Google. The be-all-end-all of search engines with 3.5 BILLION Google searches a day, and conveniently enough what we’re looking for is (most of the time) the very first link!
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the reason for this. It is vital for a business to utilise SEO to direct more traffic onto their website, and it has become an imperative tool for businesses in creating user engagement! To make it to the top of the Google page, businesses need to improve their SEO rankings.
Beyond Key-Word optimisation, Paid Searches and Content, here are 3 OTHER ways to improve SEO rankings.
1. Improve the Page Loading Speed
How annoying is it to click onto a page after a Google search, online for it to take a whole 5 minutes to load!? This is not entirely due to your internet connection, but it can be due to the server of the website as well as any plug-ins or themes it is running.
Google recognises the speed at which the page loads, and if it’s too slow – it will harm the ranking of the website. It also impacts the way any visitors engage with the webpage – with research showing 40% of visitors will abandon the website if the page takes longer than 8 seconds to load, which is terrible for SEO as the abandonment essentially kills any traffic toward the website.
But on the contrary, a fast-loading website will allow for a quick and easy user experience, enabling users to keep coming back. Google’s algorithm will recognise the popularity, and adjust the search rank accordingly!
Hence, it is extremely impoirtant to optimize the loading speed of the website, as well as the server response time.
2. Optimize the Site for Mobile Devices
As of 2015, Google has started to penalise sites that are not optimised for mobile by decreasing their search-engine ranking. Consumer society is becoming increasingly dependant on their phones, with over 60% of google searches coming from mobile devices!
It is important that businesses optimise their site for mobile devices, otherwise it becomes a downward spiral of; negatively impacting user experience, leading to less traffic, leading to a decrease of search engine ranking.
It is particularly important for B2B marketers, as research shows that 77% of executives use their smartphones to research a product for their business.
So if you want to climb the ranks, optimise for mobile!
3. Blog!
Creating an engaging, insightful and educational blog for the business’ website can be great for user engagement and increasing traffic. It has 2 very vital benefits:
- It creates an outlet to educate and update consumers about the business, giving the users/consumers the transparency they may be asking for,
and - It enables flexibility in incorporating elements into your blog such as Key-Words and Multi-Media content (such as images, infographics and videos) to positively impact your search engine ranking.
Blogging can create vast amounts of engagement, positively impacting search engine ranking. But it is most important to understand that: BLOGGING IS ALL ABOUT THE CONTENT. Businesses need to ensure they are creating a blog that is of value, rather than creating more pages with words to bump-up their search engine rank. Otherwise, the website could ultimately end up creating a lot of thin and useless pages, that Google can mark the website down for.
So there you have it, 3 OTHER ways to improve SEO and climb the Google Ranks!
Do you have any examples of websites blatantly using any strategies to improve their SEO?
If so, does this affect how your engagement/use of their website?
Let me know!
The Digital Tandem 
It’s definitely CRUCIAL for marketers to understand the points above if they want to garner more traction to their site. Now more than ever, It’s not enough to just have a few meaningless pages with google rankings becoming almost like a competition. I dont have a particular example but there are definitely websites that just abuse keywords and have TLDR content just for the sake of it. They need to focus more on the quality. Businesses need to ensure that their SEO strategies are thorough and structured so that they not only retain users but also reach higher search rankings! Great read 🙂
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Thanks! It’s definitely something all businesses need to consider
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What a great read! SEO strategies are so crucial in order to gain exposure and maintain consumer retention. SEO is constantly changing and evolving, therefore, marketers really need to make sure they are following through with this too and increase their advantage over competitors.
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Thank you! I agree, it’ll be really interesting to see how SEO changes and how marketers follow through in the future!
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Great point about website loading speeds! Obviously Google don’t want slow websites being on the 1st page, otherwise users will go to another search engine. It’s so important for a business as well because with the vast amount of other options available coupled with the increased impatience of consumers.. it’s even more critical to make a good first impression! A fast website will help in that.
Good read!
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Thank you! Definitely! We all can be a little impatient sometimes, so having a fast loading speed will help with that challenge
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I think making a website that has good visibility from a mobile rather then a desktop is super important !! I haven’t noticed myself websites abusing this power as i didn’t even realise it was a thing before this weeks topic, but i can totally see how creators could abuse this. But i do think google has become much more strict on black hat users and are implementing harsh punishments to stop it from reoccurring.
Nice post
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Interesting post Jaedyn. I really loved the point about website loading speeds. I know myself I’m very inclined to click out and choose another page if it’s taking too long to load. There’s no doubt that Google want fast speeds in order to continue the domination of the search engines.
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Thanks Louisa! Me too! Definitely crucial for websites to incorporate speed to retain users
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