Google, the undisputed king of the search engine world, continues to stay ahead in its game by giving the best experience to its users.
To provide such an experience, google sometimes may make more than 500 changes in its SEO algorithm.
SEO simply means optimizing your content, so that it shows frequently, and ranks higher in the search results.
Every business wants that. To stay on the first page of the search result pages to drive organic traffic to their website and retain that traffic as their customers.
To fulfill your dream of heavy traffic on your site and a huge clientele, you need to work on your site’s SEO. A lot of things have changed when it comes to SEO. The tactics and techniques which worked a few years back, won’t work today. Rather, implementing them will make your website lose its ranking and ultimately decrease your SEO.
But don’t worry…
We have compiled some really effective SEO techniques, and tips to boost organic traffic in 2021. Give it a read to drive organic traffic from Google to your website.
Top 16 Actionable SEO Techniques to Drive Organic Traffic In 2021
1. Design a Good Landing Page
A landing page that is well designed can increase lead generations and ultimately sales. The more landing pages you create on your website, the more gates you open up to welcome the traffic from search engine result pages.
Many businesses overlook the importance of well-designed landing pages to attract new visitors.
Do you know that 44% of clicks for a website go to a homepage and not on a landing page?
By making your customer land on the landing page, you not only save his time but also direct him about his next step.
For instance, a visitor came to your eCommerce store because he wanted to have a look at your products. The product page will be the landing page for him. If he lands on the homepage, then there are 2 possibilities:
- He might find the product page himself.
- He exits the store.
Design a landing page where your user knows what exactly needs to be done. This technique is extremely useful to increase Shopify SEO in 2021. Make your customers directly land on the product pages.
2. Mobile-friendly Website
2.17 billion people across the globe use a smartphone. The increased dependence on smartphones has altered the pattern of online shopping. People no longer shop online by logging into their computers. With just a few taps on the screen, they can shop for their desired things.
It is high time for the websites, especially the eCommerce ones, to make their websites mobile-friendly.
The website should load quickly on the mobile, its pages, contents, resources, etc. should be displayed properly on a phone so that the user doesn’t have to tire himself by scrolling the screen to and fro.Use Google’s Mobile Testing Tool to ensure if your page is mobile-friendly or not.
3. Use Infographics
Gone are those days when people read long blocks of information to get their answers or to find something interesting. Nowadays, in an online world, people are less patient. Just looking at a huge article makes them irritated and they exit the site in an instant.
To make your site interesting and keep your visitors engaged, switch from textual information to infographics.
Infographics are the combination of good graphic design and an interesting piece of information or a fact. It makes it easier for people to read, understand, and even share it on their social media profiles.
4. Post on Social Media
3.6 billion people use social media. This means you can get hefty traffic from these platforms.
Social media allows you to promote your content to attract more people to your website. Posting on social media is one of the most powerful factors to improve your SEO.
If people visit your web pages via social media posts, then it sends a good indicator to Google that your website has something useful stored for the visitors.
5. Internal Linking
This is a very common mistake that decreases the SEO of a website. Internal linking refers to adding the links of your other blogs or content in your posts.
Search engines take into consideration the number of internal links mentioned in a post. If internal links are absent, it will be difficult for search engine bots to index your webpage.
If your posts have no internal links then such a post is deemed to be unimportant by Google and there are very minor chances of it being indexed on the result page.
6. Fix Broken Links
Broken links i.e. ‘404 Page Not Found’ can be a big turn-off for the SEO of your website.
Make sure that when a visitor lands on a page by following the link you mentioned, it is not a broken link.
Broken links irritate the user and he will exit from your page. The bounce rate will negatively affect your SEO.
Make it a habit to check all the internal and authority links on your page to ensure that they are not broken and are working perfectly. Broken links affect the ranking of the website.
7. Use Correct Keywords
SEO and keywords have a hand and glove type of relationship. To rank your pages higher on result pages you must select the correct keywords.
Conduct thorough keyword research to select the keywords and phrases that are most likely to be used on the search bar of a search engine.
After the research, check your selected keywords on Google. If the names of high-end brands or giant companies pop-up, then it’s better to drop the idea of using those keywords and think of new ones.
Don’t hesitate to use the long tail keywords to improve the SEO.
8. Avoid Overstuffing
The term overstuffing refers to the practice of overusing the keywords in your content. Stuffing keywords used to be a very common and successful technique in the past.
However, the algorithms of search engines are getting smart. A website that bombards its content with selected keywords, then search engines do not rank the site any better.
Try to use your keywords wisely and in the best places in your content. Overusing them makes your content less interesting and sometimes irritating.
Your keywords should occupy 1-2% of the total words of your content.
9. Optimize the Speed
For an online world, every second is important. The saying ‘Time is money’ fits perfectly in this context.
If your website takes even a few seconds extra to load then be prepared to send your potential customers to your rivals. On average an online user only waits for a maximum of 3 seconds for a website to load. Longer than that will make them exit your website.
If a user leaves your website immediately after arriving at your landing page, then it sends a negative signal to Google. If a website has an increased bounce rate then Google doesn’t index it on higher ranks.
If you want your SEO to boom in 2021 then optimize the speed of your website.
10. Create Original Content
Creating content, either it is in the form of video, images, infographics, or blog posts, etc. has become extremely important to include the selected keywords so that it can index on result pages.
It has become quite common to steal other people’s content and post it on your web pages without giving the proper credit to the original creator of that content.
If you want organic traffic in 2021, then make sure to create your content. If your site has used the content of some other website, then Google will smell the plagiarism and will not rank your website.
Try to come with interesting unique ideas of your own that will interest the visitors to stay hooked with your site.
11. Properly Format the Content
This is one of the most important tips to boost traffic in 2021. Sometimes it’s not the content that hinders the flow of traffic on your website, rather the improper formatting of the content.
Content and the structure of the website must be in a proper format to increase the SEO of your website.
Use proper HTML tags as and when required. Do not forget to add heading tags at appropriate places.
Don’t forget to add your keywords in the headings. This is especially important to improve Shopify SEO in 2021. Use proper headings for each product page.
12. Optimize Images with Keywords
When Google indexes pages, it takes into consideration the textual form of the content. Therefore, do not ignore the alt tag of HTML. Alt tag tells the search engine bots what the picture is about.
Enter your keywords in the alt tag. By optimizing your images with keywords you are increasing the chances of more traffic from the image search option of Google.
13. Maintain Your Site
Google will never send its user to a site that is not maintained or poorly maintained. Do not disappoint Google. Check all your web pages frequently to ensure that they are working properly.
Check your blog posts, internal and authority links to make sure that there are no broken links. Fix the technical issues. Optimize the speed of your website and you are good to welcome the traffic from search engines.
14. Correctly Set up the SEO Plugins
Just like we humans need air to breathe and survive. A website needs a good SEO plugin to survive. Without it, a website will get lost in the pile of other hundreds of websites.
Install a good SEO plugin to improve the SEO of your website. If you are not familiar with the setting up of the plugin then hire an SEO expert to do the job for you. Failure to set up the plugin might damage your SEO instead of improving it.
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15. Post Consistently
Stay active on your website. Post consistently on your website and on social media to let the people know that you exist and are looking forward to entertaining them.Fix a schedule to post the content. It can be any day of the week or any time when your potential audience is most active. Fixing a schedule lets your audience know when to expect to hear from you.
16. Spare Enough Time
SEO is not a one-time thing. Rather it is an ongoing process. If you want to drive organic traffic to your website in 2021 then invest your time, resources, and energy into building up your SEO.
Your SEO will not improve overnight, but with constant efforts and time, it will surely improve than what it was before.
Conclusion
A good SEO is mandatory to play an effective role in getting organic traffic on the website. The tips to improve SEO are not only limited to the ones mentioned above. There are many others too that can help you to improve the SEO.The above-mentioned techniques are, however, the ones that impact the SEO most and bring the desired result quickly as compared to other methods and techniques.
Author Bio:
Ricky Hayes is the Co -Founder and Head of Marketing at Debutify – free Shopify theme, helping dropshippers build high-converting stores in minutes. He is a passionate entrepreneur running multiple businesses, marketing agencies and mentoring programs.