This may come as a shock, so brace yourself. You don’t have to be a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) wizard to be a solid content creator. However, knowing a few tactics that will help you improve your rankings on Google and user experience can’t hurt. In this post, we’ll discuss five helpful SEO tips and best practices that just about anyone can put to use. Ready? Let’s go!
SEO Tips for the Everyday Professional
Look for Questions People are Searching on Google
In October 2020, Google enhanced BERT via the fruits of its AI research efforts. BERT is a language understanding system capable of comprehending users’ written requests via Google Search. What does this mean for the everyday person? In the most basic sense, BERT provided more relevant results. BERT was a massive step in the right direction for Google Search. The upgrade improved Google Search’s ability to understand both misspelled words and the context of misspelled words.
Furthermore, BERT made it possible for Google Search to provide answers in less than three milliseconds – that’s pretty darn fast. The BERT upgrade also provided Google with the ability to capture and understand the context of the article and page itself. This increased the value of long-tail keywords by 10x.
Add Internal and External Links
While there are a lot of doubters out there, internal and external links are still valuable today.
Here are a few nuggets on how to use each type of link and why they’re meaningful.
Internal Links
- Ensure that all of your internal links provide value for your audience. Here’s an example of a strong internal line: anchor text = “SEO tips” and linked article = “5 SEO Tips that Make a Difference.” The linked article and the anchor text are clearly related.
- If the internal link is effective, your article provides a great user experience.
- Internal links encourage your audience to spend more time on your website. Furthermore, if a user follows an internal link, this will help reduce your bounce rate.
- When applied correctly, internal links improve the page rankings of the linked pages too.
External Links
- External links take visitors away from your site. This means you only want to use them when absolutely necessary.
- Ensure that you only link to sites with high domain authority scores. One of the last things you want to do is send your readers to a site that is total garbage.
- If you reference data or need to cite a source – link to it. This shows your audience that your drawing from credible sources.
- If you mention a concept and don’t go into great detail, link out to a source that does. In an ideal world, you’ll want to link to one of your other articles.
- Adding external links provides Google and other search engines with a better understanding of what your article is about.
The Google algorithm follows the linked content, so it’s important to improve your link-building tactics. Review your articles and check to see if you can create any internal links. If yes, awesome! If not, you can link to an external article. However, it’s important to remember that internal links are more valuable than external links in most cases.
Entity-Based SEO
Numerous SEO professionals preach that digital content managers should focus on entity-based SEO.
Keywords play a major role in your SEO strategy. However, they don’t really take into account how humans search for information.
Let’s start off by wrapping our minds around what an entity is exactly. An entity is a thing or concept that is singular and unique. Furthermore, entities are also well-defined and distinguishable. The internet as we know it today is a semantic web of linked data. Users can search for information faster and with greater ease than ever before. Entities are of vital importance. They enable us to give meaning to content in a way that machines can understand it. Think about it this way – keywords are created by humans for other humans looking for specific content. On the other hand, entities depend on artificial intelligence to categorize ideas into folders.
Keywords and entities go hand-in-hand since the former helps define the latter.
Lastly, before you conduct any major keyword research, identify an effective entity. Once you’ve identified your entity, it is then okay to dive into your keyword research.
Optimize Your URLs
You should conduct an SEO audit of your website at least once every year. When conducting your audit, you should keep an eye on whether your URLs are optimized.
Shorter URLs typically rank better on the SERPs. Furthermore, shorter URLs also make it easier for your audience to understand what your article is about before they click on it. All in all, shorter URLs make for a better user experience.
Focus on User Experience
In 2021, Google unleashed an official ranking factor system called Core Web Vitals. This update impacted sites with poor user experience, so it is essential that your content is easy to read, as well as both user and mobile-friendly. Furthermore, you’ll want to incorporate images, videos, and infographics…maybe a few animations if you’re up to the challenge.
You’ll want to ensure that your pages load quickly so that users can engage with them ASAP. It’s also critical that your site is mobile-responsive.
SEO works intimately with the overall user experience of your site. Think about it this way. SEO is tailored for search engines and UX is designed for your site’s users. Both have the same goal of providing the most relevant information for users, so make sure to cater to both of them.
Closing Thoughts
To sum it up, SEO is no longer a secret code known only to tech wizards. It’s something we all can harness to boost our content’s visibility and improve user experience. Remember, with BERT’s help, Google’s search has become more precise and swift – adapt and make it work for you.
Use internal and external links strategically to engage your audience and enrich their experience. Embrace entity-based SEO to humanize your content and make it resonate with both users and AI alike.
Keep your URLs short and sweet – they’re the first taste of your content for potential readers. And don’t forget, user experience is king. Spruce up your site – make it visually appealing and easy to navigate. Google’s Core Web Vitals looks for this too, not just your SEO skills.
SEO and user experience go hand in hand, both aiming to deliver relevant, valuable content to your audience. So take these tips, and let’s turn the SEO game in your favor. SEO isn’t just for tech gurus – it’s a tool for us all to wield confidently!
