Search engine optimization (SEO) is a continuous hot topic in the business circle. With its evolving rules and guidelines, sometimes it can be the worst enemy of entrepreneurs. After all, getting to the first page of search engines can boost a business like no other. So, what SEO best practices should you pay attention to?

That’s a difficult question to answer. There are so many strategies and so many so-called experts claiming things left and right. Several SEO myths exist as well. But myth-busting is a topic for next time.

In this article, we’ll be discussing the best SEO tactics to improve the organic traffic of your brand’s website. By the end of this, you’ll have a better overview of what essential SEO practices you can apply to your business and be on your way to rising to the top of search engine rankings.

Why Is SEO Important For Companies?

SEO involves understanding how search engines work, what people are searching for, and what the relevant keywords to your content or niche are. It’s an essential part of any successful marketing strategy since it helps you reach your target audience and increase search visibility online.

In essence, a successful SEO strategy enables you to optimize your website for better user experience and boost online presence. By ensuring your website meets the criteria of ranking factors, you can increase your visibility in search results. In turn, leading to more organic traffic and potential customers.

What’s more, implementing the right SEO techniques allows businesses to stay ahead of the competition and establish a strong presence in the digital world. And with that, let’s jump right into those proven methods that business owners, like yourself, can apply.

10 Proven SEO Tactics To Boost Your Website Traffic

In today’s digital era, search engines, like Google Search, play a big role in connecting companies to their target audience. However, SEO can be tricky, and choosing the wrong tactic for your company can lead to disastrous results.

With this list, you’ll have a better overview of what needs to be done and what it can do for your business.

1. Identify The Right Target Keywords

A key component of SEO efforts is keywords. Essentially, they’re search terms. They’re words or phrases that people use when they want information about something.

For example, if someone searches for “cleaning services” then you can target specific keywords related to it or the specific services you’re offering, including “carpet cleaning services”, “commercial cleaning services”, and “house cleaning services.” Take a look at the image below

Finding the relevant target keywords for your pieces of content can make a huge difference in terms of search engine rankings and organic traffic. Throwing words together and hoping for the best won’t work.

Thus, you need to know what people are searching for when they’re looking for products or services like yours and make sure that your site is optimized for those terms.

2. Satisfy The Search Intent

Search intent is the purpose behind a user’s query when they search for something on the internet. It’s determined by analyzing the keyword phrase used in the search query and understanding what type of content would best answer that question.

It can be divided into four main categories:

  • Commercial
  • Navigational
  • Information
  • Transactional

By understanding what type of content would best answer a user’s query, you can create content that will satisfy their search intent and help them find what they are looking for.

For example, if you search “how to train a dog”, you’ll be greeted with results that contain specific instructions on how to train your dog from different websites. You can take a look at the search results below.

In this case, Google understands that you’re looking for instructions on how to train your dogs and not where you can send them for training. With this search term, users are looking to learn and not pay for dog training services.

However, if you search “dog boot camp”, the first results would be dog boot camps near your location instead of specific training instructions for you to do. It also includes related questions regarding boot camps for dogs. Check out the search results in the image below.

In this case, Google recognizes that users are looking for services or businesses that offer boot camps for dogs. It understands that the user’s intent is to pay for services and that’s what it gives instead of websites offering manuals on training dogs.

3. Write Strong Title Tags And Meta Descriptions

Title tags and meta descriptions are essential elements of content for search engine optimization. So, what are they?

A title tag is the main heading for your web page, which appears in the browser tab. It’s also the first thing that someone sees when they search for your content on Google or another search engine.

On the other hand, meta descriptions are short summaries that appear below your title in a listing of search results. They’re useful for drawing people into your content and helping them decide whether to click through.

Together, they’re essential for improving organic search engine traffic to your website. You can utilize them to attract potential visitors to your website as well as help search engines understand your website’s content. As for their impact on SEO, they help search engines determine how relevant a page is to a query.

A great example is the title tag and meta description of Green Supply for its KN95 masks. Its title tag is straightforward, which is “KN95 Masks For Sale, Best KN95 Masks.” Plus, its meta description already mentions the price and the free shipping offer to entice potential buyers.

4. Fast Page Speed

Having a website that loads quickly is an essential part of growing organic traffic. With current fast internet speeds, users expect websites to load in seconds. If not, they move on to the next website they find on the search engine.

That could lead to losing potential customers, and of course, revenue. But how could you optimize your website’s loading speed?

Well, there are several ways, including the following:

  • Lazy Loading
  • Code Clean-Up
  • Enable Caching
  • GZIP Compression
  • Compress Image Size

There are other ways but those 5 elements are a good way to start. Additionally, you can use Google’s Pagespeed Insights to review your website’s current loading speed. With a faster load time for your website, you increase the chances of your conversion rates going up.

5. Utilize Internal Links

Internal linking should be part of your SEO and content strategy. They’re links that point from one page on your site to another page on your site. By doing this, visitors can navigate through your website seamlessly, which increases the chances that they’ll stay and browse around.

The best way to start making internal links is by creating a sitemap. This is an outline of all of the pages and posts on your site, along with a description of each one and where it should be linked from or linked to. As you write new content for your site, you can use this as a reference to determine where to place every link.

Moreover, internal links also help search engines like Google learn about your content and identify what’s important for their users. Thus, increasing the visibility of your website and driving more organic traffic to it.

A great example would be the blog post hiring software developers from Aloa. It integrated relevant internal links throughout the article. As such, it increases the chances that the other content from the company would also receive organic traffic. Premium internal link building services like Link Whisper offer an automated way to build and grow your internal link flow. See how the internal links in the blog post look in the image above.

6. Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is the practice of putting a specific keyword or phrase so many times in a single sentence or paragraph that it’s evident that the writer is trying to rank for that term. It’s something Google hates, and if you’re caught doing it, their algorithm will penalize your website and you’ll drop in the search rankings.

The practice gives the illusion that there is more content on a site than there actually is, however, it makes the site look spammy and unnatural. Plus, it won’t answer any user intent since readers will just likely find it confusing and leave your site, leading to a higher bounce rate.

In essence, the key to boosting your website’s traffic is to write quality content that is targeted to your target audience. With that, you won’t have to resort to stuffing unnecessary amounts of keywords.

7. Optimize URLs

By optimizing the URL structure of your website, you can make sure that search engines and users can easily understand the content of your website. That’s why this is an important step to improve your website’s visibility and traffic.

So, how do you do it?

Well, make sure you use keywords in the URL so that it’s more likely that people will click on it when they’re searching for something related to those keywords. So, if you’re selling multiple products, you should be specific with the URL per product page.

An excellent real-life example is how the brand 3Wishes does it. Among its products are lingerie, clothing, swimwear, and accessories. But their URLs are simple and represent each category’s keyword. See the image below to see how it looks. As such, when someone only searches for lingerie, they’ll be directed to the specific page and not to the other product pages.

Additionally, you need to make sure that your URL structure is human-readable and easy to understand. Plus, you can add words that describe the content of the page. For example, if you want to optimize it for a search query like “The best (your products or services)” then you’d add the phrase to the end of the URL.

8. Have A Link-Building Strategy

Link-building is one of the most important aspects of SEO and growing your website’s traffic. It involves building inbound links from other websites to your website. This helps increase the visibility of your website in search engine results, which can result in more traffic and higher rankings.

What’s more, building quality links also helps establish credibility and trustworthiness for your website, as well as build relationships with other websites. And once you build your website as an authority, you can be the go-to brand for your niche. Not to mention, that’ll help you rise in the search rankings.

There are many tactics you do to achieve this, including broken link-building and guest post outreach. Overall, this is a great way to get organic traffic since your content reaches more audience.

9. Optimize Images

Reducing the file size of your images is not the only way to boost traffic to your website. Optimizing alt text and adding descriptive file names can help Google understand your photos and rank your content in Google Images.

But that’s not all. Aside from making your website more SEO-friendly, adding alt text to your images also makes your website more accessible, leading to more traffic. It allows those who use screen readers to know what is shown in the image. This is a big help for those who may have a visual impairment to still consume your content without missing key information.

So, if your content is visual-heavy, optimizing your images becomes more crucial. Such would be the case if you’re producing articles about the best hotels in different cities, like Luxurymodo. By adding alt text and appropriate file names, it makes its content more accessible.

In addition, doing so would benefit not only those with eyesight problems but also those who don’t currently have access to fast internet. Why? Because alt text appears even if the images don’t load properly. Hence, Luxurymodo’s content can be consumed by every user who’s looking to stay at the most luxurious hotels for their vacation.

10. Create Amazing Content

Last, but not the least on this list, is to create high-quality content. It’s the key to attracting new visitors and keeping them engaged with your website. Plus, it’s how you keep your current customers to keep coming back for more.

What’s more, quality content can help you establish yourself as an authority in your industry, build trust with your audience, and increase conversions. It’s also a great way to sustain organic search engine traffic as well as social media shares and backlinks.

Conclusion

It seems that every niche or industry is just overflowing with competition. As such, it’s hard to stand out and be the website that your target audience chooses. Fortunately, with our list of best SEO practices, you’re one step closer to boosting your organic website traffic.

Would it be easy to apply these tactics to your business?

Well, if you have experts at your behest, the process can be more seamless. Here at Streamline Results, we can help you with your SEO, content marketing, and more. All of these can help boost your brand’s online profile, and direct traffic to your website. Get started now and ask for an SEO quote.