In the world of SEO, there is never a certain winner, or an approach that will consistently place you above your competitors. That is why it is so important to continually create content that resonates with your target audience by speaking their language. And that word, language, is at the crux of SEO, since capitalizing on the keywords that drive the “language” of your target audience, and doing it better than the other guy, is the goal.
Not only do you have to grow with your audience, but you also have to operate with the sense that your competitors are actively trying to outrank you at all times. The best way to increase your online presence is to rank the highest, preferably first, for a keyword that everybody is searching for that you just happened to create an excellent piece of content for.
Chances are, your competitors are doing the exact same thing, and if they have access to online tools like SEMRush and Moz, they likely know which keywords you are ranking for and are currently plotting to oust you from your spot.
So how can you fight back? Getting regular site audits can help.
Your Titles and Meta Descriptions May Not Be Optimized
Google likes to rank content based on multiple factors like relevance to keywords, and users are more likely to click on sites that have legible titles and meta descriptions that make sense. This means:
Titles that typically do not exceed 60-65 characters.
Meta descriptions that typically do not exceed 160-165 characters.
You may be missing out on some amazing keyword opportunities.
When either the title or meta description are more than their respective character threshold, an ellipse (...) is put at the end rather than the sentence or phrase ending normally. As for that third point, there has been no conclusive evidence to show that titles and meta descriptions over the limit that contain desired keywords aided in the SERPs. Therefore, the best way to rank higher in the SERPs is to optimize for your desired keyword phrases within the confines of Google's character limit.
Page Load Times May Have Taken a Dive
That custom CSS and/or HTML code that may have bumped your site up to the next level may be negatively impacting your page load times. Studies have shown that users are more likely to click off of your page if it takes more than two seconds to load. There are a number of items that can cause page slowdown, like the aforementioned custom code, uncompressed images, and plugins.
Is Your Image Alt Text Optimized?
Another common missed opportunity is alt image text. This is a chance for you to describe the image in question, using your highly relevant, chosen keywords of course. Where your images are stored will be different for each CMS, but the alt text field is typically located with the image.
How Little Egg Solutions Can Help
Are you in need of a site audit? Has it been a minute since you thought about the last blog you wrote for your site? We can help. We are Little Egg Solutions, and we specialize in a wide variety of SEO and marketing services, including title/meta optimization, site building, article/infographic creation, and site audits. If you are interested in staying one step ahead of the competition, please get in touch, and we can help your little egg grow.