👨‍💻 Three tricks to improve your SEO

One of the first recommendations, and it applies to businesses of any size, is this: analyse the basis of the SEO strategy by asking "what are search engines trying to achieve?".

The answer, in every case, is that the organic algorithm tries to find the most relevant and useful answers to every question asked: that is, to give the user the best possible experience.

These search engines do not make any money from organic clicks, so they need to become as relevant as possible, answering visitors' questions and making people keep coming back organically, and, as a consequence, they keep a high volume of advertising revenue. And how do these sites, such as Google or Bing, determine these characteristics? The algorithm finds relevant websites by looking at three big areas.

1. Technical optimisation: can the search engine read your site, and will your visitors have a good experience on it?

In order to give the visitor a better journey through your website, and so that search engines know precisely what it is about, your technical SEO has to be solid.

Clean code, optimised images and tags, proper indexing and a sitemap are the key to Google and the rest being able to read you properly.

A decent page speed is fundamental to avoid constant interruptions: that is a real red flag! Tags on sites are not only there to be stuffed with keywords, but to let search engines understand what they contain, and what information will be given to the visitor.

This is the most basic point of Search Engine Optimization, but it will always be extremely important for building any kind of organic visibility.

2. Website content: what is the page about, and how strong and relevant is what is written there?

This has a huge influence, and that is why the days of stuffing content with keywords have long been over.

It is incredibly important to have relevant, user-friendly content on your website. Ask yourself: when you arrive at your homepage, does it really do a good job of saying exactly what your company does? Think of it as the shop window of your online store, so it should give visitors clear instructions about your business and what they can do on the website. Writing content is also crucial.

Search engines are getting smarter at recognising text that is unnatural or a manipulative duplication, and the trend is to tighten the net ever further on these cases. Instead of trying to find new ways to 'trick' search engines, focus only on writing content that is unique, attractive and useful for your audience. Tell them about your products or services, answer FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) in full, and consider all the other information you can provide that is relevant.

Ask yourself: if I am recognised in my field or market niche and I want to be at the top of the organic rankings, what content can I give that cements my position as a leader? That is not only essential for SEO; it also significantly improves your conversion rates when you focus on what is most relevant.

3. Backlink portfolio: does the rest of the industry also consider you relevant?

This is probably the most misunderstood part of Search Engine Optimization. Yes, search engines look at the links that point to your site to understand how important or popular it is for the industry, but quality over quantity is essential.

And this makes sense when we turn our focus back to relevance. As we have already said, Google and other online search tools are getting better at identifying unnatural or manipulated links, so it is worth being fully defended against any new algorithm update by focusing on earning backlinks, rather than 'planting' them.

Of course strong pieces of content such as resource centres, infographics and contemporary blogs help you earn links that point to your website, but this third pillar of SEO requires a slightly more proactive approach, integrated with other digital channels.

Increase your social media presence to share content, include infographics in your newsletter, engage with other leaders in the field through debates, interviews or partnerships. If number 2 is about content, number 3 is very much about content marketing.

Finishing with another note on backlinks: make sure internal links make sense for the funnel and point to the right pages, and that any broken page that receives links is properly redirected. Help search engines understand why and where your business is relevant.

If you need help improving your SEO get in touch!