Getting attention for your business is 100x easier today than it was several decades ago.
In the past, you had to rely on billboards and commercials to reach local customers. But now, you can extend beyond local consumers and reach markets across the globe.
With search engine optimization (SEO) and a website, you can build recognition faster and broader.
In fact, did you know that if you can make it to the #1 spot on Google, you’ll get 19.3% of desktop clicks? And if it’s mobile searchers, you’ll get 27.7% of clicks.
That’s a ton of traffic — but you have to ensure it’s the right traffic and that they stick around long enough to convert.
So here’s a look at the SEO best practices for raising your SEO rank in 2024.
Create a Podcast Alongside Your Blog
It’s impossible to build an SEO strategy without content. And while businesses focus a lot on building a blog, there are other methods you can use to improve your SEO traffic.
For example, creating a podcast.
Podcast consumption is growing exponentially. To give some perspective, 22% of consumers knew about podcasts in 2006. As of 2019, 64% of consumers were aware of podcasts.
We also anticipate podcast listener numbers to grow to an astounding 132 million people (in America alone).
So the potential to gain attention using a podcast is high.
But like with any digital content you create, you need to implement SEO tactics. This includes using keywords in your podcast titles, meta descriptions, and meta titles.
You can also transcribe your podcasts to allow search engine bots to pick up additional keywords to rank your podcast episodes.
If you manage to create a good-quality podcast and edit it with different software and tools such as an online audio editor, then they will become attractive to consumers and excellent content material for building recognition and traffic to your business website.
If you already have a blog, you can use it to promote your podcast and vice versa.
Optimize Product Landing Pages for Conversions
The traffic you direct to your website needs to be highly targeted. To do this, you need to use the right keywords to attract users with the correct intent.
But you don’t want to just send them anywhere.
You need landing pages designed specifically for them. This way, you’re delivering the right message to the right audience. In other words, you’ll boost the odds of conversion.
For this to happen, you need to optimize your landing pages. You can do this by including long-tail keywords in your titles, H2s, product descriptions, etc.
You’ll also find other unique tactics you can use to boost conversion rates.
For instance, on this landing page, you see a quality image of the product, a description, and an “Add to cart” button. It’s quick and to the point.
Then, to encourage those who may be second-guessing, they include a star rating and customer reviews for the product.
Genius! There’s nothing like having social proof to back up your claims of a quality product.
LFA Capsule Fillers take it a step further with their landing page by offering various product types and sizes to select from.
Then to help those who are new, they use the rest of the page to include educational content, including charts, comparisons, and videos. If you want to combine multiple formats in one, you can create a flipbook and embed it on your site.
The goal is to not only attract your audience with keywords but optimize the page so it keeps them there and answers all of their questions so they’ll purchase.
Use Proper Formatting and Optimization for Your Content
As you’re building a blog, there are four things you want to focus on:
- Relevant topics
- Quality content
- Keyword optimization
- Proper formatting
If you know your audience, then you know what questions and interests they have. But as you begin writing out your topics, you need to format the content in a way that’s attractive to both humans and Google bots.
With that said, you want to focus on creating skimmable content:
- Short sentences and paragraphs
- Subheadings (h2s and h3s)
- Table of contents with links to the sections
- Images to spice up the page
- Bullet point lists
The idea is to break up the content with white space, images, lists, and bolded subheadings. This way, it’s easier to consume and find what they’re looking for.
Here’s a great example from Preply:
Their blog post included subheadings, short paragraphs, bullet lists and a quality photo.
And you don’t have to be shy to use lots of images, especially if it contains information (infographics). Visual content is eye-catching, so it’s ideal to use.
Sleep Junkie does well with creating shareable infographics:
Additionally, they use bolded text to bring attention to certain areas of the content. This is used to emphasize words or ensure a phrase isn’t missed.
Links are also included to guide users to other parts of their site or external pages with helpful resources.
Write Comparison Posts for Traffic and Backlinks
Link building is another critical aspect of building a successful SEO strategy.
According to SEO experts at Loganix, “Link building refers to the process of creating links back to your website on other sites. Link quality and relevance is a major factor in the Domain Authority (DA) of your site.”
Having low authority can hurt your Google expertise, or prevent you from ranking on search engines at all. So use online services to collect and analyze data for your link-building campaigns, such as Serpstat, to immediately weed out low-quality sites.
But rather than going around and asking sites to link to your page, you focus on creating high-quality content that’s worth linking to.
One thing we find is that people love comparison posts (especially the in-depth kind). So if you can compare more products/services and go more in detail than your competitors, then you’ll become the authority page to link to.
Things you’ll want to cover in these long-form posts include:
- Features
- Pricing
- Pros and cons
- Images of the product
- Use cases
Here’s an example of a roundup post by Reply for 20+ email finder tools:
It includes all the proper formatting (images, short paragraphs, lists, and quick comparison charts) and covers many apps.
Keep in mind your audience and what they care for. For instance, CRMs are used by salespeople and marketers. The features, pros, and cons you hone in on will differ if your audience is salespeople vs. marketers.
Construct Landing Pages for Lead Magnets
You did your research, learned the pain points of your audience, and developed your website into a go-to resource. You optimized and properly formatted the content, and it’s working.
You’re getting a ton of traffic.
But what do you do with the traffic after they finish the post?
If you don’t have a call to action (CTA) at the end, then odds are they’re going to leave.
However, merely adding a link to a sign-up form for your weekly newsletter won’t cut it. You need to design what’s known as a lead magnet.
This is a more attractive CTA that entices people to divulge their information in exchange for a freebie.
For example, a free ebook download showing them how to achieve a specific goal. Or a checklist to identify what problem they have and which solution of yours would best suit them.
The idea is to offer something your audience will find helpful. Otherwise, they’ll ignore your offer.
Freshbooks did it perfectly.
(It’s an invoicing tool used by business owners, so its lead magnet includes free invoice templates that are ready-to-use and customizable.
Plus, they include a link “Invoice with Freshbooks instead,” which gives users the option to just sign up.
It’s a win-win for the business.
You get new customers who decide they’d rather sign up to your service than to figure things out on their own (using your template).
Or if users aren’t ready to buy your service, they can take your freebie in exchange for their name and email. This way, you can continue building a relationship and marketing your product/service to them.
Wrapping Up
Developing an SEO strategy is vital if you want to compete in today’s digital marketplace. No matter your industry, you’re going to need an online presence to build a reputation and trust with your audience.
With these SEO best practices, you can ensure you’re taking the right steps to make this happen.
