If you have embraced digital marketing in your organization, you are probably aware of how search engine optimization is critical to your overall success. Individuals all over the world use search engines to find products brands and services when in need of shopping. Embracing the art of search engine optimization is not an easy exercise, and many start-up firms fail at it.
Most of them are constantly wondering how one increases their search engine ranking, and to be sincere; it’s not easy at all. There are so many factors involved, but that is why we have come up with this guide; to help you improve your SEO ranking. Are You Embarrassed By Your Digital Marketing Skills? Here’s What to do –
How long will it take to improve your search engine ranking?
This is always the question of considering time is money. The answer to this question depends on a number of factors. Pay close attention to the following elements that will impact how long it will take you to improve your search engine ranking:
Skills – Do you have the required set skills to improve your SEO? Apparently, do you know where to get started? Your skills plays a major role in how quickly you improve your ranking. If you have excellent skills, there is a high chance you will achieve desired results fasts and easy.
- Budget- Here, one should look at the type of budget they are working with. The larger the budget you set aside, the better you can improve your search engine optimization. If you are working with a limited budget, be strategic on every step you take.
- Competition- Competition also highly influences the overall performance of your website. If you are in a competitive industry, it will probably take you longer to attain high SEO ranking. How tactical your competitors are will also impact your search engine ranking
- Website condition- The condition of your site highly influences your overall performance, and you need to put effort into improving different elements. How well you structure your site highly influences your overall performance.
Keeping these factors in mind will help improve your search engine ranking fast and easy. These factors are important, but how exactly does one improve their ranking?
There are various strategies one can put in place to improve their chances. Let’s look at a few ways to get started.
Start with an SEO website audit:
In order to find why your website if not doing well, you need to carry out an audit to determine your site’s strengths and weaknesses.
Through SEO website audit, you will be able to find ways to play to your strengths while looking for ways to improve your weak areas. An effective SEO website audit process should look at;
- Existing content
- Your website structure
- Information build-up
- The point of auditing is to help pinpoint areas that require attention to help you come up with a strategic plan for improvement. Note the audit itself does not improve your SEO. It’s a vital step towards realizing your mistakes to work on them.
- Improve site navigation
- No user is happy with a site that takes ages to load, and if Google would not be cautious about this, there is a high chance they won’t be the number one search engine.
Most search engines want to provide their users with the best possible experience, and one of the ways to do so is by making sure sites with positive user experience are on top of the list. In addition to offering a positive user experience, one should make sure the site is easy to navigate. Visitors tend to leave your site when they can’t find what they are looking for. This negatively impacts your bounce rate, which interns reflect on your SEO ranking.
Fix duplicate content
Duplicate content will always frustrate your search engine optimization efforts. Search engines acknowledge and reward sites with unique content. If you have duplicate articles and guest posts, you will be highly penalized. Make sure you check out any duplicate content on your website and fix it fast before you start experiencing a drop in your SERP ranking.
One of the common duplicate issues most SEOs tend to assume is multiple versions of the same page. Google is able to recognize multiple versions of the same page first and easy. Part of your content can be duplicated. Maybe the writer you hired was not keen to write unique content. This will negatively influence your search engine ranking, and you need to fix it as soon as possible.
Tools like Copyscape are a good way to point out duplicate content.
- Optimize your site for mobile
Mobile optimization plays a major role in your overall search engine ranking. Most search engine users use their mobile phones whenever they have queries. What happens if you are not optimized for mobile devices? You attract less traffic, which is not good for your ranking.
By the end of 2020, Google will start penalizing sites that are not optimized for mobile devices. Mobile site optimization is a good way to get started.
- Optimize your site for speed
Site speed is another factor search engines look into when ranking your site.
Bear in mind, the longer it takes to load your page, the more frustrated its users will be. This can cause them to leave your site for a faster website. Note that if your site takes more than 3 seconds to load, you are losing more than 50% of site visitors.
