Five Search Engine Optimization Tactics to Follow in 2019
It’s not a secret anymore: SEO is in every marketer’s mind today. And as the demand for an effective optimization increases, so does the need of expert guidance. SEO Service Inc. pros want to share with you five top search engine optimization tactics that have given us proven results during the last few years; especially in 2019.
Some of these tactics are covered in a new book by SEO Service Inc. founder Danny Star. In this book, Vision 2020, he provides a straight forward, comprehensive insight about search engine optimization’s best practices. From the fundamentals of this practice to optimization on search engines, listings and even mobile apps. We recommend this book as a complementary read for this article and for everyone looking for a complete handbook for everything related to SEO, web design and digital marketing.
Search Engine Optimization Tactics with Proven Results
A recent report by a prestigious SEO publication revealed that Google receives 67 thousand searches every second. For this reason, businesses need to change and modify their approach to SEO in a continuing basis in order to improve their rankings on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). SEO Service Inc knows that, and it’s a valuable information we always make sure our clients understand. When it comes to SEO, shortcuts or easy turns just don’t work. You can’t cheat the system. Or you might as well be able to do it, but don’t expect long lasting results (and don’t blame us if they actually backfire!).For this reason, here are five SEO tactics we’ve proved generate a high impact in search engine rankings in a genuine, long-lasting way.
Technical SEO
This practice is based on the optimization of technical aspects of a website. When search engines crawl on the internet looking for the best results for user’s queries, they take in consideration those technical factors. Speed and coding are some of the main elements of technical SEO, but there are several others that determine the quality of a website and thus, its rankings.Technical SEO includes (but is not limited to) these practices:
- Remove duplicate pages or redirect those with similar content
- Fix broken links.
- Responsive web design to guarantee a mobile-friendly experience.
- Improve website speed and monitor it continually so it never exceeds the 3 seconds load page time.
This last aspect is crucial for both search engines rankings and decrease your bounce rate. If you want users no visit your website and stay in it, your pages need to load no slower than 3 seconds.
On-Page SEO
This technique involves inherent aspects of your pages content. It also applies to blogs and articles. They need to follow a certain technical format in order to give the search engines a clear idea of what is the website about, what type of information are you sharing and how useful would it be to satisfy a query. Some of these aspects are:
- Headings and subheadings (the now famous H1, H2 and H3 tags as well as CSS codes).
- A prolix, conscious use of keywords that avoids keyword stuffing.
- Content’s readability (an essential part of a good user experience)
- A smart use of photos with the right format to avoid slow page load and the use of alt tags on those pictures to make your pages rank on image searches.
Meta Data
Also known as Meta Tags, they are keywords strategically placed in the code of a site to help search engines analyze and crawl pages content. Meta tags include the SEO title, meta description and focus keywords; as well as the alt tags on photos that we mentioned in the previous item.During the indexing process, search engine crawlers look for this metadata to analyze and compare if they are actually related to the content you’re providing on your website. That’s why it is fundamental to use it correctly and thus make search engines recognize your content as useful and relevant; thus enhancing your site’s positions.
Meta Title
This part of metadata deserves a special highlight. The meta title or SEO title allows search engines to have a comprehensive understanding of the topic of a landing page. They are the main headline in search engines and should not exceed 70 characters long. If, on the contrary, the title is too short it is advisable to attach a relevant keyword or keywords in order to fill the space. Obviously, avoiding keyword stuffing.
Submit Sitemap
In Google’s words, the sitemap is a file that lists the pages of a website in order to tell the search engines about the organization of the site content. It is always recommendable to submit a sitemap via Google. A verification process is necessary to do that. Once completed, the actual submission follows through Google Search Console. Submitting a website to Google may sound like a simple step, but in reality, it can be beneficial to companies that want to increase their search engine positioning.
