15 Essential SEO Tips for Beginners to Boost Traffic in 2022

SEO Tips To Boost Site Traffic

SEO will always have a lasting change. And it will always make an improvement or changes in an algorithm. Once you think you're making a strategy based on google's approach, changes in the algorithm suddenly wreck your efforts.

While there will be improved during this time, you can follow some SEO-proven tactics in practice while implementing.

So, there's the question:

Q.1 What are you going to learn in this post?

Answer: You will learn what's needed to improve organic growth or improve organic traffic to our site or blog.

1. Create Original And Optimized SEO Content

Suppose you want to get high-quality search traffic to your site. In that case, you must create an Orignal Content after creating a need to optimize your content SEO to rank on the search engine results page(SERP).

Everyone wants users to find their content in search results and return to their site. Your content must be original, comprehensive, and evergreen. 

Evergreen Content: Everygreen Content is search-optimized content that stays relevant fresh for users for a long time.

For example, you created content based on the latest iPhone or Android Phone, replaced by other latest and upgraded phones - this is not Evergreen Content.

On the other hand, you are creating a blog post on Social Media Marketing or SEO, which stays for a more extended period fresh and relevant for users. 

Original content shows unique perspective and credibility to online users and offers expertise to build a brand relationship. Google always tries to deliver excellent content when it comes to search results. 

Those who do good SEO practice are likely to increase traffic.

Ideally, your content should be in-depth. That means your published content should answer the user's questions. It shows Google that you have authority over the content.

Finally, your evergreen content will be relevant and generate more traffic over a long time. 

2. Target Long-Tail Keyword

Long-tail keywords are longer and more descriptive for specific target keywords. Long-tail keywords usually have lower search volume but higher click-through rates.

Target Long-Tail Keywords

A recent study shows that 91.8 percent of all searches are long-tail keywords. That is a significant change from the early days of the internet.

One of the main reasons to use a long-tail keyword as it is a particular and narrow search so that the keyword counts are also down. 

An Example: "how to rank top of the google," In a short-tail keyword, it looks like "google ranking or rank in Google."

Long-tail keywords are highly recommended and used nowadays. These keywords search intent and specify the whole topic of the web page blog post.

For "how to rank top of the google." you can see that the user is asking a question which means they are looking for a direct answer.

While it's not always the case, long-tail keywords tend to have lower search volume and, as a result, lower competition. Therefore, they can be easier to rank.

3. Use Keywords In Header

Keyword placing in the header signals search engines and users that your content satisfied the target intent. Like, table of content gives context to the user, like keyword placing in the HeaderHeader do the same for search engine bots. 

While 36 percent of SEO experts think headlines are essential, it doesn't mean forcing keywords that don't make sense.

Consider User Experience and google recommendations before placing target keywords or other variations. Keyword stuffing does not done at all costs.

Tips for using keywords in Header:

1. Select a target keyword from your post to include in the HeaderHeader.
2.  Use Keyword Research Tools to find other variations of that keyword.
3. Try to create a header for user intent that represents the topic.

For creating a highly SEO and Search intent header, you can use a google chrome extension called "Headline Studio by Coschedule."

4. Create and Optimize Your Page Title and Meta Description

Your Page Title and Meta Description are the first things a user sees. These help users to decide whether to click or skip your page. 

That's the power of Page title with their meta description, which decides your page fate unless you have the best content on it with a poor page title. No one will click on your page.

Now, you must remember before creating the title and meta description.

Title Tag and Meta Description

Tips for Creating Page Title & Meta Description

1. Keep your title length between 30-60 characters.
2. Keep your meta description under 150 characters.
3. Include your target keyword in both title and description.
4. Make sure your title and description are unique for every page.

Note: Sometimes, at the beginning of the journey, people start using the same meta descriptions for multiple pages, so please do not make that mistake and create a new meta description for every page or post based on their content.

Read more about writing great meta descriptions at Semrush Blog.

5. Use Short, Descriptive URLs

URL structure significantly impacts our On-Page SEO. Simple, clean, and concise URLs help you stand out from bad URLs and get help to rank better. 

URL structure is also a ranking factor. 

Tips For Creating Short, Descriptive URLs:

1. URL should be readable clear to understand by your readers. Include your target keywords.
2. Shorter URLs are preferred and try to use around 60 characters as many search engines do not process more than 60 characters.

6. Use Keywords in Alt Text for Images

Alt-text is, also known as Alternative Text, is a short description of an image with significant Google ranking factors. MozCast says it still has more than a 20 percent effect on results. 

Three uses of Alt Text:

Accessibility: Alt Texts have spoken aloud with the help of screen readers. Users who are impaired or can't see the screen correctly use screen readers.

SEO: Search Engine Crawlers use Alt Text to understand the image and help them to index correctly. 

Context: When images can not load on the page, alt text as an alternative for a photo comes to provide context to the user.

7. Creating a good User Experience

Quality Content is not enough to make a good User Experience(UX). User Experience is determined by looking around the user's time spent on your site. 

The more user spends time on your site, the better it will perform.

Google determines many factors for ranking any content around the web to ensure the user requirements. 

Spending time is also known as "Bounce Rate" higher bounce rate means users looking for content is not present on your site, or maybe your site experience is poor. 

One of the main reasons for dwell time or bounce rate is page load time. An analysis of over 5 million desktop and mobile pages found that the average time for a web page to load fully is 10.3 seconds on desktop and 27.3 seconds on mobile. 

Start 5seconds make a significant impact on overall conversion. 

Tips for creating great UX:

1. Make sure your content is user intents.
2. Use keywords and images that are optimized for a better user experience
3. Use Compress Images for faster load time.
4. Make your content easy to navigate, especially for long pieces of content, by using Table Of Content(TOB), Clear headlines, and using the short paragraph. 
5. Use a good font that is easy to read and clear to understand with relevant images.

8. Use Internal Linking

Internal Linking is one of the most common SEO practices. It helps to rank better by linking pages with each other and also speeds up the process of Indexing.

Internal Linking is similar to metrics like time spent on page or Bounce Rate, which we have talked about above. It is the ranking factor of the google algorithm.

Each blog post should include 2-5 internal links for growth results. 

SEOs work on linking strategies for both internal and external links.

Using internal linking helps you to take users deeper into your site or blog. That increases the chance of having meaningful interaction with your content and becoming a loyal audience.

For example, (leaving a comment in a blog post or sharing your content on social media) is beneficial for your SERPs. 

I have already talked about it in brief at my Off-Page SEO Guide.

Tips for Internal Linking:

1. Link the page relevant to the topic in which users currently are.
2. Use anchor text that sounds natural and encourages users to click on the next page.
3. Avoid using generic anchor text like Click Me or Read More. Using more descriptive anchor text helps Google to learn more about it.

9. Generate Backlinks from High Site Authority Websites

Backlinks or External links are links that lead to your site. Backlinks are major ranking factors in Off-Page SEO.

Backlinks from high authority, relevant sites help us rank higher in search results. High authority sites also pass their site authority when linking to external web pages with do-follow links.

Links from reputable sites help you increase your authority and improve your SEO over time. You can acquire those backlinks from the process called "Link Building."

But how do you know which backlinks source to target? Simple, by analyzing competitor backlinks and finding out who targets them but not you.

To get the backlinks report of your site and competitors, you can use an SEO tool like Semrush, Ahrefs.

10. Eliminate Spammy Backlinks

Backlinks are a significant part of Off-Page SEO, and without external links, no content can rank on SERPs. Indeed, backlinks are still an important ranking factor for Google. 

However, the quality of those backlinks is now more critical than ever before.

In 2021, Google rolled out another algorithm update that targeted and devalued bad backlinks.

How can you know what sites link to you and how you compare to your competition? With this backlink checker tool.

Tips to reduce spammy links:

1. Run an audit to see the status of backlinks you are currently getting. 
2. Before you disavow a backlink, ask the website owner to remove it.

11. Diversify Your Backlink Profile

Diversifying a backlink profile means you want as many links as possible from as many websites as possible.

An Ahrefs study finds out some results over 1 billion web pages. 66.31 web pages had zero referring domains, and 26.29 percent had one to three referring domains. Less than 0.01 percent of web pages have more than 100+ referring domains.

Tips for diversifying your backlinks profile:

1. Try to get links from directories or roundups to diversify backlinks profiles.
2. Reach out to the Brands that fit with you and ask them to backlink you and vice versa.
3. Run backlinks checkup on your competitors to find out who is linking them but not you, then reach them to connect you.

13. Conduct Regular Site Audits

Performing regular site audits help your site to be functional and user-friendly. Site Audit gives a clear report about broken links, slow load time issues, title tags & meta description duplication, etc.

After getting a site audit report, you can prioritize your work based on issues impacting your site.

Get Started with Site Audit: 

1. Create a new project for your website.
2. Specify your page source and how many pages you'd like to crawl.
3. Including your crawler settings provide any additional specification, disallowed URLs, or URL parameters.
4. Run or schedule your site audit.

14. Study Your Competitors

After creating SEO-optimized content and targeting an audience, you need to figure out what your biggest rival is doing. Maybe your competitors are also targeting the same audience and are creating similar content.

By analyzing competitors' websites, you can learn new about effective mediums or sources of traffic or can generate new ideas for content creation. 

You can analyze your competitor's traffic and sources using the Semrush Traffic Analytics tool. 

15. Learn SEO Continuously

Every digital marketer knows; that Google has changed its algorithm and will do it as it's doing now. Digital Landscape continues to evolve. 

That'sThat's why educating yourself about SEO is essential for going ahead with these dynamic changes in digital marketing and keep winning, whether it's SEO, Digital Marketing, Social Media, or whatever.

 

Luckily, there are a few recommendations for you.

Here are some of the SEO guides which help you to rank and get free traffic from google along with guides on optimizing your on-page and off-page seo.

1. SEO Beginners Guide 2022: Get Free Traffic From Google
2. How Long Does It Really Take to Rank at the Top of Google'sGoogle's Search Results 2022?
3. Best On-Page SEO: Complete Beginner'sBeginner's Guide For Digital Marketers 2022
4. What Is Off-Page SEO? Complete Beginners Guide

Conclusion

If you want to succeed in SEO, you need to constantly learn new things no matter how much you already know. An expert becomes an expert by learning new technologies, strategies, experimenting, tips from others, and becoming creative to keep growing.

 

But, before that, how much you have learned today, follow up and try to make it possible. It doesn't matter about your experience level as it is created for everyone and is explained in simple language.

You can use Semrush Site Audit or Ahrefs Site Audit tools to see the health of your site and can work on improving the performance of your blog/ website.

I am waiting for you in the comments below!