8 ADVANCED SEO TECHNIQUES FOR HIGHER RANKINGS

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8 advanced SEO techniques for higher rankings

You have mastered the SEO basics. This means you effectively use keywords and phases to drive traffic to your website. In addition, your website must be user-friendly and appealing so that this traffic is encouraged to buy and you can generate conversions to increase your sales. Until then, all’s well.

But your competitors are doing the same. You also know about your keywords and a user-friendly design. The term “mobile first” is nothing new to you. So how do you win against this neck-and-neck race and gain a massive advantage?

Simply put, you need to do something else or more. Winning in the rankings and staying in the top positions also means that you have to deal with and implement more expertise and knowledge. Now that you’ve mastered the basics, here are 8 advanced SEO techniques that will help your website rank higher that you can effectively achieve with them.

The SEO landing page

Before you start

Think back. In order to develop your SEO knowledge, you had to invest a lot of time – especially at the beginning. Among these, your attempts have also entailed and cost a great deal of error. This is quite normal when you learn a new technical jargon and then have to implement this new technique. At the same time, the business must continue to run. If you have a marketing team on your side, then you’re in luck, because some of this responsibility can be transferred to your team. But not every company needs a marketing team or has the capacity for one.

Especially when it comes to advanced techniques, it is therefore worth investing in an experienced SEO expert who will at least advise you and help you to drive organic traffic to your site.

If you invest in someone who knows their stuff, your SEO expert can show you exactly how the so-called SEO rabbit runs. Possible questions do not have to take hours of research time, but can be asked and answered directly, and if there is an error in your SEO work that you simply cannot identify, your SEO expert is a great saving. Because time is money. Who likes to search for days (yes, it can happen) for a mistake that your SEO consultant can find and solve in no time?

So if you choose to work with them, you can be sure that they will help you learn the right techniques, understand why they are used and focus on the data generated to inform future decisions.

Update existing content

It’s always exciting to have a new idea for content and set about turning it into something cohesive. But what about your old content? Of course, sometimes a great new idea can take up all your focus, but you should never ignore old content. One tends not to realize exactly why a finished old content, which is also pleasing and seems reasonably optimized, needs attention again if it has no errors. Nevertheless, you should bear in mind that old content in particular needs to be developed in line with your new idea.

To illustrate this, we would like to give you an example: Imagine you have written an article from 2020 on a specific topic of your choice. However, a lot has now changed in 2021. Some facts still match, but some may now be completely out of date, while other new findings have been added.

So if you take the time to update this content and bring everything up to date, your website will become a reliable market leader in terms of trends. After all, how many competitors do you know who are involved in updating old content? With a little more work and maintenance of old content, you can easily stand out from the competition and appear in the leading rankings when it comes to content.

Of course, this process takes time, but don’t forget that it’s just as time-consuming to rank for new content and drive traffic to your new content before conversions happen.

So why not regularly build on what you have, if it already ranks well, so that it can rank all the higher with just a few changes? This is only possible by implementing new trends and facts from your existing content. Your text is already written and you don’t have to start from scratch.

Using Google Search Console for performance data will also be helpful. Of course, you will still have to write new content and therefore start again, but at least your existing content has already generated traffic and will continue to do so with good maintenance.

SEO search

Remove poorly performing content

So there may be many pages on your website whose content invites and, for good SEO, encourages you to revise it. But equally, you will inevitably come across content that simply doesn’t reach your potential customers. No matter how much you change or optimize this content.

If this content cannot be salvaged or refurbished by merging it with part of another piece of content on your site, it may be time to cut your losses and save valuable time by removing the page.

Even if it sometimes hurts or is annoying, each side must have its justification for existence and be able to justify it. This is best measured by the traffic generated. By using certain SEO tools, you can check which pages are effective and which are not generating traffic.

You should also carry out this practice twice a year to keep your website in optimum condition.

Develop internal links

In fact, internal linking is a very underrated SEO practice, if not the most underrated. Also known as internal backlinks, this is an invaluable tool at your disposal. There is also a suitable backlink analysis tool for this, which you can use to determine the most frequently linked pages on your website.

You can then redistribute these backlinks to other pages on your website so that they also receive a lot of attention, as do the pages that are currently linked to most frequently.

Pages that contain common themes are ideal and are a good example of how to improve organic visibility and traffic. To support this, regularly look at the current trends and adjust your keywords and phrases accordingly.

Make sure that the links really fit together thematically and that you don’t overdo it with the links. Because it can happen very quickly that your site otherwise engages in link spamming and the exact opposite of ranking and traffic is achieved.

Form topic clusters

Topic clusters can be understood like a hierarchical family tree. The main topic is at the top and other topics filter out along the branches. Using topic clusters also provides multiple ways for a customer to engage with your website.

Of course, some keywords and phases may overlap, but see this as an encouragement to expand your internal linking and branch out to other areas.

So, if you have formed a sensible topic cluster link hierarchy and are expanding your linking network, not only will this benefit your customer who is led through your site, but you will also enjoy the benefits in terms of traffic.

Optimize for featured snippets

There used to be a double organic listing. This means that you could be at the top of the organic rankings and display your featured snippet. But Google’s announcement makes it clear that in future you will only have to choose one of the two – but no longer both. So now the question is whether you want the top ranking position or the featured snippet position. From an SEO perspective, the answer to this question is quite clear: the featured snippet. Why? Because you have overtaken your competitors in the search ranking.

Your snippet will occupy the top organic result anyway, directly below a potential ad block. In addition, the featured snippet will stand out clearly from the other snippets. With a clear border and the option of an image on the right-hand side, it’s almost impossible to miss your snippet.

It is the first impression that counts, whether you generate traffic or not, and those who stand out are more likely to be visited and have the chance of many conversions. So concentrate on optimizing your featured snippet to reach as many customers as possible.

Optimize for featured snippets

404s: Fix your own and poach others

A so-called 404is nothing more than a superfluous page. It serves no purpose other than to show that there is a problem accessing your site. There is no question that this urgently needs to be rectified. Do this or redirect the page to a perfectly functioning page instead, as 404s do not help with ranking – on the contrary. Rather, users who land on this page will leave it again in frustration.

If you are already familiar with the term bounce rate, you probably also know that Google will rank pages with a high bounce rate lower. That’s why searching for 404 pages should be on your regular to-do list. Otherwise, your site will be perceived as outdated that nobody cares about to keep it working.

If you use the backlink analysis tool mentioned above, you can easily find affected pages by searching for your domain.

It is very likely that everyone is affected by a 404 page – including your competitors. But if, unlike you, your competitors aren’t eager to fix their own 404 pages, why not use your competitors’ broken pages to your own advantage?

Because if you don’t do it, sooner or later someone else will do it in your place. To do this, you can use the backlink analysis tool again. It will work exactly the same as on your own site, only this time you will be searching for your competitor’s domain. You will effectively fix a broken link by simply suggesting one of your links that points to appropriate content.

Eliminate cannibalization on the website

To avoid cannibalization on your website, you should stop having pages that serve the same purpose for your website. Do not confuse this with pages that use the same keywords, as there is a clear difference. For example, two pages can use the same keywords, but one has the purpose of dealing with the topic and the other is responsible for marketing.

But when two pages have the same purpose, it can be repetitive and shows inattention to important details. One side often makes the other superfluous. At the same time, this leads to below-average content. Tracking tools can be invaluable in discovering pages with the same purpose on your website.

If you cannot merge these pages, consider removing the least popular page.

SEO support pays off!

As you know by now, SEO is a dynamic area that you need to keep an eye on to keep up with trends and your competitors. Seeking help to expand your knowledge in this area is a wise investment, especially if you are serious about keeping your website on top of the rankings. But knowledge of industry developments and world events can also help your company to prepare for the coming changes and also influence your SEO strategy.