15 Tips to Improve SEO in 2021

SEO stands for search engine optimization. Like so many marketing techniques, it was new and flashy when it first came on the scene. At that time, it was a way to get a leg up on your competitor. But now it’s 2021, and carrying out your SEO strategy is an essential part of your marketing strategy. If you aren’t, you’re missing out.

You’re no longer ahead of the game if you use SEO strategies. And if you don’t, you’re lagging behind.

Here are 15 tips to improve SEO in 2021:

1. Improve Your Website Loading Speed

When some people think about SEO, they immediately move toward keyword strategy. Keywords are important, and we will discuss them a little down the list. But they are not the only piece to your SEO puzzle. How quickly—or slowly—your site load speed has a direct impact on your rankings. Why? Because people won’t wait.

Curious about what your load speed is? Check out Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

2. Add Linkable Assets

You may hear a lot about the importance of backlinks and SEO. It’s true. While it’s not about getting the most backlinks you can, you definitely want to get quality ones. But how do you go about doing that? One way is to add linkable assets to your website. Think about how easily digestible your content is. How quickly can someone check out an article, pull out tidbits of information they can reference, and link to them?

3. Target Keywords for Commercial Intent

So you have a keyword you want to rank for, and it’s doing awesome. So you’re doing awesome, right? Not necessarily. You want to find the right audience. And that’s where the commercial intent comes in.

4. Go After Featured Snippets

Featured Snippets are the short portions of text that appear at the top of Google’s search results. They are designed for a searcher to quickly get an answer before even jumping into a link. A good place to start with this strategy is creating content that specifically answers questions and provides in-depth answers.

5. Use Sitelinks

Sitelinks are links to other pages (or sections of a page) that appear under Google search results. The reason why sitelinks can be helpful to SEO? They improve your click-through-rates.

6. Optimize Old Content

One of the biggest mistakes marketers make is focusing too much on new content. Sometimes, it’s not about reinventing the wheel. Instead, go back through the volume of your old content, and optimize it for 2021. In 2018, you may have had the best SEO strategy that money could buy, but when was the last time you dusted off some of your old content with current user intent in mind?

7. Find New Ways to Distribute Old Content

Similar to optimizing old content, you can find new distribution methods for your old content. You don’t have to create everything from scratch. Want to add more videos to your website or YouTube account? Search through top-rated blogs from the past, and adjust them to fit the updated distribution format.

8. Start Blog Swaps

Are you active in industry associations? Work with a lot of vendors? Reach out to your network, and see who would be open to a blog swap. In this scenario, you each write a blog for the other’s website. This effort extends your brand to their network. And at the very least, it gives you a backlink from their site to yours.

9. Use Broken Link Building

Broken link building is building backlinks by replacing links to 404 pages with a working link to a target website.

10. Target New Keywords

It’s true: Your SEO strategy should be more than just a keyword strategy. However, it’s still important! One way you can boost your SEO is by targeting some new low-competition keywords. What is quickly coming up in your industry? Tackle those up-and-coming keywords before your competition does.

If you aren’t sure what is up-and-coming, check out some industry glossaries for ideas.

11. Improve the User Experience on Your Site

Fundamentally, the main goal of search engines is to provide searchers with the best information for their needs. If those same searchers cannot find that information on your site, then you can’t really expect your site to be first in line.

12. Optimize for Voice Search

According to SEMrush, predictions state that 55 percent of households will own a smart speaker by 2022. This development is huge for SEO. To optimize for voice, think about longer and more natural-sounding phrasing.

13. Long-Form Content

In most cases, the longer your content, the more it will improve SERPs. That being said, your content should still provide value and keep users engaged and provided with shareable information.

14. Don’t Forget Your Images

As visual imagery continues to evolve, it will become even more prevalent in search as time goes on. Take an image audit on your site, and make sure they are high-quality, relevant, and have alt tags.

15. Work with a Digital Marketing/SEO Expert

There is one constant with SEO: It will continue to evolve. It can be challenging to stay up-to-date on all the trends. The good news is there are SEO experts who spend dedicated time doing just that.

Do you need help with your SEO? Want to improve SEO in 2021? Not sure how your website is performing? Check out our SEO audit services, and contact us today.

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