Latest SEO Techniques For Higher Search Engine Ranking 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the term evolved in 1997 along with the development of search engines and the World Wide Web. SEO can be defined as a process to boost the organic traffic of a website or webpage by increasing its online visibility and lifting its search engine ranking. Very often a webpage appears in a search engine’s result page and the higher the ranking, the greater is its potential to reach more number of the target audience.

In this digital era, SEO has become intrinsic to the marketing strategy for any business. A well-planned SEO strategy attracts a targeted audience of business, engages them, and gradually converts them into leads and customers through increased online visibility and high SERP ranking.

Search Engines Dominating The On-The-Web Search Process

Since its evolution, SEO rules and techniques have gone through a number of changes and transitions because of the change in operations and submission policies of various search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. With a high percentage of 73, Google is dominating the search engine market and it keeps on changing and introducing various tools, techniques, and policies to get a webpage ranked on its SERP.

SEO is a constantly changing technology, techniques that worked the previous year may not give you the same result this year. Businesses need to be updated with the latest SEO tactics to maintain and improve their website visibility, ranking and keep up with their competitors.

Here is the list of the latest SEO techniques that can definitely get you an edge over your competitors.

1. Generate High-Quality Content

Content and SEO share a bonding that drives a website to the top of SERP when they perform at their finest.

Content presented in the form of Text, Images, Video, Audio, and Presentation provides information to a user that is useful and valuable to him. Presented in a more contextual and relevant manner, content entertains and keeps him engaged.

Google has aimed at collating all the information and making it universally accessible and useful, ranks content on the basis of usefulness and relevance to its users.

Google processes around 3.5 billion users per day. The search engine endeavors to show the best result to its user and high-quality content with in-depth research gains a better ranking on the search page.

2. On-Page Optimization

On-Page SEO techniques include technical (Title, Description, URLs) and Content SEO techniques that help to optimize the content and structure of each page of a website in order to get a better ranking in SERP.

Some On-Page SEO factors you need to focus on are:

• Extensive Keyword research-Keyword research is the initial step of an SEO activity which is imperative for the success of marketing activity. Business Website (its authority, number of pages, content quality), Goals and objective, Budget and Competitors, impacts this research activity.
• A proper strategy is required, understand your targeted audience and their needs, research the words your targeted audience is using in the search box, and develop a list of related keywords called LSI keywords. Content enriched with the LSI keywords in titles, descriptions, headings, and page content is topic-relevant and meets the Rank Brain (Google Search Algorithm) criteria of Google.
• Keyword Density – The introduction of the Hummingbird algorithm has made Google find out the objective of a user search and provide a result that matches the search objective.
  For e.g., “How to do SEO for a website” will provide the following search result.

Google provides a result that matches the intent of the user instead of just the matching keywords.

However, matching Keywords density of 1-3 percent is recommended by the experts along with content, stuffed with synonyms and LSI Keywords.

Keyword proximity – The distance between the words of a single search term is known as Keyword proximity. Less the distance between individual keywords, higher is the relevancy or keyword proximity and high are the chances to get ranked in the search engine result.

Interlinking of pages – Evaluate and improve your strategy to interlink your page frequently to make Google understand the relevancy of pages, the relationship between pages, and the value of pages.

3. Structured Website

Sitemap – Create an XML sitemap for your website by using Word Press or XML-Sitemaps generator tool and enlist the URLs of all your individual pages in an XML file, so that search engine crawlers can discover all your pages in a single visit and glance at the content of your web pages.

Page Hierarchy & Navigation between pages – Content in a hierarchy pattern (divided into main and sub-category in a balanced way) gives a logical way to present the information, makes a user view and understand it in a simple and trouble-free manner, offers smooth navigation between the pages and a better URL structure.

4. Designing

While designing a Website you need to take into account the Font size, color combination, neat layouts, and Infographics that are search engine friendly as well as user-friendly to increase its readability and encourage interaction.

Font Size- Google’s Lighthouse (font size measurement tool) has recommended 16px as a base font of a site and the search engine looks at its mobile-first index (mobile-friendliness of a site) to rank a site.

Color- Implement Color on your website considering legibility and readability. The higher the color contrast better will be the link development.

Layout- A neat layout of your site makes the user and the search engine read the information in an easy manner and is one of the strongest means to optimize the website.

Infographics- Infographic is a popular method to convey your information that brings a good amount of traffic when used appropriately.

5. Development

Google has made the website loading speed one of its ranking parameters.

A website with a better loading time will certainly improve its SEO in the time to come. You need to slow down your website loading speed to give a better user experience, minimize the bounce rate and increase the conversion ratio.

Check your website speed by using tools like Google Developers, Pingdom, and GT Metrix and improve the performance through techniques such as WordPress Plugins, Content Delivery Network (CDN), or CSS Sprites.

6. Off-Page Optimization

Off-page techniques increase the online visibility of your website by making it popular among the audience and thus increasing its SERP ranking.

Creating Sharable Content

An astounding content generates natural backlinks to a website because it is hugely liked and shared by the audience on various platforms in a shorter period. Competitive research will help you to create incredible content that goes viral and brings huge organic traffic to your website.

Influencer Outreach

You need to do influencer marketing, post-creating content and ask for relevant backlinks from the influencers. This marketing strategy can help to reach out to a bigger audience, grow your social following, build trust and Increase organic traffic.

Guest Posts And Backlinks

Backlinks are one of the vital factors for ranking in Google and Guest blogging helps in building a relationship, giving exposure and developing links.

Social Engagements

Social engagement and Google ranking have a positive correlation, which can be depicted from the below diagrams.

Content that performs better on Social websites is able to generate more backlinks which improve their Google ranking.

7. Create Short, Clear And Effective Video Content

Content in the form of an online Video is one of the effective marketing strategy and a powerful SEO tool if developed with a clearly defined goal.

Make a short, clear, and effective video to engage the audience, bring more links to your site and increase the conversion rate.

According to Invodo, 52% of customers have stated that watching product videos makes them feel more confident and drive to make a purchase.

Videos on a landing page of a website can attract a user and make him engaged for a long duration than text content. A well-made Introductory video can boom the traffic of a start-up.

Google’s rich snippets can increase the number of clicks and traffic of a website by giving a glimpse of the video embedded on the page.

8. Create Highly Researched Authority Posts Using The Skyscraper Technique

Content in the form of an online Video is one of the effective marketing strategies and a powerful SEO tool if developed with a clearly defined goal.

Google aims at providing results that match the User’s Intent and if your post doesn’t satisfy User Intent, the search engine will not list your page in its search result, lagging behind in the ranking.

Skyscraper Technique can help you in figuring out User Intent and optimize your pages accordingly to boost organic traffic and ranking. Using the technique you can do topic-based keyword research, create a thumbnail of the content and then deliver the final post that fulfills the User Intent.

The Skyscraper technique has worked great for SEO in 2018 and will do well in the future too.

9. Make Your Website Responsive For All Types Of Devices (Desktop/Laptops/Hand-Held Devices)

User convenience is the primary aspect to be considered while building a website. There is a regular shift with the evolving technology, in the way people interact with the web. Make a website that is responsive to all types of devices i.e. Desktop, Laptop, mobile, and other handheld devices.

Smartphones have generated 52.2% of website traffic, worldwide in 2018. Google has introduced the mobile-first index as one of the factors for the website ranking.

By not limiting your information to a particular device and optimizing your site at all devices you are going to attract more organic traffic and improve your search engine ranking.

10. Remove Dead Pages Or Re-Write Them If They Are Still Relevant

If you want your site to get better ranked in Google search results, keep your pages updated. Google prefers fresh and updated content as it serves the User quest for information and information credibility. Content on topics written in the past that are no more relevant have gone obsolete now should be removed. Content topics that are still relevant, the posts on the topic should be reviewed, updated and re-launched. Content re-launch saves time, increase the click-through rate and ranking.

11. People’s Opinion Matters

Gather genuine reviews from customers or community members, positive reviews can differentiate you from your competitors and help your search ranking and increase visibility. Reviews can even help in improving your product service and quality.

Ask your customers to leave their reviews on Google My Business and connect with your customers to attract more organic traffic.

Content Will Remain At The Center Stage For Better Search Rankings

Every passing year is going to be tough for businesses to compete for the SERP ranking. But in a nutshell, the search engines would make sure that they present the best and the most relevant content to their customers. And thus, it is simple to say, ‘In this pursuit to reach the top of SERP, the website with quality content will definitely rank higher.