It’s a shame because you are thus deprived of an important source of traffic and you are missing out on many business opportunities.
1 – Target long tail keywords
To be among the first results in the SERPs ( search engine results pages ), we must first target the keywords that will bring us qualified traffic.
At first glance, it may be tempting to seek to position yourself on the keywords related to our activity, which present the greatest volume of research. But targeting high-volume generic keywords is dangerous because they are also the most competitive. It is therefore very complicated to achieve a good position on these keywords, known as short tail.
In contrast, the long tail refers to a set of keywords with lower search volume but which, combined, represent 80% of the traffic. Less competitive, long tail keywords are more accessible. Moreover, they are often expressions composed of several words. They are therefore more specific and generate more qualified traffic.
For example, “toy store” is a short-tail keyword that is difficult to rank for. On the other hand, we can target finer expressions such as “wooden toy store in Brittany” to reach a more qualified audience.
2 – Create relevant content around your target keywords
Keyword research is a preliminary step to improving your SEO. Then, it is the proper use of the listed keywords that will allow it to become more visible.
Indeed, the Google algorithm tends to reward content that responds in a relevant way to Internet users’ queries . Also the search engine will assign a better ranking to content that deals in depth with a subject by associating different keywords belonging to the same semantic field.
It is therefore no longer a question, as was the case in the past, of stuffing content with keywords or repeating the same keyword 50 times. On the contrary, these crude techniques risk earning you a penalty.
From now on, it is necessary to create content, preferably quite long, which brings added value to the reader and to use its target keywords in the title tags.
With this in mind, the creation of a content blog that will be updated regularly is a good practice to reach your target customers and meet Google’s requirements.
3 – Optimize your web pages for search engines
As we have seen, Google values quality content and the relevance of the response provided to the Internet user. The proper use of the semantic field is an element that allows you to better position yourself. To further improve your content from this point of view, you can use the 1.fr tool which evaluates the richness of the content and offers suggestions for keywords to add to your text.
In addition, it is also important to optimize the structure of the page and the content . The content must be long enough to be considered qualitative by search engines. The insertion of keywords in the title tags promotes readability by the Internet user and by Google. The same applies to a good division of the content into fairly short paragraphs.
The meta description is another important element to stand out on search engines. This is the snippet that appears in search results. It must make the user want to click on the link of your content.
Finally, the use of visuals with optimized image alt tags also allows you to position yourself in the Google image search results .
If your website runs on WordPress, the Yoast SEO plugin helps ensure you’re up to speed with all of these on-page SEO best practices. If so, you are increasing your visibility on Google.
4 – Update your content regularly
When we analyze the operation of Google, we understand that the objective of the search engine is to provide the best possible response to the Internet user in all circumstances.
However, on a given subject, the best response today is no longer necessarily the one that prevailed one or two years earlier. In the meantime, knowledge has been able to evolve, as have the expectations of Internet users. Other players have positioned themselves with more relevant, more up-to-date content.
If we do nothing, content that was historically well positioned will drop in the SERPs and no longer bring as much traffic.
Also it is important to regularly update its contents to prevent them from being outdated and maintain their position. In addition, the last update date is also a positive signal for Google.
5 – Generate backlinks
Certainly, the search engine analyzes the semantic field and the structure of the content. But Google is also based on external signals. In particular, the presence of quality incoming links (backlinks) to a page is a first-rate SEO criterion .
The reasoning is as follows: if an authoritative site in a field includes in its content a link to one of your pages, it means that it considers you an expert or, at least, that it considers your content interesting and relevant to its readers. In other words, you are dubbed by your peers.
