10 Smart Google SEO Tips for 2021
With every passing day SEO becomes even more important. This article contains a small summary of tips that can significantly boost the ranking of your website.
1. Ensure Your Content Is Created Around a Primary Keyword and Relevant Secondary Keywords
Researching keywords for your content not only helps to develop the framework of your piece; it also enables you to understand what your audience wants to read. Understanding what keywords are best for your target audience and content type can help you build a content strategy to boost SEO.
Google-friendly writing is dependent on demonstrating a balance between keywords and everyday language. This means that your content should be written in such a way that it flows naturally. Keywords should naturally come up in your content so that you don’t have to stuff your content at the last minute. One way to do this is by identifying semantically related keywords to your primary keyword target.
Many tools out there have an option where you can look up related keywords to your primary keyword. You can see how closely related a keyword is and its search volume to help you identify whether it is something you’ll want to add to your content.
2. Diversify Your Backlink Portfolio
Even if you follow all of the tips related to on-page technical SEO, it still won’t guarantee to make the front page of Google. A big part of SEO deals with backlinks and whether you’re generating backlinks from high-authority sites.
Backlink diversity come can come from two sources, specifically:
The type of backlink: Generally, your backlink will be a dofollow or nofollow, with a dofollow carrying more weight.
A site where the backlink originates: If you’re promoting your content, for instance, and targeting publishers to run a story, the site that links back to your content would be the source of your backlink.
A diverse backlink portfolio signals to Google that your site is an authoritative source and that you’re generating links in a natural way versus relying on outdated black hat or other spam tactics.
Need help finding the right backlinks? The right backlink tools can identify your referring domains and total backlinks. The right tools can offer the ability to compare competing URLs to get a sense of where there might be an opportunity.
3. Use Effective Header Tags to Target Google Featured Snippets
When developing content, you want to be mindful of how you structure your content on the page. Every page should have content organized logically, with the most important information at the top of the page. In fact, studies have found that 80% of readers spend most of their time looking at the content at the top of the page.
However, Google doesn’t necessarily index context solely on what’s at the top of the page. They look at the article as a whole to see whether it’s comprehensive, so with that in mind, you’ll need to put some thought into how your page is laid out.
To get the most out of the keywords you’re targeting, consider adding jump links to the top of your page. This not only makes for a more enjoyable user experience, but it also allows you to use your header tags in more creative ways to go after Google.
4. Use Clean URLs and Meta Descriptions
Your URL and meta description are key factors in helping Google understand what your content is about. Although there is no hard and fast rule about the length of either of these to improve your rankings, the goal should be to make them both as concise and clear as possible while including your target keywords.
Below are some best practices for keeping your URL and meta description as clean as possible:
Use a consistent structure that keeps future posts in mind: Whether you’re organizing specific content to one area of your site or creating similar content down the road, you’ll want to keep your URL and meta description structure somewhat similar for related content.
Avoid superfluous language: For both, avoid fluffy language. Each should be short and to the point.
Make them keyword-rich: Again, be sure that your URL and meta description include the keyword or keywords you’re targeting.
5. Decrease Load Times on Top-Performing Pages
Slow loading times are one of the primary causes of high bounce rates. According to Google, “speed equals revenue,” which essentially means that slow loading times increase the odds that your site visitors are going to leave your website page. For this reason, your SEO ranking is dependent on the speed of your website.
An auditing tool can be a valuable resource to gain an understanding of your website’s speed. With a page speed auditing tool, you can learn about what might be slowing your website down and how you can better address that. It can also scan for common SEO mistakes so that you can improve your website content for an SEO boost.
6. Numbers in titles
A study recently showing that dates added to titles increased rankings for a particular brand. Numbers are generally one thing that we always test in title tags that usually produce pretty consistent results. Specifically, dates in title tags are often a winner.
Don’t be spammy about it. Don’t include it if it doesn’t make sense and don’t fake it. But if you can include a number, it will often increase your click-through rate for any given query.
7. Increase internal linking
Now a lot of top SEO agencies, when they need to quickly increase rankings for clients, there are generally two things that they know are the easiest levers to pull. First, title tags and meta descriptions, what’s getting more clicks, but second is increasing the internal linking.
You know that you can increase internal links on your site, and there are probably some opportunities there that you just haven’t explored. So explore what opportunities you have when it comes to linking internally.
8. Update old content with new links
This is a step that we see people skip time and time again. When you publish a new blog post, publish a new piece of content, make sure you’re going back and updating your old content with those new links.
So you’re looking at the top keyword that you want to rank for, and going in Google Search Console or checking tools like Keyword Explorer to see what other pages on your site rank for that keyword, and then adding links to the new content to those pages. When you do this, time and time again, it lowers the bounce rate. So you’re not only updating your old page with fresh content and fresh links and adding relevance. You’re adding links to your new content. So make sure, when you publish new content, you’re updating your old content with those new links.
9. Invest in long-form content
You need you to invest in long-form content. Now we are not saying that content length is a ranking factor. It is not. Short-form content can rank perfectly well. The reason we want you to invest in long-form content is because consistently, time and time again, when we study this, long-form content earns more links and shares.
It also generally tends to rank higher in Google search results. Nothing against short-form content. Love short-form content. But long-form content generally gives you more bang for your buck in terms of SEO ranking potential.
10. Use more headers
Break up your content with good, keyword-rich header tags. Why? Well, there is research that shows that the more header tags you have, generally you rank for more featured snippets. Sites with 12–13 headers which seems like a lot of header tags, rank for the most featured snippets of anything that they looked at in their most recent study.
So make sure you’re breaking up your content with header tags. It adds a little contextual relevance. It’s a great way to add some ranking potential to your content.
Conclusion
These tips will help you get the hang of your SEO and will help you come out on top for 2021. Try them out or book a free call with The Digital Cauldron to help you cruise down the SEO highway.
