Bloggers and web entrepreneurs only dream of one thing for their website: to be on the first page of search engine results. This is essential if you want to avoid getting lost in the meanders of Google, without any visitors. The good news is that it is possible to better reference your website by using natural referencing techniques (SEO) or by creating paid advertisements (SEA). Without needing to be an expert on the subject, here are some avenues to study. They will certainly allow you to be better positioned by Google, to increase the traffic of your website and therefore to make it more visible.
1. Check the basics of natural referencing for your website
Let’s start with the beginning! Before even wanting to use the latest techniques that have appeared in terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), it is important to establish your natural referencing on a good basis. Here are some recommendations:
- Have a site accessible to search engines. Google’s indexing robots will then be able to analyze it by going from one URL to another. This step makes it possible to index a website and then to determine its positioning. Check that you don’t have blocking files (such as robots.txt, for example) that could simply prevent Google from scanning your site.
- Take care of its content, so that it is relevant, unique, regular and with high added value.
- Refine your keyword strategy, so that Google understands the purpose of the website and, therefore, positions it correctly. Find relevant and targeted keywords.
- This is not always easy work, do not hesitate to call on professionals. Find ghostwriter who will be able to accompany you and on whom you can count to achieve your objectives.
- Get backlinks. Do not put aside the links that refer to your site, essential in SEO. They are seen by Google as content recommendations. Backlinks obtained from quality sites are real boosters and help to aim for the first place on the results page (SERP).
- Improve the loading speed of the site so that it is always faster and offers smooth navigation.
Each of these correctly worked points allows you to have a good foundation in order to be able to go even further in terms of SEO strategy.
2. Exploit the Google Discover track to be better positioned by Google
Google Discover has been around since 2018 for smartphones and tablets, leaving more room for chance and the preferences of its 800 million users. By switching from Google Feed to Discover, the pages that appear in the news feed are no longer chosen in the same way by the search engine.
Google Feed displays at the top of the list the sites deemed most relevant by the algorithms for a given query. Discover’s approach is different. It mainly presents the content most related to the user’s interests, as determined by Google’s automated systems. The objective is to introduce fresh and relevant information to Internet users. Indeed, unlike Google Feed, the news feed with Discover is regularly modified, according to the preferences of Internet users and the evolution of the Web.
There is no tangible way to accurately target user tastes and attractions with Discover. Despite everything, it remains a real boon in terms of traffic and audience. This is a track not to be overlooked to try to make your site appear on the first page of Google. To have a chance of appearing there, opt for an attractive, interesting, relevant text that responds to very specific requests.
3. opt for SEA, the optimization of paid advertising campaigns on search engines
When we talk about SEA (Search Engine Advertising), it is about using commercial links on search engines, targeting specific queries through keywords. The method consists of creating different campaigns on Google through its AdWords advertising network.
SEA has a cost, but is a way to better position yourself and see yourself propelled to the top of the SERP, above the natural results.
Google Ads is a very fast and efficient way to make yourself better known. The effects of paid campaigns are immediate, often delivering spikes in traffic. On the other hand, these results are not permanent, and the figures drop once the operation ends.
Conversely, although SEO requires a constant and long-term effort, the performance, visible in the medium term, is more effective and sustainable. To end up on the first page of Google results, it is possible to opt for one or the other of these two solutions. At first, if the site is recent, it is recommended to combine them, the time to work on the different SEO techniques and to obtain the first successes.
4. Improve UX: vital web cores to better reference your website
Google’s core web vitals program revolves around three main axes that improve the user experience (UX):
- the loading time of a web page;
- the response time for the Internet user, in other words, the time elapsed between the moment when the user clicks on a link or a button on your site, and the moment when the browser responds to this action;
- visual stability, through which the change in position of the visible elements of your page will be measured.
These three elements will be taken into account more by the algorithms from 2021. The expected performance of a website is therefore growing and becoming real ranking signals in terms of SEO.
In addition to the speed factor, which was already pointed out by Googlebot’s for the positioning of a site, it will also be a question of studying the behavior of Internet users on web pages. UX becomes totally complementary to a site’s popularity and relevance.
The user experience being important in the eyes of Google, it should be noted that if it hesitates on the positioning of two sites that it deems relevant, it will undoubtedly favor the one that offers the most suitable user experience.
Google’s primary objective remains the same and is becoming more and more precise: fully satisfying the expectations of Internet users. If your mission is the same, your SEO visibility should pay off!
5. Boost your local SEO with Google’s local pack
Local SEO is the perfect solution to geographically reach a potential target and better reference your website with localized traffic. This is particularly possible with the Google local pack. These are the pages that are displayed first when a request is typed by a user with the terms “near me”, if he has activated geolocation or if he indicates a city.
If your structure has an ideally completed Google My Business listing, your establishment is then positioned directly on a Google Maps map. Indeed, the results are obtained in the form of a list of three different companies with their relative information (address, opening hours, etc.).
The local pack is ideal for boosting its natural referencing and increasing its traffic. The visibility of the site is optimal, since it is displayed just below the search bar. Do not exclude this option in your overall SEO strategy, and optimize your Google My Business listing as much as possible, which is also a free tool.
6. Develop your social networks for more visibility
In parallel with your SEO strategy, it is essential to develop your social networks for more visibility. The impact on natural referencing is indirect, but the SMO (Social Media Optimization) helps to increase the notoriety of a site.
A strong presence on different platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.) can be powerful in terms of quick exposure and bringing qualified and diverse traffic to your website. These interfaces allowing the easy and fast sharing of information, the legitimacy of your site can be increased. So, remember to set up links that point to the latter.
Your popularity will then be clearly amplified, which has a positive effect on the positioning of a site in general. Maintaining your social networks is inevitable in an SEO strategy. They are true allies of natural referencing and allow you to vary the sources of traffic. To improve its positioning and better reference its website, there are many techniques. But if there is one rule to follow, it’s to be patient! SEO is not just a list of checkboxes. These are several small actions to put in place and a lot of follow-ups. See what works for you, what doesn’t, and why. If natural referencing is crucial today for any company present on the web, it requires being persistent and enduring. So regularly monitor the SERP and evaluate your SEO optimization strategy in order to refine it.
