In the modern marketplace of digital influence, the viability and prosperity of this online medium depends on the visibility of a website in search engine results. It is the lifeblood. Organic traffic (traffic derived from free search results, as opposed to payment) is the major metric by which can be measured the online success of this effort. Our very survival in the marketplace of ideas is dependent upon our ability to organically drive traffic to our websites. Using data analytics one can create an on-page SEO strategy to improve organic traffic. On-page SEO is the work done to improve the ranking of a web page in search engine results. It is most effective when coupled with a continual off-site strategy as well. In this article, we explore how to improve organic traffic by creating an on-page SEO strategy built on data and an understanding of the underlying process bringing quantifiable outcomes.
Understanding the Importance of Data-Driven SEO
By understanding the three pillars of data-driven SEO and what they mean, you can lay the groundwork for every instruction that comes your way. Data-driven SEO is an evidence-based practice that uses quantitative data to make the decision-making process transparent. Its central tenet is that relying on guesswork, general best practices or past experience limits a site’s potential for high rankings and increased organic traffic. Data can reveal how users construct search queries, what keywords drive conversions and visibility, and how those queries and keywords compare with competitors’. Ultimately, a data-driven approach helps a marketing or communications director identify who their site should serve and how their content should serve them.
Lastly, data-driven SEO underlines the necessity of constant monitoring and optimisation, because the digital world is not static. Search engine algorithms (the rules by which a search engine like Google gauges what page should come up first for a certain query) constantly evolve, so it is imperative for a business to regularly review performance data in order to continually adapt to ensure optimised search engine rankings. Google Analytics, SEMrush and Ahrefs offer a suite of tools to measure various key performance indicators for a website, ranging from keyword rankings to user engagement, allowing businesses to learn what functions well and what doesn’t on their own sites. This, in turn, helps businesses stay on top of their game in the ever-changing digital landscape. In conclusion, an appreciation for data-driven SEO is the first step toward a more informed and data-based on-page optimisation strategy.
Keyword Research and Analysis
If the foundation of any SEO strategy is keyword research, then data-driven keyword research is the starting point. The more specific the keyword, the less competition it will have And this is how we do it. We select low-competition keyword phrases, which have a high value and a good chance of driving targeted traffic to our websites. These phrases include both a keyword and a specific search term (eg, ‘growing food with hydroponics in your apartment’). We use tools like Google’s free Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest and Moz Keyword Explorer to find these keywords. These tools provide the search volume of the keyword phrase, information about the competition, and data on related keywords. Your Google AdWords account also offers keyword research services. For businesses providing niche services, keyword research will often reveal dozens of highly targeted search terms that, if used when creating content, instantly lift it to the top of the search rankings. This data-driven strategy works extremely well with long-tail keywords – in other words, longer, more specific keyword phrases with less competition. Surprise, surprise! Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian use SEO to bring them visitors The first step in this type of keyword strategy is to tap into a topic that is niche or scarcely populated by others and that will capitalise on your existing knowledge or niche to generate more interest in products, services and monies.
The next step is to rank the keywords based on their viability and impact. What do I mean by viability and impact? Well, there are a couple of aspects to it, beginning with the search intent of that keyword. Is it the kind of thing that’s going to aid your site getting organic traffic or not? The search intent of your potential keyword should match the intent of your content and where you want people to land. So, for example, if you can have a keyword that, hypothetically, might get 100,000 searches a month, that will be useless to you if it does not match what those people are looking to have answered. As well as the search intent, you need to look at the competitors ranking for the same keyword and what they are doing. Coupled with your own data, you can then analyse whether that search intent phrase is going to work for you and how you can fill the gap with your content. As a result, you should have a list of really good keywords that you can target on your website. This gives you a strong platform to begin optimising your on-page all to search terms.
On-Page Optimization Techniques
On-page SEO is a group of techniques used to optimise individual pages of a website to rank well in SERPs. A big part of on-page optimisation is the use of keywords. It’s important to insert primary and secondary keywords in a few key areas, such as a page’s title tag, the meta description (which leads people to the page in search results), headings, and in the content of the page. It’s good SEO practice to place keywords in all these places, but it’s better to do it in a way that doesn’t sound forced or ‘keyword stuffed’. This becomes easier after you master the technical aspects of SEO and search engine algorithms start to favour pages that meet their standards. When you do the right things, not to mention when you write natural-sounding content on subjects that people want to read about, the right SEO will follow.
Other vital on-page optimisation techniques, beyond the insertion of keyword placements, include image optimisation, page load speed optimisation, and mobile-friendliness.
- Image optimisation involves giving a descriptive file name to your images and adding alt text, and most importantly, compressing images to improve page load time, a crucial ranking factor.
- Fast loading pages help improve the user experience, leading to lower bounce rates; slow loading sites tend to have a higher percentage of people immediately hitting the back button once they land on the page.
- With mobile usage increasing by the day, search engines prefer listing websites that have a responsive design to those without, as this assures users a smooth experience across all devices. This is extremely crucial for SEO and is one of the biggest ranking factors as of now.
- From social media to news linkage, you can give out as many links as you wish to those who are willing to go the extra mile for you.
Content Creation and Optimization
Content is king, this is a phrase that is often used in the context of search-engine optimisation (SEO), but it is more than just a cliché. This phrase highlights the fact that content is what attracts organic traffic (ie, classical SEO) by appearing in search-engine result pages, so the higher the quality of your content, the more likely search engines will index it. Data-driven content marketing can help you to create a content strategy that drives your website traffic and successfully promotes your business online. To start building a data-driven content strategy, you should use the results of keyword research and user behaviour analysis to better understand the types of content that your audience wants to see on search-engine results pages (SERPs). Once you identify which types of content work best for your brand – blog posts, infographics, videos, etc – you should use the findings from your keyword research for optimisation. Put simply, you should create content that performs well in Google searches (eg, low keyword difficulty score, high search volume, etc), while adding keywords naturally throughout your content to improve its visibility on SERPs.
Optimising content that already exists and hastens the creation of new content has the same effect. Continuously refreshing and updating content ensures that it remains relevant and valuable to users through addition of new information, optimisation for new keywords and reading ease. Another aspect of content optimisation is internal linking, which helps search engines understand the structure of your website and creates a hierarchy of information. Using internal links to relevant content on your site will assist users in finding their way through your site, thus nudging them to spend more time there and keep them interested, which is more likely to help your search rankings. Content creation and optimisation are an ongoing process, and both are fuelled by growing things organically. This is a marathon, not a sprint business. Consistent effort and analysing the data conducts and sustains growth in organic website traffic.
Technical SEO and Site Performance
Technical SEO optimises the backend of your website that contributes to its performance and ranking. Before even starting your content strategy, technical SEO will help with the basics for your website such as making your site crawlable and indexable for search engines via its site structure, XML sitemaps and robots.txt files, along with ensuring that the content on your site is composed of no broken links or duplicates. Structured data, like schema markup, is also important for technical SEO to help search engines understand your page content to rank for search visibility.
A third consideration for technical SEO is site performance – faster page load speed and so on. Search-engines like fast sites because it gives the user a better experience. As such, tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix can be used to look for weaknesses in your site’s performance. An example of this is optimising server response times, leveraging browser caching, and making CSS and JavaScript files smaller. Another key factor is mobile friendliness. It’s only the really inept website developers that don’t cater for those things. It’s even more important nowadays: a study from 2019 found mobile devices now account for more than half of global website traffic. Given the importance placed on mobile search, Google introduced ‘mobile first indexing’ to give higher rankings to sites that were mobile-friendly. As with heuristics, the key thing is making sure that your site performs as well as possible for your users and in the eyes of the search engines. So, all the things I refer to as technical SEO underpin everything else.
Measuring Success and Continuous Improvement
How would you know they’re successful if you can’t measure your on-page SEO efforts? Key performance indicators such as organic traffic, bounce rate, average session duration and conversion rates are important metrics when it comes to understanding the results of your on-page SEO activities. Where can you find this information? You can get detailed reports automatically generated from Google Analytics and Google Search Console so it’s easy to track progress over time. You can get more information about your website’s keyword rankings and backlink profiles to see when your SEO efforts are working, and when they’re not. It all comes back to using metrics to determine your progress and where you might need to tweak or refine your approach.
A truly successful SEO strategy is always improving: the digital landscape shifts constantly and what works today might not necessarily work tomorrow. Key to keeping your search engine rankings strong is staying abreast of the latest SEO trends, algorithm changes and strategies. This can be done by doing routine SEO audits to find out what’s working or what could be improved. Running A/B tests to figure out how your audience reacts to one page element or another – for example, headlines, meta descriptions or the way you lay out your content – can also give you valuable insights. Building a healthy culture of continuous improvement helps your business stay ahead of the pack and keep your organic traffic growing over time.
Conclusion
Getting more organic traffic through an intentional, data-oriented on-page SEO strategy requires that you take a full-circle, well-informed approach, but there are a few invaluable starting points. Signal number one: data is important in SEO. Signal number two: good data is secret sauce. Signal number three: I have been blessed with it. Signal number four: you must also. Signal number five: no drumroll necessary. Onward. If you know that SEO is like a giant, detailed data set, then one of the most effective ways you can start is through what is already familiar to us: keyword research and analysis. This serves as the cornerstone of one of our most effective on-page SEO strategies: keyphrase mapping. The long and the short of it is that, through meticulous keyword research, you’ll choose what you consider to be an ideal set of keyphrases to ensure you’ve got just the right balance that will convert searchers into customers. You’ll then use your keyword research throughout the process to make sure that your optimisation on and off the page is consistently focused on those keyphrases or topics. Detailed, yeah? You do the keyword research, thoughtfully consider the full circle of SEO, and pick your ideal targets. Next, you optimise your on-page elements to support that keyphrase mapping and detailed content development, so that everything – from your content and its structure and titles, all the way down to image filenames and ALT-text – is working towards ongoing, natural search. By matching user intent with the most helpful content in the best way possible, you can expect to move up in search results, earn more natural links, segue seamlessly into ongoing content development, and garner more eyes on your content. (And, inevitably, more sales.) And we’re just getting started. But first, let’s put a fork in our first keyword research.