With the new Google`s May core update, Search Engine Optimization is getting harder so we decided to write a list of the most important hot tips to improve your SEO.
Actually, almost every core update becomes a struggle for a SEO professional since you have to come up with new ideas on how to raise the traffic for your site or blog, so here some hot tips.
This May update looks nasty. In fact, it was so big that it needed a few days to roll out. Many sites claimed that their traffic went crazy. By crazy, we do not mean that it has magically risen.
The situation is quite the opposite. Traffic has hit its bottom and people who built up their site steadily see a horrific zero in their traffic analytics. For instance, many sites, such as blogs, legit dating sites, e-commerce, used keywords and backlinks as their main source of traffic. Many of them claim that it is not working anymore.
So what should we do now? Should we forget about keywords? Are backlinks part of the past now?
Continue reading and find out 7 hot tips for SEO that will help your site to stay on the top of search results and that will become your guide into a modern SEO world.
Look at The Speed of Your Website
As constant users of sites ourselves, we can assure you that the most irritating thing that exists on the planet Earth is sites that take years to load. If you need some information really quickly, which is often the case, you will not wait 5-10 seconds for the site to load.
Moreover, there is a tendency for people to lose their patience faster and faster. We live in a world where time is money, everyone is always hurrying somewhere, people literally run around the offices.
So we get very irritated when we do not get what we want within seconds.
A slow site can not only make a user close the page. The user can remember what made them wait. So the next time they go to find answers to their questions in all-mighty Google and they see your site, they are likely to think “Okay, this one takes years to load, I will not even bother trying to open the page”.
There is more into that. People believe that such sites are not trustworthy. If it is made bad, it is made by non-professionals.
So the quality of your site matters a lot, and speed has a say in it. The perfect loading speed is less than three seconds. By keeping your site fast enough, you are keeping your customer. Therefore, constant checks on the situation is a must.
SEO through Links
So maybe links are not dead. Many professionals claim that by using external links, you give a visitor of the website a free ticket to leave your page. However, we do not share this view.
By supporting your article with links, you actually show that you did the research on the subject and that you did not take random thoughts or numbers out of your head. However, it is more about redirecting people to the sites that are well-known for their trustworthy information and valuable insights.
Remember that if you want other sites to link you, you also have to put links to them and be that reliable and trustworthy source yourself.
Focus on Content
The main point that Google has made after site owners started to complain about the update is to look at their content first. We are so focused on SEO that we totally forgot what the main point of the site is. And this is content.
No matter how many keywords or backlinks you use, if your site has no valuable information whatsoever, nobody will come back to it after the first visit. Even if your article appears first in the search results, what does it matter if no one wants to read what you have (or have not) to say?
So focus not on the numbers in your analytics, but on the reader. Make sure that they are satisfied with your posts, that they will want to come back, and discover more of your articles.
People will not notice how many keywords you used and how successful they are, they will notice if you are really willing to help them and solve their problems. If you are passionate about your product which is not a site but information, they will be loyal.
If they need any advice, they will go to your site, they will subscribe to your newsletter, and you will not even need a search engine to keep them coming back.
A Good Meta Description Is A Must
This piece of advice is often neglected. However, it should not be.
A meta description is the second interaction that your user has after the headline (by the way, if your title is online chat dating sites and the meta description is the same, you are doing something very wrong). So it gives them the impression of what your style is, if it is actually relevant to the problem they are trying to solve, if it is worth clicking on the link after all. So make sure that your meta description is as user-friendly and engaging as possible.
When you finally got the idea of how important the meta description is, there is one mistake to avoid. So let’s say, you found a very catchy description that you find so amazing that you are trying to put it everywhere you can. Search engines do not appreciate that. They love unique content.
Moreover, if you have the same ten words to describe every page, make sure that you understand tip number three clearly.
Avoid Unreadable URLs
So let’s take a look at that: https://www.forbes.com/article/395739
What is it about? Are we going to read about the magical number 395739? Will we be redirected to the past? Is this a safe site to use? This link seems unprofessional, not user-friendly, very questionable in terms of trustworthiness.
There are a couple of simple rules to make your URLs stand out:
- Not more than four words
- Usehyphens – it-is-so-much-easier-to-read-now
- no to capital letters
Follow these simple rules and your URLs will be fine!
Social Media Is A Thing
Basically, it is a powerful tool for everything. People spend 144 minutes a day there, which means you have 144 minutes to show up in their feed.
Social signals are not on the search algorithm priority but social media is becoming more and more valuable for search engines. For instance, Google has a partnership with Twitter which hints us that social signals will soon be as important as any other SEO tool. So believe us when we say that you want the social media account of your site to be already popular when it happens.
Moreover, having a social media account dedicated to your website is always useful. You get new traffic from there anyway.
Keywords in The Images
Images are so important for search engines that they even created a whole section for them.
Analyze yourself as a Google user. You need a picture of milk and cereals. You would probably put those exact words in your search. So every user will do. And if your image is named “fresh milk to buy”, it is unlikely that Google will give you a priority.
So these were 7 hot tips for SEO that will keep your site alive in the times of a new Google core update.