Introduction

Today’s time is the time of digital marketing and social media, a time when companies are investing millions in digital advertising and social media optimisation. Major corporations have come to understand the importance of digital presence and digital visibility in the changing times. Digital presence and visibility leads to better performance in the market, be it in terms of revenues or in terms of business authority. While you may not have millions to invest in social media optimisation and digital marketing for your business, here is a list of tweaks that you can make to your website to enhance its SEO rankings and thus, your digital presence. While not all of these tweaks would offer overnight results, most of them can provide the much-needed boost to the SEO rankings of your website over a longer period.

Domain – the older, the better

Your domain name is probably one of the most important factors to consider when you wish to enhance the SEO rankings of your website. However, there is nothing much you can tweak to enhance the SEO rank of your website; there is certainly one thing that you can – stick to the same domain over the years. Search Engines prefer to rank older domains higher than newer domains when the all other factors remain the same. The reason being, the older the domain, the more credible it is for the Search Engines.

Website Authority – Credibility matters

Another important aspect that is instrumental to the SEO ranking of your website is Authority. When other websites use information from your website, the Search Engine infers that the information on your website is credible. There is not much you can do to alter this factor, but you can add credible information on your website which would lead other websites to use information from yours. Thus, improving your credibility for the Search Engines, and consequently, the SEO rank of your website.

Good Content is far more important than you think

Content is one of the deciding factors for Search Engine Optimisation. If you try to perceive the content of the websites from the perspective of Search Engines, you will understand why clear and concise content is important. In today’s times, Search Engines have evolved and can easily differentiate between good content and fluff content. If your website is full of fluff content, it is highly likely that the Search Engines will rank your website towards the bottom. Even a high keyword density on your website does the exact opposite of what you would intend it to do. When you are deciding on developing content for your website, follow the rule of the thumb – good content trumps fluff and keyword enriched content.

What is good content, you may think! Good content must be relevant and well-structured – structured content helps the Search Engines understand the information better. When the Search Engine understands your content better, it is more likely to rank your website higher. Search Engines can also understand the relevance of your content, and the more relevant your content is, the highest would it be ranked by the Search Engines. Well-structured and sensible content is likely to enhance the SEO rank of your website, whereas Keyword enriched fluff content will definitely throw you out of the league.

Backlinks – Earn links don’t purchase them

Backlinks are also one of the deciding factors for Search Engine Optimisation. The Search Engines lay far more importance on the quality and the authority of the backlinks than the quantity. This means, you have to earn the backlinks because buying the backlinks isn’t going to get you anywhere with SEO. There used to be a time when Search Engines laid far too much importance on quantitative backlinks, but that is a thing of the past. On the contrary, quantitative backlinks have quite the opposite effect now. SEO analysts have observed a trend in the recent times that numerous bad quality backlinks, which increase the bounce rate of the websites, are tending to lower the SEO ranks of the websites.

Hence, it is important to generate and earn good quality backlinks which generate organic traffic for the website. Organic traffic helps moderate, even reduce the bounce rates of the websites, which in turn, serves to enhance the SEO rank of the website. There is only one way to earn good quality backlinks – great quality un-plagiarised content. When your website features high-quality un-plagiarised content, other websites are likely to source content and infographics from your website, which would eventually lead to the generation of high-quality backlinks to your website.

Social Media Integration :

Social Media has become one of the most important tools to facilitate Search Engine Optimisation of websites. Social Media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. have started to turn into successful platforms for digital advertising, thus, turning social media marketing into of the most successful digital marketing strategies. Most social media platforms also offer digital marketing packages which can offer high returns on investment due to the generation of backlinks and consequently, generate organic traffic for the website.

Over and above social media marketing, social media also plays a pivotal role in the generation of high-quality backlinks. Integrating your website with social media platforms ensures that the users are able to share relevant content on their social media accounts. These shared links, be it images, videos, or text, serve as backlinks which generate organic traffic for the website. The organic traffic which apart from moderating the bounce rates of the websites, also plays a pivotal role in improving the SEO rank of the website.

Microdata – Structuring and Defining Data for Search Engines

Microdata is quickly becoming an important tool for SEO professionals. Microdata is the HTML tags that provide precise definition to abstract words in the content. Google, Bing, and other major search engines have started relying heavily on Schema to improve their search results. Schema defines a wide array of structures to bifurcate and clearly define words to add proper context for the Search Engines to understand the content.

For example, consider an article on a website about a mobile company called ‘Freedom’. In the heading, if the context of the word, ‘Freedom’, is abstract, then the Search Engines might find it difficult to understand what the article is about. However, if the context is defined clearly using HTML tags as defined by Schema, it becomes very easy for the Search Engines to understand that the article is about a technology company by the name of ‘Freedom’, and not about a ‘Freedom Struggle’ of a country. Various HTML tags are available which can be used to define the abstract words in the content. In this case, the HTML tags which can be used to define ‘Freedom’ could include the location of the company and the fact that it is a technology company.

Images and Videos – Alt Texts, Captions, and Closed Captions

Audio-Visual media like images and video provide an interactive experience to the users, which serves to reduce the bounce rates of the websites. Adding original Images and Videos can certainly enhance the SEO rankings of the websites. However, contrary to popular belief, adding duplicate images can actually hamper the SEO rank of the websites. Adding duplicate images and videos can easily land webmasters in the soup for copyright infringement issues over copying of material without prior permission.

Over and above that, copying images and videos certainly generates quality backlinks for websites which have similar content as yours. In other words, by copying images and videos from other websites which offer similar content like your website, you generate organic backlinks for the competitor’s website on your website. Copying audio-visual media may certainly seem like a lucrative and economic idea, in the beginning; it tends to harm the SEO rank of the website in the longer run.

Mobile and Tablet Optimisation – User Experience

In the recent times, Mobile Phones and Tablets have been generating higher web traffic than laptops and desktops. Moreover, this trend is likely only to grow further in the future. Hence, it would be a good idea to optimise your website for viewing on mobile and tablet devices along with laptops and desktops. Most Search Engines offer the capability of optimising websites across various devices. However, the need for the Search Engine to optimise the website for a device affects the SEO ranking of the website negatively. On the other hand, if the website is already optimised for viewing on both laptops/desktops and mobile/tablet devices, it only serves to enhance the SEO rank of the website.

With mobile and tablets driving more web traffic than ever, it is also logical to optimise the website for viewing on mobile and tablets. Optimising websites for tablets and mobiles not only enhances the SEO rank of the website but also enhance the user experience for mobile and tablet users. The enhanced user experience for mobile and tablet users eventually results in lower bounce rates for the websites. Thus, optimising websites for mobile and tablet users can help enhance the SEO rankings in more ways than one.

Higher Performance and Less Technical Issues = Higher SEO Ranking

With the recent updates in the algorithms of the Search Engines, even the technical issues with websites have started influencing the SEO ranks negatively. This trend will only get stronger with time, and Search Engines will display more stable websites in their search results to provide the users with a good user experience. Hence, now is a very good time to resolve the technical issues in your websites. Less technical issues in the websites directly translate to higher performing websites, which leads to a great user experience. Great user experience, in turn, reduced the bounce rates of the websites, thus, enhancing SEO rank of the websites.

The article offers budding entrepreneurs and people who wish to learn and understand SEO, an insight into the inner workings of Search Engines. The article also points out numerous ways in which you can optimise your websites for Search Engines. However, for expert SEO solutions to enhance the SEO ranks of your websites, you can contact Writopedia. At Writopedia, we have a team of experts who offer customised solutions for SEO requirements of businesses and individuals.