Paid ads can offer a quick injection of cash. Yet nothing beats organic searches for long-term sales.
Google’s top result gets 33 percent of the traffic for that search. Finding ways to improve SEO on your site can get you closer to that coveted top spot.
Many people will focus their SEO efforts on keyword research or getting backlinks. They’re important, but they’re not the only way to improve your website’s SEO performance.
Read on for 10 innovative ways to improve your SEO.
1. Make Sure Google Can Find Your Site
SEO only works because of the Google ‘spiders’ that crawl the internet. They log the websites they find so they can help Google serve up search results.
Don’t assume your website is visible to these spiders. If they’re not crawling your site, they won’t index you.
Make sure you’re set up with a Google Search Console account for your website. This will provide a host of helpful information so it’s worth having anyway.
Once your account is set up, head to the Crawl menu, and choose ‘Fetch as Google’. Try this for both your desktop and mobile sites.
You should get the green checkmark that the crawling is complete. Next, click ‘Request indexing’. Now you know Google will index your site.
2. Boost Existing Content
You likely have content on your website that already performs well. It gets targeted traffic and social shares.
Instead of writing something new, optimize existing content to capture even more traffic.
Use Google Analytics to check your top-performing web pages for the last thirty days. Next, determine what search terms led visitors to your best-performing page.
Go back to the page and add these search terms throughout the text. You already know people use these terms, so now you can capture more traffic with them.
3. Increase Your Website Speed
In an age of fast internet, you run the risk of losing visitors if your site loads too slowly. Users will click away if they have to wait too long for a website to become usable.
Check with a website speed tracker like GTmetrix.com to see why your website is loading slowly. Fix the errors it highlights and improve your score.
With a faster website, you won’t lose those impatient visitors that click away. It lowers your bounce rate. This tells search engines you provide a great user experience.
4. Make Sure Your Website Stays Live
Website downtime is frustrating for would-be visitors. They can’t visit your website when it appears in the search results. These visitors click elsewhere, never to return.
This also sends negative signals to search engines that your website isn’t a good fit for their search results.
Keep downtime to a minimum to avoid losing these potential customers.
Hiring an IT company to handle your website is a great way to avoid downtime. Find out more about what a managed IT company can do for your business.
5. Partner With Influencers
This may seem a strange choice but think about it. The goal of SEO is to improve your traffic.
If you get targeted traffic that spends time on your site? Your traffic goes up and your bounce rate goes down.
Those are just two of the signals search engines use to determine their search results.
6. Use More Good-Quality Outbound Links
We all know the importance of getting inbound links. The more high-quality websites that link to us, the better we look in the eyes of Google. It helps build trust.
Yet outbound links are equally important and they’re much easier to do. These tell Google that we’re relevant. It shows the search engine that the information we share will be useful to visitors.
Include high-quality statistics, data, or quotes from reputable sources. This lets you ‘piggyback’ on the authority of these websites.
The search engines work by association. Linking to these websites helps to align your content with theirs. A higher reputation equals higher search rankings.
7. Improve Your SEO through Social Media
No one quite knows how social shares impact your search rankings. Yet an active and healthy social media following can improve your SEO.
Twitter is the best choice. Tweets have appeared in search engine results since 2015. Use targeted keywords in your posts to boost your rankings for branded searches.
Focus on building an organic following that shares and consumes your content. You’ll earn traffic every time you share posts.
Your followers want to read the content so they stay on the page for longer. This lowers your bounce rate, sending positive signals to Google.
8. Start Using Press Releases
Many companies don’t include traditional PR as part of their marketing or SEO efforts. Yet you can include links to your website within your press releases.
If a major newspaper or blog picks up your press release, that earns you a valuable inbound link. Visitors who reach your website through that link are ‘warm’ leads. They already know who you are having read your news story.
This is an invaluable and effective way to improve your SEO ranking.
9. Set Up Google My Business
Even if you’d like to work with international clients, it doesn’t hurt to expand your local presence.
Start by filling out your free listing with Google My Business. Make sure your business details match those on your website.
Customers can post reviews or leave feedback. Higher ratings give you the chance to show up in a local search or on Google Maps.
People searching in your area are closer to buying. They’re more likely to spend time on your site if you offer what they need. That means more engaged users, which increases your SEO.
10. Get Creative with Local SEO
Local SEO can also offer extra opportunities to earn inbound links from reputable sources. Sponsor a local event for coverage in local newspapers.
Consider hosting local competitions or giveaways. Whatever you do, make it relevant to what you offer.
You could also partner with local businesses. Swap links to each other’s websites for more inbound links.
Enjoy Your New Traffic
Each of these methods can improve your SEO. Try them out one at a time. When you find one that is particularly successful, double down on it.
Once you know which ones work, consider combining tactics for an extra boost. For example, pair social media and influencers. Or boost your existing content and use press releases.
For more advice and tricks, check out our SEO articles.