SEO isn’t just about doing the right things; it’s also about making sure you don’t do the wrong ones. Unfortunately, the constantly changing algorithm puts you in a position where you have to constantly update yourself about SEO.
Right now, there’s a good chance that you have several SEO issues preventing you from grabbing the top spot for your keywords. Before spending any more money on your online marketing, make sure you have these items corrected first:
1. Fix Your Content
When we talk about “content”, we’re not just talking about the article itself. Most guidelines will tell you to “create better content” but what exactly does that mean? The goal with good content is creating one that’s designed to meet the exact expectations of your end-user. Even Google is shifting their algorithm to make sure that they can deliver exactly what the user is searching for.
For example, some good ranking sites today actually have PDF content while others offer videos and images. This indicates that the old-school keywords and LSI approach no longer have the power they used to have.
2. Multiple Links Tracked
There are instances when Google will be sending clients to different pages of the same website. This can be a problem because when tracking your site visits, the number will be divided to different URLs. This can be a problem because you’re getting a skewered view of the numbers. You may have a hard time figuring out which sites should be optimized and which ones should be left alone.
This problem can be fixed by updating your internal links and setting up a canonical link element. It can happen that even with a canonical link, your results are overwhelmed by the number of internal links leading to non-productive web pages. You might also want to check your Google Analytics and remove some of the parameters to get a more targeted view of your results.
3. Incorporating Feedback
You can also try adding feedback into your pages so there’s an automatic update to your analytics. This way, you’ll get a summarized version of your site’s performance. With a good feedback setup, you’ll be able to track outdated content or if there are dead links or erroneous links that makes navigation difficult.
4. Checking Indexed Links
Once your domain is crawled by Google, all of those pages are indexed and remembered by the search engine. Over the years though, there’s a good chance that some of those links are lost but you didn’t tell Google about it. This is the situation when you do a search and Google says the page isn’t available anymore.
So how do you solve this problem? Well, Google offers a Coverage Report in Search Console. This will show you the indexed URLs and then compare them to your sitemap. If the URL is indexed but not in your site anymore, you might want to make an update. You can remove some URL links, block the path using robots.txt or block it through your server.
What if your problem is vice versa and the search engine is coming up with URLs you want them to find? Well, you can try adding more links leading to the URL you want, having other sites link to the page, or just add it to your sitemap
5. Customize your Metrics
How are you supposed to get accurate results if your metrics aren’t right? Try getting third party custom metrics to help enhance your analytics tools. Additional metrics should be able to track factors like the read time, logged in, logged out, sites visited, and even your most valuable pages.
Don’t forget to always do a site search with a reputation Houston SEO company. Look into important pages that should be added to the navigation panel and trends that will help kick your site for the season. Always be on the lookout for hot content and make sure you cover the information while searches for it are still on the rise.
6. Avoid Cannibalistic Content
This refers to pages that compete for the same keyword. Using the search console, check a specific search query and Google will tell you which of your pages come up for that keyword. If you have more than one, then this means that pages from your website are basically competing against each other for a good spot in the search engine results. This can be a problem because while they’re fighting against each other, a competitor can easily slip in. How do you solve this problem? You can do it by unifying the competing web pages.
7. Improve on Page Speed
Impatience is one of the top reasons why people abandon web pages. Nowadays, a few seconds of loading time is already too much for people. While you can’t control their internet speed, your website can be optimized so that it doesn’t take much work to load completely. Skip all the heavy designs and keep it straightforward and simple.