It allows you to explain more about your page or content to the searcher. You should also include keywords in this description but keep in mind you only have 160 characters. Now that you understand how search engines work, let’s cover what you can do to your website to begin ranking higher. This section will cover on-page SEO, which has to do with the things you can do to your pages and site structure.
Increase the odds of appearing in these zero-click snippets by creating high-quality content that answers the search query. Format your content to make it easy for search engine crawlers to find this answer. One way to target the People Also Ask section, for instance, is by creating an FAQ section with short, succinct answers that are easy for Google to excerpt. AI content creation tools (like Shopify Magic and Jasper) can produce marketing copy from a simple prompt. Improve this copy with keyword optimization tools like Surfer—and just like that, you have a ton of engaging, optimized content ready to add to your website. Next, make sure your images are the optimum size and file format.
Ready to dive in? Explore by SEO topic.
Above all, make sure it’s fast, user-friendly, and designed for zero-click searches. That means your SEO strategy has to get a lot more conversational. More and more users are searching online, relying only on their voice queries, as well as visual inputs such as previously taken pictures or snapshots. It’s about crafting partnerships where your brand feels like a natural part of the conversation. Think of GEO as the new SEO, but for a world where AI doesn’t just fetch answers — it creates them.
We’ve already mentioned how images can help drive traffic to your site via Google Image Search. Visual content such as featured images, screenshots, graphs, and charts can also help break up your text and clarify content. Check Google to make sure your page is ranking in the position shown. If a featured snippet already appears for another website, it will give you an idea of what you’re up SEO Anomaly against.
Christopher explains that local service ads (or LSAs) are one of these features. This ad format is exclusive to local businesses in fields such as plumbing, law, dentistry, preschools, childcare, and massage, to name a few. A backlink, also called an inbound link, is when another website links back to your website or blog content. It’s usually placed as a hyperlink on a string of text that relates to your content, and when clicked, they’re taken to your site. The image below is an example of an SEO report from Ahrefs, which has given an overview of the link-building progress of the SEO efforts.
Monitor Competitors’ Content Marketing
SEO involves optimizing a website’s structure, content, and navigation, which can enhance your user’s experience. Ensuring your website is accessible is something that is important to search engines, such as Google. There is strong evidence that Google rewards accessibility when ranking websites, and even has its very own Webmaster Guidelines that websites can follow as best practices. This, in turn, can reduce bounce rates, increase user engagement, and boost conversions. This is quite common for small to medium businesses that maybe don’t have the resources to invest in a long-term SEO marketing strategy. It can also be quite difficult to convince stakeholders and decision-makers of the importance of SEO because it is not easily tied to specific financial numbers.
Don’t Ignore Voice Search
Identify gaps, outdated information, or underperforming pieces that need improvement. Use this analysis to inform your future content creation and optimization efforts. Before developing new content, assess your existing content assets. Conduct a content audit to evaluate your content’s performance, relevance, and quality.
- If an agency represents multiple companies targeting the same search content in the same, limited local market, that’s a potential red flag.
- So if you think about it, you are losing around 9,900 potential customers just because you are not on the 1st position.
- You’ll want your slugs to be short and simple, but also reflective of what the content is about.
- There may be some costs involved in effective SEO—hiring a writer or buying a blog, for example— but it’s not as high as paid advertising.
- And with the rise of ChatGPT and AI, it’s only going to grow and become even more important.
Optimizing for these can boost your chances of ranking higher and driving more traffic. It tracks growth in search volume, social media conversations, and investment trends. This helps you find rising trends months or even years before they become popular. Featured is a platform that links subject-matter experts to top publishers to increase visibility and get high-quality backlinks. This could indicate that now is the perfect time to publish a guide, blog post, or landing page about that keyword.