Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving your website to increase its visibility in search engine results pages. In other words, SEO helps people find your website organically when they search for relevant keywords in Google, Bing, or other search engines.
Why should you care about ranking higher in Google? The higher your website ranks in search results, the more traffic, leads, and customers you’ll get. Given that over 90% of online experiences start with a search engine, SEO is a crucial component of any digital marketing strategy.
In this post, we’ll cover 5 easy SEO tips to help improve your website’s search rankings. Specifically, we’ll discuss how to:
- Match your content to search intent
- Pick easier keywords to target initially
- Combine similar pages on your site
- Fix dead pages with backlinks
- Improve your Core Web Vitals
By following these simple yet effective tactics, you’ll be well on your way to ranking higher and driving more organic search traffic to your website. Let’s dive in!
Tip 1: Match Search Intent
What is search intent?
Search intent is the reason why a user enters a particular query into a search engine. It is what the user hopes to achieve by searching for those terms. There are four main types of search intent:
- Informational: The user is looking for information about a specific topic. For example, “best restaurants in San Francisco” or “how to change a tire.”
- Navigational: The user is trying to get to a specific website or page. For example, “Facebook login” or “Google Maps.”
- Commercial: The user is interested in learning more about a product or service, or comparing different options. For example, “iPhone 14 vs. Samsung Galaxy S23” or “best deals on laptops.”
- Transactional: The user is ready to make a purchase. For example, “buy iPhone 14” or “book a flight to New York.”
How to identify the search intent for a given keyword
The best way to identify the search intent for a given keyword is to look at the top-ranking search results. What type of content are Google and other search engines showing for this keyword? This will give you a good idea of what users are expecting to find when they search for those terms.
Here are some other things to consider when identifying search intent:
- The specific words and phrases used in the keyword query.
- The context in which the keyword is being used. For example, if you are writing a blog post about a new product, you will want to target keywords with commercial intent.
How to create content that matches the search intent for your target keywords
Once you have identified the search intent for your target keywords, you need to create content that matches that intent. This means creating content that is informative, relevant, and helpful to users.
Here are some tips for creating content that matches search intent:
- Make sure your content is relevant to the keyword query.
- Provide comprehensive and informative answers to users’ questions.
- Use clear and concise language.
- Structure your content in a way that is easy to read and scan.
- Include relevant images and videos.
Example:
Let’s say you are writing a blog post about the best restaurants in San Francisco. The search intent for the keyword “best restaurants in San Francisco” is informational. Users are looking for information about the best restaurants in the city, such as their cuisine, price range, and location.
To create content that matches this search intent, you would need to write a blog post that lists the best restaurants in San Francisco, along with information about their cuisine, price range, and location. You could also include reviews from other diners.
By creating content that matches search intent, you are more likely to attract visitors who are interested in what you have to offer.
Tip 2: Pick Easier Keywords
There are a few different ways to find easier keywords to rank for:
- Use keyword research tools. There are a number of keyword research tools available, both free and paid. These tools can help you find keywords with lower competition and higher search volume.
- Look at the competition. Take a look at the top-ranking websites for your target keywords. What are they doing well? What could they be doing better? Look for opportunities to create content that is more informative, relevant, and helpful than what is currently ranking.
- Use long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are more specific and less competitive than short-tail keywords. For example, the short-tail keyword “shoes” is very competitive, while the long-tail keyword “best running shoes for women with flat feet” is much less so.
Why it’s important to start with easier keywords when you’re new to SEO
When you’re new to SEO, it’s important to start with easier keywords. This is because it can take time to build authority and rank for more competitive keywords.
If you try to rank for competitive keywords right away, you’re likely to be disappointed. You’ll also be missing out on the opportunity to attract traffic from easier keywords.
How to use long-tail keywords to your advantage
Long-tail keywords are a great way to start ranking in search results, even if you’re a new website. They’re also less competitive than short-tail keywords, so you’re more likely to be able to rank for them quickly.
Here are a few tips for using long-tail keywords to your advantage:
- Focus on long-tail keywords that are relevant to your business. There’s no point targeting long-tail keywords that aren’t relevant to your products or services.
- Use long-tail keywords in your content. When you write blog posts, articles, and other content for your website, be sure to use long-tail keywords throughout the text.
- Optimize your website for long-tail keywords. Make sure your website titles, meta descriptions, and header tags include long-tail keywords.
Example:
Let’s say you own a website that sells running shoes. You want to rank for the keyword “running shoes.” However, this keyword is very competitive.
Instead of trying to rank for the keyword “running shoes,” you could try to rank for long-tail keywords like “best running shoes for women with flat feet” or “cheap running shoes for men.” These keywords are less competitive and more likely to convert into sales.
By focusing on long-tail keywords, you can start attracting traffic to your website and building authority. Once you’ve established a good foundation, you can start targeting more competitive keywords.
Tip 3: Combine Similar Pages
There are a few reasons why you should combine similar pages on your website:
- Improved SEO: When you have multiple pages on your website that cover the same topic, it can confuse search engines. This can make it difficult for your website to rank for that topic. By combining similar pages, you can create a single page that is more comprehensive and informative. This will make it easier for search engines to understand your website and rank it for the right keywords.
- Better user experience: When visitors come to your website, they should be able to easily find the information they’re looking for. If you have multiple pages on your website that cover the same topic, it can be difficult for visitors to find the specific information they need. By combining similar pages, you can create a single page that is easier to navigate and use.
- Increased traffic: When you have multiple pages on your website that cover the same topic, you’re essentially splitting up your traffic. This means that each page is getting less traffic than it could if it were the only page on your website that covered that topic. By combining similar pages, you can increase the traffic to each page.
How to identify similar pages on your website
There are a few different ways to identify similar pages on your website:
- Use Google Search Console: Google Search Console is a free tool that allows you to see how your website performs in search results. One of the features of Google Search Console is the “Content” report. This report shows you all of the pages on your website that are indexed by Google. You can use this report to find pages that are similar to each other.
- Use a keyword research tool: Keyword research tools can help you find pages on your website that are targeting the same keywords. This can be a helpful way to identify similar pages, especially if you have a large website.
- Manually review your website: If you have a small website, you can manually review all of your pages to identify similar pages. This can be a time-consuming process, but it’s the best way to ensure that you don’t miss any similar pages.
How to combine similar pages without losing traffic or backlinks
Once you’ve identified similar pages on your website, you need to combine them without losing traffic or backlinks. Here are a few tips:
- Choose the best page to keep: When you’re combining similar pages, you need to choose the best page to keep. This should be the page that is most comprehensive and informative. It should also be the page that has the most backlinks.
- 301 redirect the other pages: Once you’ve chosen the best page to keep, you need to 301 redirect the other pages to that page. This will tell search engines that the other pages have been permanently moved to the new page. This will help you to keep your traffic and backlinks.
- Update your internal links: If you have any internal links to the pages that you’re redirecting, you need to update those links to point to the new page. This will help you to avoid sending visitors to broken pages.
Example:
Let’s say you have two blog posts on your website:
- 10 Best Running Shoes for Women
- 15 Best Running Shoes for Men
These two blog posts cover a similar topic. To improve your SEO and user experience, you could combine these two blog posts into a single blog post called The 25 Best Running Shoes of All Time.
Once you’ve combined the two blog posts, you need to 301 redirect the old blog posts to the new blog post. You also need to update any internal links to the old blog posts so that they point to the new blog post.
Tip 4: Fix Dead Pages With Backlinks
What is a dead page?
A dead page is a web page that no longer exists. This can happen for a number of reasons, such as:
- The page has been deleted.
- The page has been moved to a new location and the old URL has not been redirected.
- The page is returning a 404 error.
Why are dead pages bad for SEO?
Dead pages are bad for SEO for a few reasons:
- They can confuse search engines. When search engines crawl your website, they expect to find live pages. If they find dead pages, they may have trouble understanding your website and ranking it in search results.
- They can frustrate users. When users click on a link to your website and end up on a dead page, they are likely to be frustrated. This may lead them to leave your website and go to a competitor’s website.
- They can hurt your website’s authority. If you have a lot of dead pages on your website, it can signal to search engines that your website is not well-maintained. This can hurt your website’s authority and ranking in search results.
How to find dead pages on your website
There are a few different ways to find dead pages on your website:
- Use Google Search Console: Google Search Console is a free tool that allows you to see how your website performs in search results. One of the features of Google Search Console is the “Crawl Errors” report. This report shows you all of the pages on your website that Google has tried to crawl but has not been able to access.
- Use a website crawler: A website crawler is a tool that crawls your website and identifies all of the pages. You can use a website crawler to find dead pages on your website.
- Manually review your website: If you have a small website, you can manually review all of your pages to identify dead pages. This can be a time-consuming process, but it’s the best way to ensure that you don’t miss any dead pages.
How to fix dead pages with backlinks
Once you’ve found dead pages on your website, you need to fix them. The best way to fix a dead page with backlinks is to redirect the old URL to a new URL. This will tell search engines that the old page has been moved and that the new page is the replacement page.
If you don’t have a new page to redirect the old page to, you should delete the old page. This will tell search engines that the old page no longer exists and that they should remove it from their index.
Example:
Let’s say you have a dead page on your website called /products/shoes-for-women/. This page has a few backlinks from other websites.
To fix this dead page, you need to redirect the old URL /products/shoes-for-women/ to a new URL. For example, you could redirect it to /products/womens-shoes/.
Once you’ve redirected the old URL, you need to update the backlinks to the old URL. You can do this by contacting the website owners who have linked to the old page and asking them to update their links to point to the new page.
Tip 5: Improve Your Core Web Vitals
What are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are a set of three metrics that measure the real-world user experience of a web page. These metrics are:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This metric measures how long it takes for the largest content element on a page to load.
- First Input Delay (FID): This metric measures how long it takes for a page to become interactive.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This metric measures how much a page’s layout shifts while it is loading.
Why are Core Web Vitals important for SEO?
Core Web Vitals are important for SEO because they measure the user experience of a web page. Google has stated that Core Web Vitals will be a ranking factor in search results. This means that pages with good Core Web Vitals are more likely to rank higher in search results.
How to improve your Core Web Vitals
There are a number of things you can do to improve your Core Web Vitals, including:
- Optimize your images: Images can take a long time to load, so it’s important to optimize them. This means compressing images without losing too much quality. You can also use lazy loading to defer the loading of images until they are needed.
- Minify your code: Minifying your code can make it smaller and therefore faster to load. You can minify your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code.
- Use a caching plugin: A caching plugin can store static copies of your pages, which can be served to users faster than dynamic pages.
- Use a content delivery network (CDN): A CDN can serve your static files from servers that are located closer to your users, which can improve loading times.
You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to test your Core Web Vitals and get recommendations on how to improve them.
Example:
Let’s say you have a website with a slow LCP. This means that it takes a long time for the largest content element on your page to load.
To improve your LCP, you can try optimizing your images and minifying your code. You can also use a caching plugin and a CDN to serve your static files faster.
Conclusion
In this post, we covered 5 easy SEO tips to help improve your website’s search rankings:
- Match your content to search intent. Make sure you understand what users are looking for and create content that provides value.
- Pick easier keywords to target initially. Focus on long-tail, low competition keywords to get started.
- Combine similar pages on your site. Consolidate pages with duplicate content to improve SEO.
- Fix dead pages with backlinks. Redirect or update dead pages so you don’t lose rankings.
- Improve your Core Web Vitals. Optimize site speed and user experience.
Implementing these simple tactics can help boost your website’s organic search traffic and visibility. Focus on creating high-quality content, optimizing technical SEO elements, and providing a great user experience.
Don’t try to tackle everything at once. Pick one or two tips to start with and go from there. Track your progress in Google Analytics and Search Console. Over time, you’ll see your rankings and traffic improve.
SEO is an ongoing process. Stay up to date on best practices and keep refining your strategy. With some time and effort, you can achieve higher rankings in Google and other search engines.
The first step is getting started! Implement one of these SEO tips today and monitor the results. Improving your search engine optimization takes consistency, but it’s worth it for the long-term growth of your website.