Whether you are entering the world of SEO or are an experienced writer who has experimented with a wide range of techniques to increase traffic on your website and blog, finding a way to position your site high on the first page of Google is a real challenge.There are now hundreds of tips on the web on how to leverage the power of SEO to get traffic, but most of them are generic or outdated.To achieve the best results, you always have to keep up with the latest trends and find new and exciting ways to stand out and increase your site’s visibility through SEO.To help you achieve that goal, in this article, we have outlined the top tips on how to use SEO to attract more audiences to your site. Let’s dive right in!1.) Target Topics With Search Engine Potential:When creating content, most writers want to write about what currently excites them. However, this is not a good way to make people want to read your blog.In general, people prefer to read about what other experts or authoritative bloggers from specific niches have to say on a certain topic.In other words, you need to write more about what your audience is interested in. Also, while these topics may gain much traction once they are published, they do not have a staying potential.To make your articles more visible and readable by the general audience, you need to:Do keyword research to find out what topics to focus onLook at what your competitors are ranking for. If they are getting traffic, there definitely must be a way you can create that traffic too, but you need to find new ways to outrank them.2.) Focus On The User Intent:Using as many keywords as possible is one way to get ranked on Google. However, this won’t make much sense if you don’t check what your visitors are looking for when they type a certain word or a phrase in a search bar. This is also known as user intent.And the best thing is that you do not have to do some heavy lifting to figure out the user intent. Google has all the answers. Just type in any word you want into the search box and look for the questions people ask on a certain topic.Since you are on the search engine results page (SERP), make sure you also check how your competitors answered these questions and how they structured blog posts, and then do your research to create even more compelling and engaging articles your visitors will really want to read.When checking your competitors’ articles, consider:The length of their articlesWhat resources you might add (videos, images, infographics, stats)If you were a reader, what else would you like to find outHow you can explain better than your competitors3.) Add Internal Links To New Pages:At its core, internal links are backlinks from one page on your site to another. They allow visitors to easily navigate through your site and distribute link authority on your site.Also, Google uses its anchor text to understand the website and the context better. However, whenever you publish a new page, it will have no internal links or some but not enough of them. This is why you need to make sure you add some internal links to each and every page.4.) Make Sure Your Content Is Comprehensive:When thinking about the ways to make your blog post reach the top ranks, you need to consider the fact that Google is not only looking for relevant results but also for the best ones.Put simply, your article needs to have the right potential to find its place on the first page of Google. And how do you do that? Creating a blog post that contains everything your visitors want to read about is the first step you want to take.While you may have probably read about how the length of the article is important and that it will help you get noticed on the web, one of the goals you want to achieve is not only the length but also the depth. And SERPs can help a lot here.To make sure you are writing about something relevant, type in your keywords in Google and open all the relevant and top-ranking results. Then go through them, review all the positive and negative sides and then search for commonalities.5.) Optimize Your Page URL:One of the most important things when creating your article is to pay attention to the URL.The URL plays an important role as it tells the crawlers what the blog is about, which helps you stand out in the sea of articles on the web. Also, this is a great opportunity to include the target keyword phrase you want to rank for.The easiest way to do this is just to focus on the keyword inside the URL and remove all the unnecessary keywords like “to,” “and” and similar ones. For instance:The title, “10 ways to achieve success blogging and earn money” can be shortened into “10-ways-make-money-blogging”.You only need to focus on the right amount of world that will help the reader understand what the blog is all about.If you are not sure how to do that or do not have enough time to dedicate yourself to it, try reaching out to the best New York software development agencies that will help you achieve the best results.6.) Fix Pages With Broken Backlinks:Broken links can do damage to your site as they produce a lot of dead pages, which do not help other pages rank as well. The best way to solve this issue is to search for all 404 pages and use one of the SEO tools like Ahrefs and then make all the necessary edits to either remove these pages or fix them.Here are a few ways you can fix broken backlinks using Ahrefs:Reinstate — if the dead page has been mistakenly deleted, put it back. This will allow all of the backlinks to point to the right page that works.Redirect — if the dead page exists but on the new URL, make sure you redirect the old URL to this new pageRequest a link change — Maybe someone made a mistake linking to your page. In this case, it is advisable to reach out to them and let them know.7.) Create A Compelling Title Tag And Description:Two important things you need to keep in mind when writing an article are the meta description and the title tag.Make sure you create the right description that will include all the necessary keywords that will help you rank on Google. The meta description should provide your visitors with all the necessary information on what the article is about.Also, make sure you keep the number of characters under the limit when writing both your title tag and meta description. Generally, the ideal number of characters for a title tag is between 50 and 60 and for meta description between 155 and 160 characters.8.) Optimize Your Images:Another thing to keep in mind when optimizing your website is images. Images can bring you a lot of traffic if optimized in the right way.Since Google engines cannot see the picture the way humans do, images need to have some kind of description Google can “read.” This includes both the title and the image alt text.By providing this data, you will help Google understand and categorize your images. Here, you need to keep in mind that you need to include short phrases, important keywords and make both your title tag and meta description as descriptive as possible.9.) Optimize For “Definition” Features Snippets:When searching for a specific keyword or a phrase, most searches for definitions show featured snippets. Google pulls this information from some of the most ranking blogs on a given topic.You need to keep in mind that to earn that valuable featured snippet real estate, your blog post needs to have a definition that it will pull from your page. So, it is advisable to have a relevant definition on each page as this will help you rank in the featured snippet and get more traffic.10.) Embed Your Videos In Relevant Posts:Finally, leverage the power of the video tab in Google search and let people reach your website through videos. And the interesting fact here is that this tab does not only include YouTube videos but all the videos from the web.What’s Your Next Step?Hopefully, we have helped you upgrade your existing content with these SEO techniques and we are positive that they will only have a positive impact on your website’s visibility and traffic.About the Author:Tony Watson Is A Marketing Specialist That Specializes In Driving Business Through Digital, Visual And Content Marketing Techniques, Currently Based In Los Angeles. He Worked In Many Trusted Ecommerce Software Companies Where He Developed His Skills, And Expanded His Knowledge In Many Directions.Find Me On Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn
