How are your website pages ranking? If you wish they were better than they are, read on to learn our 6 top SEO tips to improve your organic search rankings. These SEO elements are easy to implement and can make a huge difference in your SERP positions.
1. Improve Page Titles
Have you noticed that sometimes Google rewrites your page titles in search results? This can happen if your page title doesn’t accurately reflect the page contents—at least in the eyes of the search engines.
Optimize your page titles to include your targeted keyword and brand name. Be creative, but make sure the title reflects the content on the page.
2. Update Meta Descriptions
While meta descriptions aren’t a ranking factor, they are vital to click-through rates, differentiation, and brand recognition. These, in turn, all contribute to user experience, which is a Google ranking factor.
The optimal character count for your meta description is 150 — including spaces. Make sure you use keywords in your meta descriptions, including long-tail keywords, whenever possible. And perhaps most importantly, use your brand voice. Meta descriptions should engage and entice users to click on your link in search results.
3. Enrich Internal Anchor Text
Internal anchor text is the text within your content that leads website visitors to other pages within your site. No doubt you’ve encountered anchor text along the lines of click here. Generic anchor text like “click here” doesn’t give Google any signals as to what the linked page is about.
Internal anchor text should be short, specific, and include keywords when possible. If you’re linking to a page about local SEO, internal anchor text should reflect just that.
4. Optimize Images
Hopefully, your website includes images and other visual elements to break up the page text. That’s a must for user experience. But are your images optimized? Check your images and use these pointers to make them more web-friendly.
- Use relevant file names: Rather than leaving the auto-generated IMG_100_2944.JPG file name, make it descriptive, like chiropractic-exam-room.jpg.
- Use all lowercase and replace spaces with hyphens.
- Compress image files using a tool like tinypng to improve image load times.
- Add alt text to each image. This descriptive text is provided when images don’t load and for accessibility for screen readers.
- Be specific
- Describe the content of the image in 125 characters or less
- Don’t use “image of” or “photo of”
- Don’t add alt text to background or decorative images
- Example: chiropractic adjustment table
- Check your images to ensure they look good on a variety of devices
- 5. Use Headings Correctly
Headings add structure to your web content. They break up the text into manageable sections. They also signal page content to Google. Use keywords in headings when you can, and be creative. Readers may scan headings to find the information they need or to see if there is anything of interest to them in your content, so make sure your headings are appealing and descriptive. In this blog post, each numbered item is a heading.
6. Clear URLs
You’ve probably encountered URLS that have strings of incomprehensible numbers and letters in them. Rather than offering up pages with these random URLs, help Google understand what your site is about and improve user experience with short, descriptive URLs, such as https://pageonedigital.com/blog/6-tips-improve-organic-search-rankings. This URL contains keywords and is simple to understand.
However, if the page is already indexed and ranking, don’t change the URL. Use this strategy moving forward for new pages, blogs, etc.
Improve your organic search ranking with these easy, top SEO tips today. With just a few improvements to these SEO elements, you’ll not only improve your rankings but also your user experience.
Ready to take your business to the next level? Contact Page One Digital to find out what we can do for you.
Related Posts
Google's Core Web Vitals: Part #2
In our last blog – which you can read here – we gave an introduction to Google’s Core Web Vitals and how their new algorithm affects online businesses. We spoke about the metrics used to evaluate a page’s ability to deliver positive user experiences and the importance of testing your website to see if it complies with Google’s new Core Web Vitals.
Google's Core Web Vitals: Part #1
For those who haven’t heard – but we’re sure you have – Google is changing their algorithm. In a nutshell, “Core Web Vitals” are Google’s latest standards used to evaluate a page’s ability to give users good experiences.
The Realities of SEO
You’ve researched keywords, written great content, added blogs, and done your best to make your website an SEO masterpiece, yet it’s underperforming. Why? There are some SEO fundamentals that you might be missing. Sit back, relax, and let us tell you the truth about SEO.