Advanced SEO techniques to stay ahead of the competition

If you want to achieve outstanding results with your SEO, then you need to go beyond the basics. There are a range of advanced SEO techniques that can boost your SEO performance and help you keep ahead of your competitors.

What are they, and how can they make a difference to how your website performs?

Make sure you’re mobile optimised

When people access the internet, they now primarily do so via their smartphone. As a result, mobile-first indexing is now here.

This means that if you have a desktop and mobile version of your website, then your mobile one will be displayed first in the search results. So, ensure that your site is optimised for mobile use and that your content is mobile-friendly.

This means you should focus on user-friendly content that is succinct and on-message. Mobile-friendly websites that are thin in terms of content will lose out to those that combine a content-rich approach with mobile accessibility.

Speed is of the essence

In 2018, the amount of time a website takes to load became a ranking factor. In short, if your site is slow to load, clunky, and non-responsive, it’s unlikely to feature high in the search results.

This change recognises that slow-loading websites have a high bounce rate, with users growing bored and heading elsewhere if they have to wait any length of time.

Remove glitches, conduct technical audits and check out Google recommendations for optimisations.

Update your Google My Business listing

Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool from Google that can help businesses manage their online presence across the search engine and its growing portfolio of tools. If your business doesn’t already have a GMB listing, then you should create one. If you already have, then you should use your GMB to send the right SEO signals to Google.

You can do this by:

Regularly updating the content on your GMB page.

Upload more photos, and fill in all the categories for your listing.
Ask every satisfied customer to leave you a review.

A regularly updated and relevant GMB listing will be taken as a signal by Google that your business is serious.

Get your business mentioned

Backlinks are still important when it comes to SEO, but the role of unlinked mentions can be overlooked. Search engines also take account of mentions and sentiment on other websites, irrespective of whether they come with a link.

There are several ways you can increase the mentions of your brand online. One that can be beneficial is by responding whenever your brand is mentioned on social media; answer questions, and address both compliments and complaints.

Getting people talking about your business for the right reasons can have a dramatic impact on your Google rankings. While building up your unlinked mentions, don’t neglect your link building. Offer your products and services to influencers and review sites.

Link building is a long-term strategy, but one that delivers real results.

Get to know what your readers want

Make sure you regularly use tools such as Google Analytics to give you insight into how different website pages and specific content is performing. The total number of page or post views is important, but also important is how long they’re spending on each visit, as well as the bounce rate and exit percentage.

The more time they’re spending on your website, and the lower the bounce rate, the more meaningful that content is to your visitors. Can you provide them with more of the same?

Conversely, take a look at what’s performing badly and decide whether to pull the content or make amendments. If the content is geared towards satisfying a high-value search term, then you need to find out why it’s not delivering.

The tip of the iceberg

There are a huge range of tricks and techniques that can give your SEO a real boost and help your brand stand out from the competition. The ones described above are at the tip of the iceberg.

As an award-winning digital agency, we have the skills, expertise and experience to ensure that your business enjoys the benefits that an intelligent local SEO strategy can bring.

At Aqueous Digital, we’re experts at delivering real results from our customers and always keep up-to-date with the latest industry trends and developments. To give your business an added SEO edge, call 0800 285 1424 or email hello@aqueous-digital.co.uk today. Take a look at the SEO Services we offer and get in touch for an initial discussion and a free consultation.