Ethical SEO (search engine optimization) is one of the most important things you can do for your website. In fact, it’s such an important topic that we’ve covered it in-depth before. But coming up with a strategy to boost your site’s rankings isn’t easy task—especially if you’re new to SEO or have limited time and resources. That’s why I’m going to share some quick tips for getting ahead of the curve without breaking any Google rules!
READ: What is SEO / Search Engine Optimization?
Ethical SEO Hacks! Let’s Get Started!
1. Create a website that screams authority.
- Make your site look professional. Think of the most respected companies in your industry, and emulate their style and layout.
- Make sure your site is well-structured. Google wants to see that you know what you’re doing, so make it easy for them—and for potential visitors—to browse around and find what they’re looking for.
- Make sure your site is easy to navigate. If someone lands on a page, can they quickly find what they need?
- Make sure your site is fast. You might think this tip applies only if you run an ecommerce company with thousands of products on sale at any given moment, but even blogs should load quickly on mobile devices so people aren’t tempted by something else while waiting around for your content to appear before them like some kind of gift from God himself (or at least his earthly emissaries).
READ: How to Design a Website? 10 Tips on Effective Website Design
2. Only build links on trusted websites.
A link from a trusted website is more valuable than a link from an unknown site. And while it might be tempting to use black hat techniques like building hundreds of links from low-quality websites, this will damage your rankings and ultimately lead to negative consequences down the road.
Instead, focus on building links on high-quality websites with authority and trust. These sites have already done the hard work for you – they’re usually ranked higher in Google search results, which means their backlinks are more likely to pass PageRank (the algorithm that determines how high up in SERPs your site appears).
Most importantly: people trust these websites! So when they click through and land on your page via one of their backlinks, there’s a good chance they’ll stick around because they feel safe there and understand what they’re doing—this leads to higher conversion rates overall as well as increased brand awareness (which we’ll talk about more later).
3. Take advantage of the LSI Keyword strategy.
This strategy is intended to take advantage of LSI keywords. The idea behind LSI keyword strategies is that Google considers words that are semantically related to your target keyword as relevant and can help you rank for it.
What this means is that if we are trying to rank for the keyword “SEO”, then LSI keywords would be “Search Engine Optimization” or “SEO services” or “SEO tips” – basically any term related directly or indirectly to SEO.
READ: 9 Best Steps To Find Perfect Keywords In Under 1 Hour | Proper Keyword Research Techniques
4. Make sure you’re writing for humans and not just search engines.
The first thing you need to do is make sure your content is readable, easy to understand, and easy to navigate.
Your content needs to be easy enough so that a person can easily find what they’re looking for. Any search engine spidering your website would have no problem identifying the main topics in one glance.
The easier it is for them (and humans) to digest what they read then the better chance of ranking in Google’s results pages. There are three main things we want our pages doing:
- Providing value by answering questions or solving problems for users searching for answers online;
- Engaging readers with an enticing headline that makes them want more information about what you’re offering;
- Linking out from internal pages onto other sites that provide even more useful information if someone wants further reading on the subject matter at hand or just some added benefits such as discounts or freebies like eBooks etcetera…
5. Start using long-tail keywords in your content.
Long-tail keywords are more specific and less competitive than broad terms. They’re harder to rank for, but you can use them together with your main keyword and get better rankings for a longer period of time.
Long-tail keywords can help you rank for more competitive keywords.
If your site is about dog training, you could write a blog post about how to train your puppy on an agility course instead of just “how to train dogs”. This gives you more opportunities to rank in the long run (and maybe even get featured).
6. Practice on-page SEO without fail.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get into some more advanced on-page SEO. Here are some surefire ways to improve your rankings by practicing on-page SEO without fail:
- Make sure you are using the right keywords.
- Make sure your site is easy to read.
- Make sure your site is easy to navigate.
- Make sure your site is easy to access (should be in a place where people can find it).
- Make sure your site is easy to find (should be highly ranked for relevant terms).
- Make sure your site is easy to use (should have an intuitive design and good UX).
7. Use the power of keywords in your images.
When you think about SEO, you probably think of words. Well, it’s time to think outside of the box and rethink your strategy. As it turns out, images are a great way to optimize your content for search engines!
- Use keywords in your images.
- Optimize images for SEO by adding alt tags.
- Make sure that you have keywords in the title and description of all of your images as well.
8. Take advantage of internal links.
Internal links are the links that point to your own website. These links can be found in the footer of your site, or they could be embedded within an article. When you link to other pages on your site, you’re telling search engines what is important on your page and how it fits into the overall structure of your website.
In addition to helping visitors navigate through your pages easily, internal links also help search engines understand what’s in each piece of content on a page by linking them together. This is why it’s important for internal linking strategies not only to be present but also effective.
If done correctly, internal linking will improve bounce rates by keeping people from leaving after reading one article because there are more articles worth checking out!
9. Start optimizing for voice search right now.
Voice search is not a fad. If you’re one of the many marketers who still thinks that voice search isn’t real, you should know that it is.
We live in an era where consumers are no longer typing keywords into Google and clicking on links. Instead they are talking to their phones and asking questions like “Where can I find the best burgers in town?” or “What’s playing this weekend at my local movie theater?”
Voice searches have become so popular that about 30% of all mobile queries are now vocalized according to recent research from Google. That means if your business isn’t optimizing for voice search right now, you could be missing out on some serious traffic opportunity!
10. Get listed on business directory sites like Yelp and AllMenus.com where relevant.
You can get listed on business directory sites like Yelp and AllMenus.com where relevant.
It’s worth noting that this won’t be enough to get you ranked on the first page of Google for your target keywords but it will help get you the traffic that you need to start ranking higher in the long run!
These are some quick and easy ways to get ahead of your competition when it comes to optimizing your site for Google’s search engine ranking algorithm!
These are some quick and easy ways to get ahead of your competition when it comes to optimizing your site for Google’s search engine ranking algorithm!
There are many ways you can do this, but these methods are some of the easiest.
These methods are not against the rules or anything like that, so don’t worry about getting into trouble with Google by using them.
These methods may not be as effective in getting rankings than other methods, but they’re still effective enough to help you get ahead of the game.
Conclusion
Hopefully, these tips will help you to avoid some of the pitfalls that so many businesses have fallen into over the years. The bottom line is that there’s no magic wand for SEO success: it takes time, effort and a little bit of luck. But if you follow these ten simple rules, you should be well on your way to ranking better than ever before!
Too busy to worry about search engines like Google? We can help! We offer SEO services for all industries and business sizes, contact us today!
