To be at the top of the search engine, you have to act like the best. But what does that actually mean? Search engine optimization strategies are becoming more complex by the day, requiring a combination of technical knowledge and creativity. Want to be sure that your SEO (search engine optimization) strategy doesn't lack anything? Check out what activities you can't forget about in the coming months.
How are artificial intelligence algorithms changing SEO?
The development of artificial intelligence has brought with it many changes in the functioning of search engine algorithms and more. How has AI revolutionized seo optimization?
First, artificial intelligence is a huge help to search engines such as Bing and Google. Machine learning makes algorithms more advanced and able to better understand user intent. As a result, search engines are getting smarter.
Second, AI is affecting the work of copywriters and website content creators. Using AI-based tools can help and speed up the creation of content ideas, headlines or meta descriptions. In addition, grammar, punctuation and general correctness of text can be checked using them.
Third, AI enables search personalization. That is, it helps search engines present even more personalized search results based on location, search history, demographics or user behavior. Have you not encountered this type of application? Are you familiar with Google Discover? It uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze user behavior and preferences. This allows news stories to display content that resonates with recent activity.
In order to stand out in Google's search engine and use the dynamic changes caused by the development of artificial intelligence to your advantage - you need to make a stronger commitment to creating specialized and factual content on your website. Specialized algorithms are increasingly efficient in catching unethical SEO practices, eliminating the possibility of manipulating search results. The use of spam, low-quality links or keywords that are missing from a page increasingly lead nowhere. The remedy for these changes is high quality content written by experts in their field. Unique, one-of-a-kind and customized texts are something worth investing in.
Impact of page load speed on positioning in 2024
Imagine you want to buy a new frying pan. You type in a relevant phrase, browse through the search results, and want to get to the site of your choice. The page loads a second, two... fifteen seconds. What do you do? If you answered - "I leave the page and keep looking" then you are among the nearly 80% of users who are discouraged from converting if the page load time is too long.
Positioning can be affected by those few seconds. Is it worth the risk? Not really. Only proper optimization of your site can save you from a page loading at a snail's pace. How to accomplish this?
Use proven tools - at the very beginning it would be a good idea to find out if our site is indeed slow. The PageSpeed Insgihts tool from Google or GTmetrix, which is considered a slightly more accurate proposition than the tool from Google, can help you with this.
Check the format of your media - oversized or badly formatted graphics, masses of plug-ins, poor quality hosting or a mess of source code or a huge video that doesn't even display.
Do a cleanup - start with the source code. Check it for unnecessary paragraphs, eliminate JavaScript and CSS code that blocks rendering. Do a review of the plugins installed on the site. You may find that many of them are no longer needed for anything. Use WebP graphic formats - this way they won't lose quality even if they are reduced in size. If you have made all possible changes to your website, and you don't see any improvement. Try changing the hosting - perhaps it is the main problem.
Mobile-first indexing: how to customize your site?
Mobile users want easy access to the content on your site. If you prevent them from doing so, the issue is simple - they will go to your competitors. That's why it's so important to tailor your sites for smartphones. Mobile-first indexing is an indexing model that primarily pays attention to tailoring your site's content to mobile devices.
As early as 2015, the number of searches on smartphones surpassed the number of searches on any other electronic device. When until recently searches using a phone were not so popular, now the situation is completely different. Since the majority of users use Google on their phone, the mobile version of a site has naturally become one of the most important aspects considered by robots. The Index is designed to push business owners to create mobile-friendly sites and give them free access to content. The idea is to provide exactly the same experience as using a computer or laptop. How do you adjust your site to be mobile-friendly?
What parameters affect a low mobile-frist index?
There are several ways to customize your site to make it more mobile-friendly. Here they are:
- Monitor for errors - focus on the mobile version of the site. Check Google Search Console regularly to identify and fix any errors related to indexing on mobile devices.
- Improve loading speed - page loading speed is of great importance for SEO, especially for mobile users. Ensure that your loading speed is optimized so that it does not exceed 3 seconds.
- Provide identical content - both the mobile and desktop versions should contain the same content, links and images. Avoid differences between the two.
- Make Googlebot's job easier - make sure Googlebot can freely index the content of the mobile site. Use the same meta robots tags (that is, an HTML tag that informs robots about indexing and page content), avoid "lazy" loading of content on the homepage, and ensure that resources are available to Googlebot.
- Using the same robots metatags - make sure the mobile site uses the same robots metatags as the desktop version. If not, Google may have difficulty indexing the site properly.
- Caution with structured data: Make sure that both the mobile and desktop versions contain the same structured data, especially when it comes to URLs. For structured data on the mobile version, use mobile page addresses.
Tools to help you optimize your site for mobile devices
The indexing model significantly affects a site's position in search results. If your site is not available in a mobile version, most simply Google's robots will not be interested in viewing your site, which will certainly not translate into more organic traffic.
Here are tools that can help you optimize your site for mobile devices:
Google Search Console - the tool will help you detect in advance all errors that may affect the quality of the site displayed on mobile devices. In the Core Web Vitals tab you will find information dedicated to the mobile version. From the report you can find out what problems exist on the site and what to do to adjust it for mobile indexing.
Mobile-Friendly Test - the interface allows you to test URLs for mobile accessibility. With it, you can easily test your site and see how Google views it in terms of indexing for mobile devices.
Effective link building strategies in the new era of SEO
As we mentioned earlier, AI doesn't make it easy for marketers, and increasingly capable and savvy robots, know well when they are dealing with a low-quality site - including when it comes to linking.
Link acquisition is the cornerstone of seo efforts. Thanks to them you are able to increase traffic and stand out from the competition in the search engine. Why else is link building important for on-page SEO?
- Improving search engine rank: One of the main factors that affect a site's position in search results is the number and quality of links leading to it. Search engine algorithms, such as Google's PageRank algorithm, consider links as clues from other sites that a site is valuable and noteworthy. The more high-quality links leading to a site, the higher it can rank in search results.
- Increase visibility: Link building helps increase your site's online visibility. Each link leading to your site can bring in new visitors who may have previously been unaware of your site. The more links leading to your site, the greater the chance of reaching new users and increasing organic traffic.
- Building trust and authority: Links from credible and reputable sites can help build your site's trust and authority in the eyes of both users and search engines. If a site receives links from trusted sites, it suggests that the site is also trustworthy and valuable.
- Increasing indexability: Links are one of the main ways that search engines discover new websites. The more links that lead to your site, the greater the chance that it will be indexed by search engines and appear in their search results.
- Developing relationships with other sites: The link-building process often involves establishing relationships with other site owners or people in the industry. This allows you to build partnerships, collaborate and exchange content, which can bring additional benefits, such as the possibility of gaining new customers or business partners.
Linking should not be done haphazardly. As with all SEO efforts, the right strategy should be taken. What link building techniques will become increasingly important in 2024 and will be friendly to Google's robots?
Entries in web directories - this is a fairly simple and effective way to collect the first links to your site. Registering with directories related to your industry will help you gain valuable links.
Valuable content - one-of-a-kind text and expert knowledge is a combination that can earn you a ton of links for free. The more interesting your content, the greater the chance that other users will link to you themselves.
Collaboration with influencers - many brands have ambitions to create opinionated media, unfortunately, this does not succeed very often, especially if we do not have a well-thought-out strategy. In this case, it is worth investing in cooperation with an influencer whose message has a large scale and reach. It is important that the person we choose is related to the industry we are dealing with. The cooperation can be based on co-creating content for a blog or exchanging links.
Sponsored posts - reputable websites are a good place where we can generate valuable traffic to the site through links. This is one of the best link building strategies. First, they are visited by many users, and second, they are well rated by robots, which gives us a valuable link.
If you want to apply the most important seo techniques in 2024, you can't forget about all these elements. At first glance, it may seem like quite a lot, but it's essential if you want to get ahead of your competition and rank first in search engines.
