Remember when SEO was all about picking the best keywords? Times have certainly changed. Keywords are still crucial to search engine optimization, but it’s now joined by many other ranking factors like page authority, keyword relevance, and link quality. You need to consider all of them to improve conversions from your SEO campaign. Here are the top five tips to help you achieve that.
1. Fix your meta descriptions.
Meta descriptions are snippets of content shown by search engines right below your search result to provide a glimpse of what’s on the page. They help readers identify if your page’s content is relevant to their needs. You’ll have better conversions if your pages have meta descriptions that perfectly describe what users can expect when they click.
Good meta descriptions have these qualities:
- 150 to 160 characters
- Contains the keywords or key phrases you’re trying to rank for
- Specific and unique to the page, not duplicated anywhere else on your site
- Written in a consistent voice with your brand
- No non-alphanumeric characters (such as quotations)
- Includes a call-to-action whenever possible
2. Check your page load speed and improve it.
According to a recent study, website conversion rates decrease by around 2.11 percent with every additional second of page load time. No wonder page load speed is now among Google’s top-ranking factors. So, take some time to test your desktop and mobile loading times on every subpage, and address any lags immediately.
To fix your page load time, consider using a CDN (content distribution network) that copies your site to global servers to boost loading speeds in more areas. You can also try these quick fixes:
- Get rid of unnecessary redirects.
- Compress images to the smallest possible file sizes, then reupload them to your site.
- Eliminate saved drafts, deactivated plug-ins, and post revisions on the backend.
3. Locate and address broken links.
Google determines the quality of a site by checking for broken links. Having too many of them can make it challenging for Google to crawl your pages and negatively impact your SEO campaign. Broken links frustrate users and make them leave your site, too, therefore affecting your conversions.
So go ahead and take some time out to find and fix those broken links. Consider redirecting broken links to a live page with relevant content such as an associated topic or a similar post. If you can’t find a similar or relevant page, make a custom 404 error page to tell your readers why they’re encountering a broken page. It should also help direct your user to a relevant page. Make that 404 fun, but avoid an overly complicated design.
As a last resort, you can redirect users to your homepage. But this can confuse them and won’t add any value.
4. Apply the skyscraper method.
The skyscraper technique a clever way to enhance website SEO. Think of it this way: Once you have visited the world’s tallest skyscraper, you probably are no longer interested in seeing the second, third, or tenth tallest building, right? You’ve already seen the highest.
The skyscraper technique is based on this mentality. Look for a competitor that ranks well for a keyword you’re targeting, and then create content on the same topic—but make it better, more up-to-date, and more comprehensive. Then, use SEO tools to find other high-authority sites that link to your competitor’s content and ask if they can link to yours instead. They might just agree. After all, it’s beneficial for those sites to link to a page that offers the best content on a particular subject.
5. Write for people instead of search engines.
SEO copywriting is about producing easily-digestible content that provides real value while targeting your specific key phrases and keywords. Focusing on these types of useful and compelling content reaps rewards in the long run. Favored by Google, this kind of content also encourages other platforms to backlink to you, promote your page organically, and share your content on social media.
The SEO landscape is ever-changing, and the key to long-term success is to plan for major changes when they are relevant to your website. SEOValley can help. Contact us for a site audit to uncover issues that may be affecting your conversion rates.
