps you rank for the right queries.

The other benefit of markup is that it can be used to highlight content that appears in the actual search results and which can help increase clickthrough rates – such as user ratings and meta descriptions.

Adapting to new search behaviours

COVID-19: Effect on Human Behavior | Accenture

As smartphone keyboards are an effort to use accurately and typing queries on smart speakers like Amazon Echo is impossible, more and more people are using voice search. Indeed, our fondness for it on these devices has increased the numbers of people using voice on PCs with Google Assistant and Cortana.

These types of searches have a consequence for SEO as we use different forms of language. When we speak, we use natural language, e.g., ‘find me a builder in Leeds,’ whereas with a keyboard, we’d just type ‘builder Leeds’.

This has obvious implications for websites that have heavily focused on keywords in the past. Natural speech is more likely to use longtail keywords and content which features them is likely to rank better in voice search results.

Conclusion

SEO is a dynamic process that constantly requires website owners to react to developments in search engine algorithms and to changes in the way people search the internet. Hopefully, the trends we have discussed here will help you make the right changes to your SEO strategy in the coming year, improving your rankings and increasing your organic traffic.

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