Don’t Forget These 7 Tips to Get More Search Traffic

Are you using highly relevant keywords in your headlines? Are you actively building backlinks to your site?

Great. But you need to dig deeper into search engine optimization to get your site’s content all the traffic it’s capable of getting.

I’m going over seven often overlooked techniques step by step. Don’t worry. I’m not going to drown you in jargon or tackle anything super technical.

While I focus on Google – as it’s the most popular search engine by far –these tips can help you get more traffic from other search engines too.

Tip 1: Make sure your pages are indexed

A page needs to be in Google’s index to appear in its results. The index is like a gigantic database of all the webpages in the world. How do you find out whether Google has indexed your page? You can check for individual URLs through the cache method or your overall site with the Google Search Console option.

Use @Google Search Console or the cache method to see if your URLs are indexed, says @joetheseo via @cmicontent. #SEO Click To Tweet

Cache method (for individual URLs)

• Go to Google.com.
• In the search bar, type: cache:[the URL you want to check].

Do NOT put a space between the colon and the URL.

If the page isn’t indexed, a 404 error page appears.

If the page is indexed, a cached version appears plus the date it was backed up or saved (i.e., cached) by Google. (Thus, it may not be the current version of the page.)

Using the cache method for an index check has a couple of drawbacks:

• It’s not 100% accurate. Occasionally, indexed pages aren’t shown as cached.
• You can check only one URL at a time. That’s fine if you want to check a few pages but frustrating if you have dozens to check.

Search console method (for multiple URLs)

Google Search Console (previously called Google Webmaster Tools) allows you to see how Google views your site. It provides information that allows you to optimize your site to get more search engine traffic.

• Verify you own the site by following Google’s instructions here. (You can do it through a domain or URL verification process.)
• Go to Google Search Console and your site report will appear.
• In the left column, under Index, click coverage. Your screen will look like this:

This report shows all the valid pages in Google’s index. It also displays pages with errors and warnings as well as excluded pages.

Use the Google Search Console method to evaluate multiple pages or the whole site. It only takes a few minutes to set up and provides loads of useful data.

Tip 2: Improve your click-through rate (CTR)

If your page looks uninviting in the search results, most people will scroll down and click on a competing page. But if your title tag and meta description are enticing, they’ll click on yours.

If your title tag and meta description are enticing, readers will click, says @joetheseo via @cmicontent. #SEO Click To Tweet

In many cases, your well-written headline for the page can simply become the title tag. Sometimes, though, it makes sense to craft a more keyword-focused title tag.

Your meta description tag should summarize your piece and engage the searcher to click to read more. Don’t default to the first sentence of your content.

A few different tools let you see how your title tag and meta description will appear before you publish. I like Google SERP Generator because it lets you play around with different possibilities.

BONUS TIP: You also can modify title tags and meta descriptions for existing pages. Just make sure you don’t alter pages already performing well.

Tip 3: Reduce your click-back rate

Just as you want to increase the number of people who like the look of your page enough to click on the link, you also want to reduce the number who click but return quickly to the search results.

Improve your #SEO traffic by reducing your click-back rate, says @joetheseo via @cmicontent. Click To Tweet

Your click-back rate is the percentage of people who return to the search results. A high rate signals to Google that the searcher’s needs weren’t met when viewing your content. (“Needs met” is a criteria considered by Google’s search quality raters when improving the search engine’s algorithms.)

SEO experts also believe Google and other search engines pay attention to dwell time – how long someone spends on the site before returning to the search results.

To reduce your click-back rate and to improve your dwell time, make sure your page:

• Satisfies the searcher’s intent. To do this, you must know what searchers want and why – their commercial, informational, or navigational intent. Then you must deliver content that is truly relevant to those searchers.
• Delivers on the promise your title and meta description make. If your content doesn’t answer their question or fill their need, the searcher will click away.

Tip 4: Add more internal links to your pages

Getting backlinks to your site from a third party is a great SEO move. But what about internal links? Are you using them as much as you could?

Visitors click on these internal links to see other related content on your site. For example, the three orange-highlighted links in the following excerpt from Jodi Harris’ post Don’t Obsess Over Search Rankings; Do This Instead direct the visitor to other Content Marketing Institute content.

The linking words in the text help Google better understand what your pages are about. They also can elevate reputation (PageRank as Google calls it). If you frequently link to a particular page, Google will see the page as an important one, perhaps a pillar content page.

The more you link to your other pages, the easier it is for your readers to find and consume more of your content – and the easier you make it for search engines to correctly crawl and index your content.

The more you link to your relevant content, the easier it is for your readers to find & consume more of your #content and for search engines to correctly crawl and index it, says @joetheseo via @cmicontent. #SEO Click To Tweet

Source link