Eight SEO Secrets Of The Most Successful Sites: The Ultimate Guide

Search engine optimization (SEO) is when you improve a website’s traffic, or any online platform, for that matter. A clear indication that you’re doing SEO correctly is when you’re experiencing an increase in the number of your visitors. It can also be apparent that you did an excellent SEO job if you find your website on the first page of a search engine.

While there are several ways to improve a web page’s search engine rankings, generic tips like adding keywords or editing metadata can only do so much for your platform’s SEO. After all, almost everyone already knows about these strategies, which makes you wonder, ‘Why are some websites more successful than others?’ Well, the answer is simple–the owners of these sites most likely have a deeper understanding of search engines than most.

If you want to be the same, here are eight SEO secrets that most successful sites don’t want you to know:

Focus On Creating Original Content 

Although the quantity of content is one of the things you must consider, it isn’t good for SEO if all the content is generic and you can find it elsewhere. However, creating quality, original content can be difficult as you’ll have to look for a genuine source. If you’re looking for a unique story, consider using customer testimonials and company milestones as your reference material.

An SEO campaign case study can also qualify for original content. It should be easier to create than the previous examples since case studies are accessible as long as you know where to look.

Aim For Featured Snippets 

If you often use Google to ask all sorts of questions, you’ve probably encountered a featured snippet at least once. These are short bits of text that appear at the top of the results page. Rather than only showing the meta description and title, it shows a little bit of the page’s content.

For example, if you search for ‘what is SEO and how it works’ on Google, you’ll find a blog snippet from the Neil Patel website. Featured snippets receive 9% of all clicks on a results page. So, if you can get your content to be in one of these featured snippets, you’ll enjoy some serious boost in SEO ranking.

Here’s how you can create a featured snippet:

• Create content to answer a particular question
• Make sure the answer is unique
• Develop a question-and-answer portion on your blogs
• Create An FAQs Page On Your Website

If you intend to get your content in a featured snippet, one way is by creating an FAQs page. For your reference, FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) is a page dedicated to answering the questions of a website’s visitors/users. Since it’s technically a question-and-answer portion, there’s a good chance it’ll show as a featured snippet on search engines.

Furthermore, it’s also beneficial to SEO as it allows you to add countless keywords relevant only to your company or business. Hence, it’s highly advisable to create an FAQs page.

Consider Getting The Help Of An Influencer 

During the past year, the number of social media users has increased by over half a billion, which may be due to the pandemic. Because of this, influencers have become more ‘influential’ and relevant, which means influencer marketing is more profitable than it could ever be.

Pay Attention To Core Web Vitals 

In May 2020, Google introduced the Core Web Vitals to internet users. This is a new set of metrics that’ll be part of Google’s ranking calculations. It consists of three components:

• Loading speed
• Visual stability
• Interactivity

With the inclusion of Core Web Vitals in the mix, the SEO game has completely changed, and you must start paying attention to these news metrics on top of the old ones.

Turn Your Content Voice-Search Friendly 

Ever since the inception of voice recognition, it slowly became a trend in many industries. It was only a matter of time before it invades search engines, and that’s exactly what’s happening now.

Recently, voice search is becoming the preferred option of users when typing in a search query instead of the search text bar. Hence, before voice search completely takes over search engines, it’s best if you turn your content voice-search friendly.

Utilize Schema Markups 

Despite the intelligence shown by search engines, they still struggle to understand and make sense of what a webpage is talking about. This is especially true for complex web pages, such as those that consist of a rating/review, local business, or recipe.

A schema is basically a form of metadata that helps search engines understand a website better. Using a schema lets you tell what you want the algorithm to show to users if your page appears on their search results.

Treat YouTube As Another Search Engine 

While it’s better known as a video-sharing website, YouTube is also a search engine, and a popular one at that. In fact, its search volume is larger than that of AOL, Yahoo, Ask.com, and Bing combined. Therefore, you should start treating YouTube as a search engine. This means you have to do what you usually do with other search engines, liking ranking according to keywords.

Final Words

While it’s true that search engine optimization is a vital element of a platform, much less a website, it’s not the only one you should take into consideration. You must also pay attention to your website’s user experience (UX), security, and design. With the proper balance between these elements, on top of a solid SEO, you should be able to reach the top of the rankings soon.