It’s safe to assume that those who want more from their search engine optimization (SEO) campaign consider the most important SEO ranking factors. Admittedly, well-optimized sites get more traffic and therefore more leads and sales.
However, without SEO, people won’t find your site, and all your efforts will be for nothing. To ensure you get the most out of your SEO campaign, using advanced techniques can help. Below are some of the advanced SEO strategies you should look into this 2020:
Reoptimize your old content
At least 50% of businesses use content marketing and most have content that’s a few years old. Underperforming and old content can be likened to a bike with a flat tire. While it’s there, you can’t use it. Optimizing content that’s receiving low conversions and traffic can help ensure your business makes the most of said content.
You can use several strategies to find old content and reoptimize them. Some of the approaches you can use include:
- Viewing conversion data or organic traffic in Google Analytics for pages
- Assessing traffic and keyword rankings in Ahrefs for pages
- Checking click data and impression in Google Search Console for pages
You can also quickly narrow down pages to focus on by using the following requirements:
- Content is at least six months old
- Content has a previous track record for driving substantial conversions or traffic
- Content is related to company products or services
Once you have identified the pages you need to reoptimize, do a quick audit. Look for wins such as keyword insertions, internal linking, title tag updates, and more.
Depending on the content’s age, you might need to make more in-depth updates like adding or rewriting content to ensure it ranks in the search results.
Cultivate an internal linking process
Regardless of your website’s size, you must have a smart internal linking process for SEO. So, why do you need to develop an internal linking process? In some ways, a crawler is synonymous to a robot vacuum. When a crawler roams your website and indexes your pages, a page with zero internal links can stop it dead in its tracks.
It is important to remember that when it comes to SEO, businesses rely on robots to crawl and index their sites. If it does not happen, the website won’t appear in the search results. This means it won’t earn organic traffic, clicks, leads, sales, revenue, or anything else you hope to get from SEO.
Developing an internal linking strategy for your site can also help you:
- Show the relation between pages
- Demonstrate the value or relevance of newer or older pages
- Pass “link juice” from high-authority pages to lower authority pages
- Improve the page rankings
For SEO purposes, consider using anchor text that includes the core or related keywords to provide both the users and crawlers a better idea of where a specific link will take them. It is also essential to remember not to force your keywords. If there’s another phrase or word that makes better sense, use it as the anchor text.
Boost page speed
Most people want a fast online experience and Google is up to the challenge. It’s no coincidence that Google uses page speed as one of its ranking factors since most people are unwilling to wait for a long time for pages to load.
Studies reveal that people expect websites to load in two seconds or less. If your site does not meet that benchmark, you will find it challenging to compete in competitive search results. Even if your website attracts traffic using alternate channels (i.e., paid ads or social media), providing a fast experience is still critical.
Your inability to provide a fast experience can cause people to leave your site. Even worse, it can prompt them to visit a competitor’s website. Unfortunately, it is widespread for brands and businesses to overlook the massive impact of page speed.
Here’s an interesting statistic highlighting the importance of page speed: increasing your site’s speed by just a second can boost conversions by as much as seven percent! To significantly improve your site’s page speed, you’ll need a developer or maybe a designer’s help and expertise.
To make the experience even more seamless, it would help if you have someone on your team with technical SEO experience. They can usually give actionable recommendations that can help your design and development team. If you don’t have an in-house developer, consider using page speed optimization services.
Get rid of thin content
Nobody likes thin content. While it provides what you need initially, it does not offer enough of what you need. That’s the reason businesses need to get rid of them.
Here are a few examples of thin content you need to get rid of:
- Pages with 250 words or less
- Doorway pages
- Duplicate content
- Affiliate pages
While Google does not penalize sites with thin content, it looks at the site differently. For instance, rather than seeing the site as a superb hub of valuable information, Google sees it as a site littered with useless content with no value. It’s safe to say it impacts Google’s perception of the website.
To remove thin content from your site, use the following steps:
- Audit your site content
- Compile all the thin content into a document
- Review the content you’ve compiled
- Choose your course of action (update the content or delete it)
When deleting thin content, you must redirect it. If you delete the content without a redirect, users can still find the page. However, instead of the content, they’ll get a 404 notice. A redirect also helps warrant that you can always use that page to your advantage and provide your visitors with more valuable content.
Add schema markup to relevant pages
A site’s appearance in the search results can result in a scroll or click. This is the reason schema markup is used. Schema markup (also known as structured data) can influence the site’s appearance in the search results.
Common examples of schema markup include:
- Dates
- Events
- Recipes
- Ratings
- FAQs
With schema markup, websites provide users with additional information about a specific page. It also provides Google valuable data to share, use, or highlight in the search results.
If you are considering using this advanced SEO strategy, start by choosing the best pages for it. Don’t add structured data to pages that won’t benefit from it. For instance, a how-to post wouldn’t use schema markup for ratings or reviews. A service or product page, however, can benefit from this type of schema markup.
Conclusion
While every SEO strategy is different, the advanced SEO techniques above can help take your campaign from meh to magic in no time. So don’t shy away from trying one (or all) and power your way to Google’s top spot effortlessly.
The post Advanced SEO Strategies You Should Implement in 2020 appeared first on Breakline Agency.
