Around a decade ago, all it took were a few formulaic search engine optimization (SEO) moves for a guaranteed top spot in search rankings. But things have changed drastically over the years. Search behemoths like Google have always intended to make the virtual world as similar to the real world as possible, especially with regard to marketing. And in the last several years, they have succeeded to a significant extent.
The modern world of SEO is all about marketing to the people. What this means is that there is no single way to create an impact. The modern SEO landscape is dynamic, and almost anything can work. But that does not mean that everything always will.
Marketers offering SEO services in the UK can stick to the standard approach of on-page optimization, link building, social media, etc., but you need something more than the basics if you want to stand out.
So, beyond the tried-and-tested methods, what are the SEO hacks that can boost your rankings? To help you begin, we’ve got a list of eight such amazing hacks. Take a look:
1. Use CDN To Boost Website Loading Speed
If you’ve been in the SEO game for some time, you might know the importance of having a fast-loading website. Time and again, Google has mentioned that speed is a vital landing page factor for Google Search and Ads. In fact, Google has already created PageSpeed, a free tool to help people analyze the speed of their websites. The tool also offers quick suggestions to help improve website speed.
Apart from those suggestions, another very effective solution to boost the loading speed of your website is using Content Delivery Network (CDN). In simple words, CDN uses a distributed server network to ensure faster delivery of your website and its content to global visitors. It basically eliminates the location-based limitation of physical servers.
Most leading CDNs use high-end cloud infrastructure for faster content delivery worldwide. With time, CDN could help boost your rankings and reduce your bounce rates.
2. Accelerated Mobile Pages for Mobile Optimization
According to a CyberCrew, around 47.3 percent of the online traffic in the UK comes from smartphones. Needless to say, you must optimize your website for handheld devices or risk losing a good chunk of traffic. Some of the most common ways to do this are to use a responsive web design, structured data and image compression.
But if you really want your visitors to access your content at lightning speeds, accelerated mobile pages (AMP) can be the solution. It is an open-source project by Google with the help of which web publishers can create content that instantly loads on all the devices. It uses an HTML5 framework that abundantly relies on caching to boost the loading time.
AMP is not a ranking factor for search engines, but page speed definitely is. So, while your website will not get an instant boost just because of adopting AMP, the improved speed that it can provide can work along with other ranking factors to influence your rankings. Professional SEO service in the UK can help you adopt AMP while also working on other vital ranking factors.
3. Search Intent Is the Key
If Google ranking is your goal, there’s no option but to create and publish content people search for. In other words, the website content should align with the search intent. No matter how good your products/services are, how fast your website is, or how valuable the content is, your site will not rank higher as it is possible that people are not searching for things you are working upon.
For instance, let us assume that you are a bookseller wanting to rank for “fiction books.” So, the first thing that might come to your mind is listing the fiction titles you are selling on a product page. But that might not really be the most practical choice because this is not what people are searching for. You can check the first few search results for the term “fiction books,” and you’ll see that they are blog posts with a list of fiction books.
Rather than making a purchase, people use Google search to learn more about fiction books or find out the top titles. In fact, according to a Science Direct study, almost 80 percent of the search intents are informational. So, instead of creating a product page, publish a blog post listing the top fiction books and then link those books to your product pages.
4. Service Area Pages for Local SEO
If you’re focusing on local SEO, one of the most effective ways to improve your rankings is to create service area pages (SAPs). There are landing pages with content for people searching from or for a specific city or location. With SAP, it is easier for businesses to let people know about the services offered in particular areas.
But with that being said, it is not recommended to create a single service page for all the areas you cover. For instance, if you offer your services in three counties, creating three individual pages for each of the counties would be more effective. Likewise, if you offer multiple services across multiple locations, consider creating individual pages for each service offered at every location.
While it can take some time to create multiple SAPs, it is still an excellent way to significantly boost your chances of ranking higher. Moreover, even the lead generation would be supersized and highly specific. Similarly, if you offer online services or products, rather than creating a single features page, create individual pages for every feature and optimize them for the same keyword.
5. Optimize Images To Avoid Slow Loading
Apart from the text, you also need to optimize website images. Content creators and designers often fail to consider image resolution or size before uploading them to any page. But if the images are not reduced to the size required for a page and not saved in appropriate resolution, it can significantly impact the loading speed of your website. And this will impact user experience and even website ranking.
It is pretty simple to optimize images for your website. You can use tools such as WebPageTest to analyze the size of all the elements on a web page. The developer tools in the Chrome browser can also be used for the same. Apart from optimizing images, you can also consider using alt tags for the images.
These are short text blurbs that can be attached to the images. Search engines cannot read your website images. For instance, if you’ve uploaded a picture of a t-shirt, it won’t be able to know what the picture is about. You can add an alt tag saying “black t-shirt” to help the search engines. In this way, you will improve the relevancy of your web pages, and it can boost your rankings.
6. Remain Relevant With Evergreen Content
When it comes to creating content for your website, it is always better to have a good amount of evergreen content pieces. Like evergreen trees that can remain green and fresh even when others start turning brown, evergreen or timeless content will remain relevant and valuable for years to come.
So, you should try to avoid writing content on every latest trend as it will become outdated soon. While it is impossible to predict what will remain relevant in the future, you always have the option to update the content in case it becomes outdated to ensure that it continues bringing traffic.
Also, it’d help to place all evergreen content pieces in front of your visitors at all times. As people will find it relevant and useful for a long time, you should also receive plenty of natural backlinks for them. You can also share the content through your social media accounts at regular intervals to reach the most number of people.
7. SEO Title + Year for Improved Click-Through Rates
The higher the number of people who click on your website in search results, the better you’ll rank. When more people click on your website, it is a signal for search engines that suggests you have something helpful on your website. So, they will start ranking your website higher so that more people can easily find it.
If you want to improve your click-through rate (CTR), try adding a year to the SEO titles. When people see that the content is current and fresh, the chances of receiving clicks are higher. However, the technique is mostly recommended for websites already on the first search results page as improved CTR offers maximum benefits to websites on the first page.
But even if you are not on the first page, you can still use this hack to climb a few places and improve the probability of ranking higher. You can add the year manually, or if you are using WordPress, there are several plugins that can do this automatically. As the number of clicks rises, you should also witness improvements in your rankings.
8. Get Featured as Rich Snippet With FAQ Schema
According to a report, more than 50 percent of Google searches now end without a click. Snippets are one of the primary reasons people are not required to click on any of the websites in the search results as they’d already found an answer to their query. Adding a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) schema can help you get featured as a rich snippet in search results.
FAQ scheme is a code that you will add to your website to let search engines know that there is an FAQ page on your website to increase the chances of getting featured as a rich snippet. If you don’t already have an FAQ page, you should add one at the earliest to answer common customer questions, educate, and overcome objections.
And if you already have an FAQ page, do not miss out on the FAQ schema. By getting featured in a rich snippet, you get more real estate in the search results. But, more importantly, it shows you as an authority in your niche or industry. Not to forget that FAQ schemas are also beneficial for voice searches.
Boost Your Rankings With These Powerful SEO Hacks
If you’ve been searching for SEO hacks that are beyond the basics and actually work, you should make a note of the points discussed in this post. Try to use them yourself or look for reputed SEO services in the UK to get all the assistance you need.
As SEO professionals regularly work with clients across industries, their knowledge and expertise will provide you with the best opportunity to rank higher, receive more traffic, boost sales and generate more revenue.
