But your competitors are also doing the same. So you now need to do something different to get ahead and stay ahead of them. Here are 8 advanced SEO techniques to help your site rank higher to enable you to effectively achieve this.
Before you begin
Developing your SEO knowledge at the beginning took time and a lot of trial and error, remember? After all, you had to learn new jargon and develop a new technique whilst trying to run your business. If you’re fortunate enough to have a marketing team, they can shoulder some of the responsibility. However, if it is just you, it may be worthwhile working with an experienced SEO Consultant who can help you gain organic traffic to your website. Working with someone in the know will help you learn the right techniques, understand why they are used and focus on the data produced to make future decisions.
Upgrade Existing Content
It’s always exciting to think of a new idea for content and set about implementing it into something coherent. But what about your old content? Just because you have this great new idea doesn’t mean that your existing content should be ignored. In fact, it may just require developing, in line with your new idea. For instance, updating articles from 2020 to 2021 and updating facts in them as they appear will make your website a reliable market leader concerning trends.
Don’t forget, it takes time to rank and then drive traffic to the new content on your website before converting that traffic into customers. Therefore, why not regularly build on what you have if it is already ranking so that it ranks higher? By incorporating new trends and facts into existing content, you will bypass the need for starting at the beginning. Using Google Search Console for performance data will also help. Of course, you will still need to start anew with new content, but at least your existing content already has generated traffic and will continue to do so.
Remove Underperforming Content
Although you can update some pages, there may be others that just don’t appeal to your potential customers, no matter how many changes you make. When you come across a page like this, if it cannot be saved or rehashed by amalgamating some of its content with another page, perhaps it’s time to cut your losses and save your time by removing it. Every page on your website must justify its reason for existing and this is done by the traffic that visits it. You can use different SEO tools to determine what pages are effective. It is also a practice you should complete twice yearly to keep your website in optimum condition.
Develop Internal Linking
This is considered one of the most underrated SEO tactics there is. Internal linking, also known as internal backlinks, is an invaluable tool at your disposal. By using a backlink analytic tool you can discover your website’s most linked-to pages. These backlinks can then be redistributed to other relevant pages on your site so that they also gain some of the exposure that your most linked-to pages are currently experiencing. Pages that have topics in common are a good example to use to improve organic visibility and traffic. To assist with this, regularly look at current trends and adapt your keywords and phrases accordingly. If you are not sure you can manage it on your own, or if you'd prefer expert advice, you can choose to work with a link building company that provides customized strategies for your specific needs and goals for long-term growth.
Build Topic Clusters
Internal linking can identify topic clusters. Topic clusters are groups of words or phrases that all have a topic in common. Almost like a hierarchical family tree, with the topic at the top and subjects filtering out along its branches, is one way to consider topic clusters. Using them provides multiple opportunities for a customer to become lost in opportunities to engage with your website. Of course, some keywords and phrases may overlap, but then this will just encourage internal linking to branch into another area. This can only be a good thing for your website in terms of traffic.
Optimize for Featured Snippets
With Google announcing last year that they were removing double organic listings, your site can either have the number one ranking position or featured snippet place in a search, but it can no longer have both. So when faced with this, what should you opt for? The featured snippet because you have outranked your competitors in a search.
404s: Fixing Yours and Poaching Others
A 404 is a redundant page. It has no purpose but to show there is a problem accessing your page and should be fixed as a matter of urgency. It certainly isn’t helping your website to rank, so either fix the page or reroute it to a perfectly functioning one. Searching for 404s should be on your regular to-do list because it makes your business look tardy if it cannot keep a tight ship. Using the backlinks analytic tool that was mentioned earlier will help you unearth them when completing a simple search of your domain.
If you have 404s, the chances are so will your competitors and, if they are not fixing theirs as you are fixing yours, why not utilize their 404s? If you don’t, then chances are someone else will. Again, you can use the backlinks analytic tool in the same way as checking for your 404s on your domain but using your competitor’s domain instead. You’re effectively fixing a broken link by suggesting one of your own that has similar content.
Eradicate Cannibalization on Your Website
This requires you to stop having pages that have the same purpose for being on your website. Do not confuse this with having the same keyword because having the same purpose is not the same as having the same keyword. For example, if two pages are using the same keyword but one is using it for discussing the topic whereas another is using it for marketing, the pages have different purposes.
Having two pages with the same purpose can be repetitive and show inattention to detail. One page will often make the other redundant, leading to underperforming content. Tracking tools can be invaluable for discovering pages that may have the same intent on your website. If you cannot amalgamate these pages, consider removing the least popular one.
As you will know by now, SEO is a dynamic area that requires you to keep an eye on it to keep abreast of trends and your competitors. Seeking assistance to develop your knowledge in this area will be a smart investment, especially if you are serious about keeping your website ranking at the top spot. However, knowing about industry developments and world events can also help your business prepare for the changes ahead and affect your SEO strategy too.