Need some more SEO tips? We’ve got them, 100, to be exact. Most are pretty simple and easy things you can do today to get higher search rankings.
In this list, we will cover tactics to improve upon keyword research, link building, technical handling, user experience and of course on-page optimization.
Without further ado…
1.Read our previous article about on-page optimization tasks and consider all nine techniques presented. Learn about Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords, URL length and composition, page length, how meta descriptions and title tags can affect click-through rates (CTR), the value of both internal and external links, the importance of website speed and the huge need for multimedia (images, videos, infographics, polls, interactive content).
2. Speaking of multimedia, remember to add text content to any infographics. Unfortunately, it is not always enough to simply have them on your pages; they must be read by search engines to ensure higher rankings. Adding text informs search engines what pages and infographics are all about. Thus, infographics can generate tons of social shares and backlinks AND they are optimized for search engine crawling.
3. Include keyword synonyms in H1 and H2 tags. It is a good idea to use target keyword synonyms when you feel that the page is over-optimized. DO NOT use shorter, less relevant words or phrases.
4. Place the target keyword for which you are trying to rank early in your title tag. The earlier, the better. Only do this when the target keyword will make good sense at the forefront of your title tag. Search engines prefer to rank prominent target keywords higher.
5. Create numbered lists to make Google Knowledge Graph entry more attainable. You may have read our previous on-page SEO article and know that numbers in titles are ideal. Numbers and lists in content and subheaders are also great for boosting rankings. Number the steps in your process or the items in your list to increase your Knowledge Graph attainability. Bullet points work well, too. In addition, list formats make content very readable.
6. Incorporate title tag modifiers wherever possible. People seeking specific information add short, specific words or phrases to their will search terms, like “2018,” “best,” “checklist,” “PDF,” “guide,” “course” “reviews.” The more specific your title tag, the more likely you are to rank.
7. Embed lengthy tail keywords in title tags. This is also a good keyword research technique. Embedding will achieve higher rankings for the long tail keyword (specific, three or four-word phrase) quickly AND will encourage higher rankings for the main target keyword over time. Optimizing your title tag around the main target keyword will get you rankings, but a long tail keyword will get you to the top in a speedier fashion, with some added bonuses. While long tail keywords certainly help, they should not be of exclusive focus. Moderately high volume keywords are more important to target.
8. Implement unique titles. These next nine double as technical SEO tips. This is hugely simple, yet many major websites with a lot of pages err in using duplicate titles. Get those creative juices flowing. Use titles that are short and sweet and avoid repeated or boilerplate titles (long and vary from others within the website only by a single piece of information).
9. Because search engines are unable to read images, you must craft image metadata (filename and alt text) as you would the image caption. This gives search engines a better idea of what an image contains. Use keywords in the alt text, but not too many. Let the words flow like in a caption.
10. Use schema to increase click-through rates. Review stars or images are ideal. However, it is important to not overuse this CTR technique and fall victim to schema markup. Google has begun issuing penalties for this. Keep it classy!
11. Study Google Search Console for any issues relating to your title tag. It’s all there for you; you just have to know where to look. Descriptive and concise title tags are not always achievable with a growing and aging website. You might end up with generic or missing title tags on pages. These are easy to find and correct, thanks to the Google Search Console. Go to “Search Appearance” —> “HTML Improvements”—> “Non-informative title tags.”
12. Destroy duplicate content and mediocre blog posts. If left untouched, identical content becomes a pesky SEO issue. You can assign a “noindex” tag to content you really want to save or redirect to another relevant post. But if it is not driving traffic or revenue, the page is useless. So usually better to delete.
13. Use our favorite Canonical URLs to avoid potential SEO issues in regards to duplicate content.
14. File a DMCA report to alert search engines if your ripped off content is ranking higher than your original work. Eventually, you might get the ranking of your stolen content.
15. Host your website on a subfolder. Subfolders are far better for Search Engine Optimization, although Google claims to be indifferent. Experts have found that subfolders do wonders for search engine rankings, much more so than subdomains.
16. Add more volume and value to your content with a little help from Raven Tools. The site auditor crawls your site and lets you know where your site might be lacking so that you can beef up pages.
17. First, add a privacy policy and terms page to your website. This may or may not have a huge impact on your rankings, but it definitely cannot hurt. It basically tells search engine users that your content is. “real” and legit, unlike the content from shady affiliate sites without such pages.
18. Install a “Click to Tweet” widget/plugin around your content to get more shares and thus increase your search engine rankings. Sometimes, the “share my post” call to action can seem too generic and unworthy of action. A button to specifically Tweet is more unique and simplifies things for users.
19. Make social sharing buttons, especially those “Click to Tweet” buttons, extremely easy to locate, even following a visitor down a page. This ensures that your content can be floated around the Internet by interested users relatively effortlessly.
20. Insert your target keyword into the BEGINNING of your content. This one is pretty basic and not likely to make a huge dent in your SEO rankings, but simply cannot hurt. It’s just an easy, good thing to do. When people see target keywords that they searched for towards the top of a page, they are more likely to remain.
21. Focus on homepage and brand name Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). While homepages maintain a certain level of authority, they typically lack substantial content, making search engines less likely to show them. Work on ranking for your brand name and conversions on your homepage.
22. Refurbish dated content and modify date descriptions. Updating old content is too underrated. Performing content maintenance informs search engines and users alike that you care about your content. So be sure to make it known that you care! Perhaps the only thing worse than ingesting out-of-date information is ingesting to-date information but thinking it is out-of-date. Use “Last Updated” rather than indicating only a publish or post date. This tells users that your content is upgraded up until that date so they can glean the best information. And if your dates are good enough to garner a lot of clicks, your search engine rankings will go up!
23. Play up search engine browsers’ desires for faster results in your description tag. Highlight words like “quick” and “speedy,” and timeframes in your description tag to get more clicks.
24. Although images appearing above the fold on your page cannot be too big, they should be vibrant and colorful. For whatever reason, visitors are more likely to ingest content below or alongside an eye-catching picture. Like, significantly more likely.
25. Click magnet words (terms that attract clicks, obviously) work magic in title tags. Try words like “new,” “proven,” “now,” and “free” in your title tag and observe your search engine rankings.
26. Put your target keyword or other bold words in your description tag. Google will literally embolden them. People will click.
27. Search engines will reward you for having exciting subheaders that readers notice, so keep revising until you are on the edge of your seat.
28. This tip hits home on all three fronts: on-page SEO, link building and keyword research. Group similar underperforming content together to create a mega guide. Creating a single page for posts that are not driving much traffic will increase views for that page, because search engines will perceive higher value and thus increase page ranking.
29. The Website Penalty Indicator is ideal for matters of on page SEO, link building and technical SEO. Google updates may contribute to falling rankings, but the Indicator will report conclusively if an update is affecting your rankings.
30. Who knew that simple website architecture could inform so many facets of SEO? Building a website that is flat and wide assists with on page SEO, keyword research, technical SEO and user experience. Structure your site flat and wide to get more clicks. People want to see those inner pages, so they are likely to keep clicking until they get there. This will help your inner pages rank higher and all pages to get indexed.
31. To enhance SEO link building, on page SEO and user experience, create content that specifically appeals to influencers, not only your target customers or readers. This has a huge impact, especially in building links for high search engine rankings.
32. Sprinkle your pages with “jump links” that direct users to different sections of the same page. Search engines then use the anchor text of those jump links as sitelinks, the links that appear under select items on search engine result pages. The presence of sitelinks can greatly elevate organic CTR.
33. This is hardly a technique, but more of a reminder to focus on providing the information that people seek. Not surprisingly, this “tip” falls under on-page SEO, keyword research and user experience. If a user searches for a more complicated term, he or she is likely seeking a definition of that term. So, if you are using a keyword that might require further explanation, be sure to include a definition somewhere within your content. And don’t make it hard to find. Along those same lines, answer a “how to” search with clear and direct instructions. Don’t beat around the bush or offer different options. This will heighten your chances of winding up in Google’s Knowledge Graph.
34. Can you do much better?! This strategy will assist you with on page SEO, user experience, technical SEO and keyword research. In search results, search engines may or may not use a page’s meta description tag. Search engines might place content directly from a page under its title on the results page. And sometimes, they pull longer content (perhaps four lines). So, you can make four-line descriptions more attainable by offering an authoritative page with actionable tips at the top. Tips are easy for search engines to read and use in long descriptions. Longer descriptions greatly escalate click through rates.
35. Proclaim yourself an expert, and contribute regularly to expert roundups (collections of smart computer people information and opinions). If you input good things, your page or pages earn strong backlinks.
36. Work with others to engineer a fun and unique infographic. Co-branding will halve the work of creating an infographic, but double its promotional impact. This will generate many backlinks.
Stick with your gut feeling when it comes to link building. The metrics are unimportant these days. If the website looks legit to you, has good information, but may not have your desired level of domain authority, take the time to get the link for the website. Pages that publish more impactful, resounding content will aid in your SEO. Just remember that you are the best judge of content quality. People like, and tend to return to sources of information they find most credible.
38. Build “hard” links with email outreach. Check out these links for effective email outreach tips: The Link Builder’s Guide to Email Outreach
How to Write a Personalized Outreach Email Even When You’re Sending it to 100 People
How to Pitch: Outreach Tips from Journalists)
Don’t fall for any “easy link building” strategies because they will very critically become devalued or penalized by Google. Tempting, but search engines want you to put in the work.
39. Use the Twitter search bar to locate link opportunities. Get links from top news stories and related content. Twitter will deliver unique connections with advanced industry bloggers. Usually, you can also locate content from which you can retrieve links.
40. Insert contextual links whenever possible. Contextual links provide further information if users are not understanding as they ingest the information. They quickly elevate your search engine rankings. Build more contextual links.
41. Always know which websites use your visuals, and encourage their sitemasters to add your link to their pages. This is especially important for those who publish a lot of visual content, such as charts or infographics. Find websites using your graphics on Google reverse image search.
42. Most sitemasters are happy to insert your link when given a small nudge. Gentle reminders go a long way. Then… Watch those backlinks roll in!
43. Use the resource pages (designed to link to content) that may be part of an online guide to build terrific backlinks. Resource pages are easy to track down.
44. Reach out and promote your page or pages to those who recently shared similar content or those who commented on another page. Of course, promote your content to your email list to keep them interested. Sending a quick email to potentially interested parties is the quick and easy way to build links.
45. Encourage an authoritative blogger or industry influencer to craft a guest post on your page. This is known as “reverse guest posting.” If this happens, it can build links like nobody’s business.
46. Use Boomerang to time outreach emails perfectly for the best conversion rate for your links. You have probably learned over the years to time your interactions so that you can get the best response, preferably a favorable one. This is very important in link building and you might find that early to mid afternoon hours are best. Additionally, try sending more than one email. Direct pitches do not yield as high of a response rate. A gentle reminder of a new or awesome link to try can be very fruitful.
47. If you come across resourceful content that might be valuable to a global audience, translate the content. Send your version to the author via email. He or she might decide to use it and link it back to you. Along those lines, be sure to transcribe any resourceful content, from text to audio or vice versa. Even freshen and rework another author’s or site owner’s dated content our broken links. Do not trade a translating service exclusively for a backlink in keeping with webmaster guidelines. Be courteous by sending the author your work, and he or she can decide what or what not to link. Link building is really all about building relationships.
48. Pay attention to spam-y links within your content. You should remove these as soon as possible with email outreach because they could be disastrous in terms of your search engine rankings. Crisp, clean links on your website are ideal.
49. Find opportunities to craft an informed guest post or posts on other pages relating to your topic. This one gets a little more creepy: locate the individual who guest posts frequently in your industry. Input his or her image into Google’s reverse image search to get a list of where might be a good idea for you to post.
50. Use Linkclump, the Google Chrome extension that enables you to harness multiple link prospects from the results page. You can drag a selection box around links using your mouse to quickly open as new tabs, open in new window, save as bookmarks or copy to clipboard. This just saves time.
51. Use Million Short for realistic link targets. Gone are the days you spend hours filtering out giants (YouTube, Amazon, LinkedIn) from your list of link prospects. the Toronto-based search engine or “discovery engine” allows users to filter their Search results, leaving huge emphasis on content discovery. This tool filters out the top hundred thousand or million sites (depending on your preference) from your results.
52. Write a glowing testimonial for a product or service that you recently enjoyed. Reach out to the site owners with your link and testimonial. If the testimonials link out, you can enjoy several sturdy backlinks.
53. Use Yesware to optimize email outreach for link building. Yesware contributes to a key component in one facet of search engine optimization. Yes, this list covers everything. With Yesware, you will know if people open your emails, click on your links or forward your emails to others. This can help you understand what is working and what is not in regards to your outreach emails. In a way, Yesware is A/B testing for outreach emails.
54. Be specific and strategic about link placement. It is very unlikely that anyone will actively seek out your specific page without a link, just begging to be clicked. But you should not offer just a home page link with generic information. Instead, strategically include a specific page link in communications with others. Always be certain to effectively describe content.
55. Become a frequent contributor to weekly or monthly columns on high authority websites. Although this is not an easy task, it will regularly put your name in front of millions of Internet users. And this costs nothing! This tip will help your SEO game AND give you major bragging rights.
56. If you represent an organization that is strongly considering offering a scholarship, do it! If it already does, great! And if it is not or not even close, don’t do it. Those .edu backlinks are terrific for SEO. Obviously, if creating a new scholarship, inform the school or university. Solid backlinks! But this tactic can be overused, so don’t just present scholarships in the name of link building.
57. Build backlinks from link roundups, which are weekly or monthly listings of links and websites that have been used and referenced, and found valuable. Of course, to be featured on a roundup, you must reach out to the roundup website and pitch your content. But it is worth it. Do it for the backlinks.
58. Partner with other websites. Coproduce some great content to boost the ranking of your own site. Perhaps work together on a case study, report or infographic. Then, you can create fantastic content for your community while the other party gains exposure.
59. Collect and publish your own unique data. You might be surprised by the number of websites that find your work interesting and you could end up with hundreds of backlinks from different domains.
60. Mix guest postings with The Skyscraper Technique–refurbishing a slightly outdated but highly trafficked piece of content that deals with popular trends or topics. Your search engine rankings will increase significantly because you are dealing with an already interested customer base and high ranking search engine spots. This, in and of itself, will drive page views. But adding The Skyscraper Technique to the way your website guests post, organic search engine traffic can skyrocket.
61. Initiate a glossary of website terms to generate dozens of backlinks. Your website need not concern a highly advanced issue to have a glossary.
62. Create a free tool to which people enjoy linking. Not hard to do because people love linking. Try inserting a calculator or another number-related tool and watch the number of links you get from different domains multiply.
63. Make up your own words or phrases to create branded keywords. It takes time for a term to become something for which people search, but when it does, you will rank first on all search engine results pages.
64. Formulate linkable content around “shoulder niches.” A “shoulder niche” describes a word or idea that is closely related to the topic of your website. A who, what, when, why, where our how might be a “shoulder niche.” Use one or more as a springboard to generate click-worthy content.
65. Keyword research is as self-explanatory as it sounds. Good keyword research involves studying your potential visitor base/target audience and likely search terms to ensure that your content gets up there on the list. Avoid at all costs target keywords that may have a place on Google’s Knowledge Graph. You will get no clicks whatsoever if your keyword can be represented by a box on Google’s search results page.
66. Use the Google Keyword Planner to select words or phrases with high commercial intent. You probably would like to make some money. Choose keywords with a high “suggested bid” (around $10).
67. Identify strong keywords and concepts in any industry books’ table of contents. Chapter titles work well for target keywords or phrases. Input some of your favorites into Google Keyword Planner to better understand the values in terms of search volume and commercial intent.
68. Use Wikipedia to locate excellent target keywords in a table of contents about your topic.
69. Use Quora, an online forum for asking and answering questions. Search for a topic and identify good keywords that appear in both questions and answers. You also may want to utilize Google’s “Searches related to” section we discussed in a previous blog (link) for locating LSI keywords. This segment at the end of a Google search page can give you ideas for long tail keywords.
70. Conference agenda pages are fantastic for keyword research. People willingly give time and money to learn about potential keywords. If you implement these, your rankings will thank you.
71. No matter how terrific you think a keyword, always remember to test on the search engine results page. Numerous ads or even a Knowledge Graph may prompt you to move on to your second choice keyword. If you want to rank, ensure that your target keyword results page will get you clicks.
72. Take advantage of SEMRush in your keyword research. You can see exactly for which keywords your competitors rank by inputting their names. Stealing keywords is okay; stealing content is not. SEMRush can also help to gauge keyword difficulty most accurately before optimizing.
73. Focus on optimizing keywords that are relatively new so you have very little competition. This is not always possible, but it is important to keep abreast of new developments in your industry for ranking purposes.
74. This one helps with keyword research and makes for an excellent user experience. Peruse your competitions’ blog comments. Discover what people are asking about and what information they need. Then of course, create your own topic and keywords with those failings in mind. And you probably will get some new audience members!
75. Be sure to use target keywords that are growing in popularity. Research the keyword’s standing on Google Trends.
76. Dive into the “Crawl Errors” section of Google Search Console with some regularity. Basically, it will spell out your technical issues (like indexing and search visibility). You can get them patched up in no time!
77. Allow 301 redirects to rule your pages. 302 redirects are okay, but definitely not as trusty for all permanent redirects. Confirm this with the “Fetch as Google” feature.
78. Watch that User Generated Content is trustworthy and legitimate. Do not allow spam on your website. Spam can plummet your search engine rankings. Protect your website.
79. Avoid thin or duplicate content issues. Add a “noindex” tag to any dynamic URLs in Google’s index.
80. Keep an eye on your robots.txt file to maintain your blocked pages. This helps keep current with your blocking preferences.
81. Use Kraken.io to compress optimized images, yielding speedier loading for your page or pages. Kraken.io shrinks image size but does not diminish quality.
82. Use Google Search Console’s “property sets” to group elements, like your mobile and desktop versions. This connects everything to give you better information.
83. Understand the way search engines view your website and its contents by inputting its URL into the SEO Browser tool. Know how it looks and if it needs any improvements for Search Engine Optimization.
84. These next two tips will help with your tech game as well as contribute positively to user experience. Create Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs) so that your content loads in a snappy fashion for mobile users. Google has been pushing the use of AMPs, which may ultimately be highlighted on search engine results pages.
85. Initiate at least two sitemaps of your website and send them to Google using Google Search Console. The XML and HTML sitemaps aid search engines in finding and indexing your website pages.
86. Confirm that search engines consider your content “mobile friendly” by simply searching for your page on a mobile device and looking for the “mobile friendly” label in front of metadata. Then, actually USE it. You can uncover many user experience issues.
87. Although search engines likely do not use HTML as a direct ranking signal, keep HTML code clean and free of errors. Keeping things tidy is good for appearances and thus good for search engine rankings.
88. As we have learned, website speed is important. A high-end website host is important. Google’s PageSpeed Insight tool evaluates and accelerates a page’s code. But how to optimize the server, plugins and CDN? Use the GTMetrix tool to hasten your overall website speed. Your website will load so much quicker.
89. We discussed the importance of multimedia, particularly in our on-page SEO section. But where on the page can images be placed in the most beneficial way for users and search engines? While an image about your content does grab attention, it should not be so big that users have to scroll down to read your content but also not so small so that it barely can be seen. Try using opening text and an image side-by-side.
90. Devote ample time to your introduction of the pages content. If people like what they see in the first one or two sentences, they are more likely to spend more time with your content and not bounce to other pages. Craft short introductions to blog posts (ideally 4 to 9 sentences). Offer up brief overview, but really, let the blog do the talking. In general, construct shorter sentences and paragraphs to encourage readership. As we have learned, publishing long content is better for rankings. But keeping paragraphs and sentences within that long content on the short side is also good for rankings. Use only one to three sentences per paragraph so that people can skim. Shorter sentences make for more readable and understandable content.
91. Encourage conversation and comments on your website. A loyal following will boost your search engine rankings.
92. For most websites, ads are necessary evils. Just be aware of placement. Do not allow your page to become bogged down and swallowed by ads. In particular, be sure to keep all things above the fold ad-free.
93. Design pages that are organized and straightforward. As self-evident as this seems, simple designs are somewhat hard to come by on the Internet. Design also relates to perceived credibility. The KISS Principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid).
94. Centralize the crux of your content at the top of your page. Don’t create noise around it. Tell browsers the main idea of your content quickly. If it seems that it will answer their questions, they will probably dwell.
95. Drop several Bucket Brigades (words or phrases that compel users to keep reading or continue ingesting content). Bucket Brigades might be phrases such as “this is important because…” Or “here’s the deal…” Or “it gets better/worse…” Use at least three in every post, particularly in the beginning and middle to encourage users to keep ingesting.
96. Use big font. Not massive, but approachable for the majority of the population. Use 15 to 16 PX. You don’t want readability issues because users will go elsewhere for content.
97. Facebook Ad that. They are not only for e-commerce. Using ads on a common social platform increases brand familiarity and thus your click earning potential. Watch your organic CTR skyrocket.
98. Discover user experience numbers with Google Analytics. Google thinks of everything, even how to objectify something inherently subjective. Click “Behavior” then “Site Content” then “Landing Pages” to observe pages with unfortunate bounce rates or average session durations.
99. You know to use many images. You know they should be bright and colorful. You know they should not be too big. You know where you should put them. You know how you should get them onto your website. Our last image tip specifies an image’s quality. Pro-quality images tend to fetch more shares than low quality images. Pair your content with well-constructed images to boost search engine rankings.
100. People like things on the Internet short, sweet and to the point. Write well. No, your content need not reflect college-level grammar and vocabulary. BUT, do the English language justice. Throw in some adjectives, adverbs, and neat punctuation. Be interesting in your writing. Look into the Hemingway app If you want help.
And there you have it! 100 actionable SEO tips that can help skyrocket your search visibility and overall strategy.
While these tips are great, sometimes you just need a more cohesive strategy and hands-on help. The LA SEO team is here for you. Contact us today for a consultation and let’s get your business on the road to search engine success!