Since the dawn of search engines, content marketing and optimisation have seen many changes. As Google has evolved to better analyse material, simple tactics like keyword stuffing have become obsolete. In 2019, these are the top four strategies for improving your site’s visibility in Google search results.
Marketers should use more discretion when choosing material for their campaigns.
Four areas where optimisation may be particularly useful in 2023
1. Optimising Content
Any action taken to enhance the quality of a page’s content is considered an optimisation. These alterations facilitate comprehension by both visitors and search engines.
Respond according to user goals
Google’s capacity to understand and respond to user intent is continually improving. It’s no more a question of who has the best material, but rather who has the best content that answers a user’s questions. Examine the search engine results page (SERP), its elements, and the paid advertising for clues as to the most likely objective.
Completely address the concerns raised by a search query
Google has become a go-to resource for people seeking information. The keywords people employ don’t always reveal what inquiries they have. However, they are included in the search results under the “People also ask” (PAA) heading.
Optimalization, Technical
Anything that improves a website’s chances of being successfully crawled and indexed by search engines falls under the purview of technical optimisation. Technical improvements that boost a site’s search engine rankings are also included.
Make sure that robots.txt can access the site
If a search engine is unable to crawl your page, it is quite improbable that it will be indexed. Pages that aren’t in their index can still be ranked in the same way.
Sitemaps should always contain the URL
Sitemaps are files that tell search engines about your site’s pages and make it easier for them to crawl your site. If you include it in a sitemap, it will be easier to find.
Do not employ a deep site architecture
Keep the average number of clicks per page to no more than four. Web pages further down the directory tree are less accessible to both humans and search engines. As a result, these pages experience less traffic and are more likely not to get indexed. Screaming Frog Spider can assist find these pages.
Enhancing the user experience (UX)
User experience (UX) optimisation focuses on enhancing the content’s reception. Since slow-loading pages detract from the overall experience, they can be considered a UX element. But since we’ve discussed that already, let’s move on to other possibilities.
Meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
It’s a good idea to check if WCAG standards are met by the information on your site. Web developers can use these standards as a guide to make their sites more accessible for persons with physical impairments. One of these methods is including textual descriptions of images within “image alt text” tags for the benefit of the visually handicapped.
Make use of headers to sort your data
Headers and subheaders not only help users browse, but they also help you organise your material. In addition, they help search engines comprehend what a page is about.
Optimizing Metadata
Metadata is generally less significant than it once was. However, there is room for improvement in a few key areas.
Ensure search engine friendliness by tweaking title tags
Google’s ability to interpret a page’s content relies heavily on its title tags. It’s a search visitor’s initial experience of your site, so make sure to get this correctly.
Google only shows 600 pixels of a page’s title, which is roughly 50 to 60 characters. Prioritize the placement of your most crucial keywords without sacrificing human readability.
Make sure your meta descriptions are engaging
Although meta descriptions do not affect search engine rankings, a well-written one can significantly boost your click-through rate. Provide them with an incentive to do so.
The call to action in this explanation is clear. Why? Simply put, they want to know more about the “important other half.” The FOMO fear is time-tested and may be used to your advantage.
Use schema markup when it makes sense to
Schema markup is not a ranking factor for pages. But everything you can do to improve Google’s ability to decipher your content will help. Including schema markup code on your website allows search engines to provide users with more relevant results.
That enhanced search experience, can bring considerably more relevant traffic than a plain SERP entry. As an example, consider this one.
There are approximately 600 distinct schema, but only a small subset of those are relevant to most content marketers. Organization, Product, Bread Crumbs, Article, Video, Event, Recipe, and Frequently Asked Questions Page are all examples. Yoast SEO, a plugin for WordPress, is recommended because it helps with several schema.
Conclusion
As Google’s search engines become more advanced, so do the possibilities for enhancing existing information. Page optimisation can be broken down into these four broad categories. If you want to maximise your results, you should apply the Pareto principle and concentrate your efforts where they will have the greatest impact.