The business of SEO is a tough one as the algorithms used by search engines are constantly changing. Having a website that loads fast and is optimized for mobile devices greatly improves rankings and drives organic traffic to your website.
What else can you do to improve your rankings? Try applying these five important non-technical SEO strategies that don’t rely on technical algorithms to be highly ranked. By consistently using these tactics, you’ll be less impacted by technical SEO changes over the long term.
5 Non-Technical Strategies for Improving SEO
- Conduct a website content audit – ask yourself, when was the last time you took a holistic view of your website? Is your website content becoming stale or dated? Is the content keeping pace with changes in technology? Take time to read the content on your website again. Is it still focusing on how your product or service is providing value and solving problems best in your market? Keep editing and revising your content to ensure that it relevant. Content relevancy is by far the most important way to increase search engine rankings. By focusing on solving problems for your customers and the value you provide your web copy will naturally be filled with authentic, rich keywords and long tail keyword phrases that are good for improving rankings. Also ensure your photos have proper descriptions and labels while being optimized for quick download.
- Increase the number and quality of inbound links – Google understands that an authoritative website is well-linked with a strong library of content. Providing rich content such as how-to videos, audio clips and photos that make it easy to view and share the value your organization brings to market is a good method for encouraging other websites to link to yours. Encourage your customers, distributors and suppliers to like and follow content that is posted from social media channels and linked to your website. Using a link-building strategy is essential for being strongly ranked in search engines over the long term.
- Become a trusted source – if you’re landing pages on your website are filled with long lists of keywords, are too sales focused and not usable content that adds value to your audience – you will not be ranked as highly in search engines. Becoming a trusted and valuable source of content that is always up-to-date will not only increase traffic to your website, but it will ultimately increase search rankings. We also encourage you to post links to the associations, quality certifications and like-minded organizations within your website content where applicable.
- Be a thought leader online through networking – posting content on social media sites that encourage networking of groups related to your product or service will increase your search rankings. Become known as an expert in your field by publishing a blog or news section that features information that assists your target audience in solving their problems. Developing a reputation as a subject matter expert takes time but has tremendous staying power even when SEO technologies and algorithms keep changing.
- Encourage repeat visitors to your website – by keeping content up-to-date, interactive and relevant, you will start to increase the number of people and organizations that are visiting your website. Encourage visitors to keep coming back by signing up for newsletters and timely alerts while directing them to content on your website that is being constantly updated from tips, to ‘how-to’s’, latest trends and free resources. Make it easier for customers to see themselves using your product or service. In turn, it will increase overall traffic to your website – improving rankings.
These five proven non-technical techniques work – over time. The key to their success is consistency. You can’t simply publish a website and assume it is self sustaining with the content you started out with to gain organic traffic.Just as technology changes, so must your efforts in keeping your website up-to-date with relevant content. It’s one of the best methods for ensuring you continue to retain and improve your website ranking in search engines.