“The best life hack of all is to put the work in and never give up.” — Bas Rutten, UFC Heavyweight Champion.
(Of course, a little ground-and-pound probably wouldn’t hurt!)
For businesses on the never ending quest for the best SEO practices, Rutten’s advice hits the mark. To boost your site in rankings, to have a solid presence in SERPs, put in the work and don’t give up.
It is often the high-caliber hacks that require the most work. This includes keeping up with trends, understanding the effects of the latest Google algorithm and the all encompassing Google mantra: “Make your website relevant.”
If your website’s onsite SEO practices are lacking, the performance and rankings of your business may suffer.
To ensure the best SEO results possible, consider these 7 hard-work hacks:
- Review your site navigation
- Create a map — it helps with navigation
- Use schema to create rich snippets
- Focus on site speed — understand why it’s more important than ever
- Optimize for local search
- Learn a new language
- Some of the best SEO tactics are “anti-hacks”
Site Navigation
Navigation is defined as the process or activity of accurately ascertaining one’s position and planning and following a route. Now think about your website.
Does your site follow this definition?
Can a user “ascertain” their location throughout your site and follow a logical route? Have someone who is not familiar with the website click around. If they answer no to the above question, this is your first SEO hack. You need to start here.
Why do you need to start here?
If a potential customer can’t navigate your site with ease, two things are happening. First, you’re losing customers. Second, Google bots have difficulty finding your website content.
In this respect, web crawlers are similar to human beings. If they can’t figure out which way to go, they just leave. That’s a huge negative ranking factor.
Are you leaving content and pages unindexed?
For an in depth discussion on the importance of great site navigation read Neil Patel’s “How to Create a Site Structure That Will Enhance SEO.” It gives detailed how-to’s and explains why focusing on navigation can give you one of the best SEO advantages.
Create a Sitemap.xml
For web pages to show up in search results they must first be indexed by the search engine bots. During indexing, if a website becomes too confusing or difficult to navigate, web crawlers stop and move in a new direction. On another website.
Once discovered, search engines include indexed web pages in a “library.” Now they are available to show up in user queries.
Many website developers don’t realize the amount of traffic they might be missing. Creating a sitemap.xml is one of the best SEO techniques to maximize site mapping.
Make finding you easy. Create a route that’s easy to follow.
Structured Data
Are you serious about using the best SEO techniques available?
Well, it’s time to channel your inner computer nerd.
By using structured data for content markup your website “talks” a language web crawlers can better understand. This gives search engine bots a more detailed description of web page content.
For the best SEO effects, make sure you use schema (the standard vocabulary for content markup).
Some content types to use structured data markup on include:
- Reviews
- People
- Products
- Software applications
- Local businesses
- Organizations
- Restaurants
- Recipes
- Events
- Music
- Video content
- Movies
- Articles
The prize? Site information becomes more relevant in search queries. Your listings become more visible in SERPs.
Adding structured data to your HTML code is a serious SEO hack. And it’s one of the best practices few web developers use.
Rich Snippets
Rich snippets are the enhanced display of SERP listings. They are the listings that stand out because they offer extra information. They occur automatically when a website uses structured data.
These richer details are eye-catching. They impact the appearance of query results. Some businesses have reported a substantial increase in click-through rates for their rich snippet listings.
Schema is a collaboration. The major search engine players joined forces to create this standardized vocabulary. That’s a pretty big deal.
It’s something to pay attention to. It’s going to be around for a while. And it’s definitely something to add to your SEO arsenal.
Focus on Site Speed
You’ve heard the latest mantra: go mobile or go home.
As Google rolls out their mobile-first index, one of the best SEO advantages you can have is a quick loading mobile version of your website.
Gary Illyes (@methode), Google’s web master trends analyst, gave a few suggestions during the Search Marketing Expo conference in March. To prepare for the mobile-first index webmasters should make sure:
- Their mobile site has the content they want to rank for
- They add structured data to their mobile site
- They use rel-annotations on mobile sites
Optimize for Local Search
When’s the last time you updated your Google My Business listing?
Our mobile-first society is changing and those on the cutting edge of the best SEO practices change with it.
According to GeoMarketing by Yext, “near me” searches have increased by 146% in the past year.
Claiming your Google My Business page is free. And it’s a great way to increase exposure in your local market. Check out these helpful tips on how to optimize your GMB listing from Search Engine Land. Including ways to use our friend from above (structured data).
Start Learning a “New” Language
It’s called NLP. And it’s something you’ll need to pay attention to if you want to stay competitive.
NLP is Natural Language Processing and Google is nailing it.
In her highly anticipated Internet Trends Report, Mary Meeker announced that Google’s voice recognition is now 95 percent accurate. She also noted that voice-powered searches are rapidly replacing typed queries.
Does this have anything to do with my search for the best hacks, you ask?
The answer to that question is affirmative. (Notice we didn’t just say “Yes.”)
Because language is logical (math) as well as emotional (poetry), your site should optimize for both. To capitalize on this growing search method web masters must now keep user intent in mind when structuring a website and its content.
This may sound a bit daunting, but there’s some great news.
Remember the special friend we encouraged you to get in the ring with earlier in this post? Say hello to schema. Again.
Utilizing content markup allows web crawlers to translate your website into a more detailed language. This closely mimics NLP which in turn can boost a website’s visibility when longer phrases are used.
Speaking of longer phrases . . .
With the increasing popularity of voice search, the ability to identify long tail keywords will become one of the best practices to re-enter the world of search engine optimization.
Some of the Best SEO Tactics Are “Anti-Hacks”
Wondering what an anti-hack is?
Things to stop doing or get rid of immediately.
Here’s a quick list:
- Low-Quality Pages – remove them, they don’t add to better results
- Broken Links – don’t get penalized for having a lot of broken links; it affects search engine rankings
- Not Updating Regularly – add new pages to earn a better maintain the level of freshness Google desires
- Crawl Errors – make sure the bots are navigating like rock stars
- Duplicate Content – even somewhat modified content has negative effects on a site’s visibility in query results
- Flash or Java Script – say goodbye; you want content bots can read
- Pop-ups that Appear before Visitors Can Access Content – this is a big Google no-no; they don’t like it at all
- Keyword Stuffing, Cloaking, Link Farms
Some of the Best Tools are Free
The heavyweight belt of SEO is landing on page one of the search results.
Perhaps you don’t have the time to commit to a rigorous “training” schedule right now. Maybe your fight card is full. No problem — Attracta is in your corner.
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