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There are many ways to improve your SEO. Some of them are related to the content on your pages, while others have to do with how credible well your site appears will answer the user’s query, according to the search engine.
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In this knowledgebase, we will be citing statistics related to Google and referring to them as our search engine unless otherwise noted. As the number one search engine worldwide, Google sees over 92% of all search traffic. (That number is even higher for English-speaking countries; the second largest search engine, Baidu, is only available in Chinese.) Google sees over 6 billion searches per day. |
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There are three primary categories of SEO:
On-Site SEO
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: Your most visible category, including fresh content, inclusion of key phrases
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, clear headers
Technical SEO
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: This category is
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more “behind-the-scenes
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,” such as meta descriptions, page load speeds, and internal linking
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Off-Site SEO
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: The SEO that isn’t even on your site, such as building referral traffic, Google My Business updates, and more
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Improving Your SEO
There are many ways to improve your SEO, which the other articles in this guide go more in-depth on. On a high level, your site content and site credibility ability to satisfy the user’s query are both things that influence the search algorithm. Those factors determines what the most relevant results are for each search.
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Relevant Content
It is hopefully fairly obvious that the content on your site needs to match the searches you would like to rank for. If you are hoping people will find your site by searching “antique silver jewelry” then you should have a page dedicated to that topic, whether it’s a blog post, a landing page, or an entire page of inventory. The more places on your site that those keywords key phrases appear, the more likely Google is to suggest you to the searcher. We’ll get more into site content best practices in other pages within this section.
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One of the factors that Google’s algorithm looks at when deciding how to rank websites is the site credibility (sometimes called site authority)your ability to satisfy the user’s query. The algorithm asks the question, “How likely are people to find what they are looking for by visiting this site?” Remember that Google and other search engines do not care about your website; they are trying to provide the best possible experience for the user. In turn, your goal is to provide search engines with a trustworthy source of relevant content. The algorithms favor things that demonstrate the best user experiences over time. Other things that contribute to your ranking include the length of time you have held your domain name, the amount of content on your site, the depth of content on your site (think 2500 words vs 500), how quickly your site loads, and the relevance of the information in relation to the search.
Another factor Google considers is your bounce rate.
NOTE - With the release of Google Analytics 4 in late 2020, Google is removing the bounce rate metric. The following information is for informational purposes but still applies to Google Analytics Universal accounts.
Your bounce rate is calculated by how many people only view one page on your site before they leave. If 50% of your visitors leave after only looking at one page, your bounce rate is 50%. Things that cause searchers to leave your site quickly, such as broken links, irrelevant information, and unresponsive or slow-loading sites, contribute to a high bounce rate. (You’re going for a golf score here!) Conversely, if a searcher finds information they are looking for, they are more likely to click on other pages within your website. You can calculate both your overall bounce rate as well as rates for individual pages, such as your Home page or Contact page. Typical bounce rates are between 25-50%. If your bounce rate starts to hover around 75% or more, your website likely needs some updates.
Google also looks at the length of time users spend on your site and how many users are interacting with your site. The higher the volume of users clicking on your website, the more likely Google is to recommend you for other searchers. Your CTR (click-through-rate) is how often users click on your website when it appears in a search. This snowball effect can really help in the long-term, and it is also one of the reasons that you won’t see the effects of your efforts overnight. SEO strategies are ongoing processes that take time to build up results.
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