Welcome back to our SEO series! If you’ve mastered the basics from our beginner’s guide, it’s time to advance to intermediate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies. In this post, we’ll explore essential aspects of On-Page & Technical SEO and the importance of backlinks and other Off-Page SEO. These tips, along with the ones from part I of the series, will increase your company’s online visibility and organic traffic.

Even the best keywords and content won’t help your site rank if there are issues with your site that frustrate users and make it hard for crawlers to crawl your site. On-Page SEO focuses on optimizing individual pages to improve their search engine rankings and ensure search engines can find, crawl, understand, and index your site effectively. It also helps ensure that your site is easy to use and navigate by humans as well. Here are some key On-Page SEO tips:

Page titles and meta descriptions are crucial for both search engines and end users. Page titles tell both visitors and search engines what they can find on the web pages while meta descriptions are the 1-2 sentence descriptions of pages that appear under the title in search results.  Both page titles and meta descriptions should be:

• Descriptive and Relevant: Both the page title and the meta description should clearly describe the content on the page.
• Keyword-Rich: Include primary keywords naturally, don’t stuff or force keywords in but try to have your most important keywords in both the page title and the meta description.
• Compelling: Page titles and meta descriptions should encourage users to click through to your site and read your information.

Structure your content with H1, H2, H3, etc., tags to improve readability, accessibility, and SEO. Include relevant keywords in your headers as appropriate to help search engines and users understand the content structure.

Have you written a blog post on a related topic? Include a link to it in your current post. Linking to other relevant pages on your site improves navigation and distributes link equity. Use descriptive anchor text that includes keywords wherever possible. Make sure your internal links don’t feel forced.

Site speed is a critical ranking factor and directly affects user experience; Nobody wants to wait for a slow site to load in 2024.You can use a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights to analyze your site’s performance and identify areas for improvement. Common strategies include:

• Compressing Images: Reduce the file size of images without compromising quality – there are several tools available to help you do this.
• Leveraging Browser Caching: Store static files in the user’s browser to speed up repeat visits.
• Optimizing Plugins: Plugins are great but they can slow down your site. Get rid of any plugins you don’t need to have and ensure the ones you do have are up to date.
• Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN): CDNs distribute content across multiple servers worldwide to reduce load times for global users.

Google prioritizes the mobile experience, so, your website must offer an excellent experience on mobile devices to make the top 10 (page 1) of results. You can ensure a mobile-friendly design by:

• Using a Responsive Design: Ensure your site adapts to various screen sizes and devices. This is crucial for both accessibility and a good user experience.
• Optimizing for Touch: Make buttons and links easy to tap on mobile devices, and don’t have buttons too close together.

You can check your site’s mobile responsiveness using any one of a number of online tools, or by using your phone or tablet to navigate through your site.

While On-Page SEO focuses on things that are done to an individual page to increase SEO, Off-Page SEO refers to things you can do to increase your SEO without making any changes to your website. One way to think about Off-Page SEO is that it’s the reputation of your website. The better the on-line reputation of your site, the more trust search engines will put in your content. The most important thing you can do for off-page SEO is create backlinks. Backlinks signal to search engines that your site is trustworthy and authoritative. Here are some effective backlink strategies:

Writing guest posts for reputable websites in your industry can earn you high-quality backlinks. Guest posts can also help grow your audience by putting your name out there. Ensure your content is valuable and relevant to the host site’s audience, and ask about backlinks before agreeing to guest blog.

Content that is informative, unique, and high-quality is more likely to earn backlinks; if a site finds your content helpful, they are more likely to link back to it. Some of the most link-worthy content includes:

• Comprehensive Guides: In-depth resources that provide significant value, and appeal to a wide variety of audiences.
• Original Research: Data-driven content that offers new insights related to your industry.
• Infographics: Visual content that is easily shareable and linkable.
• Expert Interviews: Talking to industry thought-leaders on a particular topic.

Building relationships with influencers and industry leaders can lead to backlink opportunities. Reach out with personalized emails offering your content as a resource or collaboration opportunity. You can also answer questions from journalists using sites such as Help A Reporter Out (HARO).

Advancing your SEO strategy from beginner to intermediate requires a focused effort on both On-Page and Off-Page techniques. By optimizing page titles and meta descriptions, structuring content effectively, enhancing site speed, ensuring mobile-friendliness, and building high-quality backlinks through guest blogging, creating link-worthy content, and fostering industry relationships, you can significantly improve your site’s usability and search engine rankings. It may feel overwhelming but if you keep at it and integrate these strategies with your foundational knowledge, you’ll be well on your way to achieving sustainable online success.