If you’re looking at ways to attract more traffic to your website, search engine optimization (SEO) is critical. It can be difficult to keep up with evolving algorithms and over two hundred ranking factors, however.

By following a few simple yet effective strategies, you can boost your website’s visibility, attract more qualified buyers, and rank higher in search results for keywords and phrases related to your business. Whether you’re a startup or established business, learning how to improve SEO and stay ahead of the competition is key to driving quality traffic to your site. 

#1 – Website Audit

The first step to improve your SEO is to gain a better understanding of your website, since it’s your most important digital asset. 

The goal of a website audit is to identify issues which may prevent it from functioning optimally for both users and search engines. The audit involves a balance of technical performance and user experience, analyzing key metrics such as site speed, page content, internal/external links, and more. Here are four areas of the website audit to concentrate on.  

Technical Audit 

On the technical side, you want to ensure that search engines can access files such as an xml sitemap or robots.txt file. This is the roadmap of your website that helps them discover and prioritize your most important pages. The robots.txt file directs crawlers to which parts of your website they are allowed to access, and which to avoid. Google Search Console is essential for verifying these files and troubleshooting any issues. 

Site speed and image compression are two other important areas to focus on in your technical audit. Poor image compression slows down a website’s loading speed, directly impacting user experience. Faster websites result in lower bounce rates and longer engagement times, both of which Google considers important ranking factors.  

Other technical factors, such as critical errors and broken links play a large role in the user experience. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to access a page or link that is no longer available. 

Since more than 63% of organic search traffic comes from a mobile device, Google prioritizes the mobile version of a website for ranking and indexing. A responsive mobile design improves the user experience and becomes a ranking factor in your SEO. You also don’t want to ignore such as large percentage of your audience by neglecting mobile devices in your design.

On-Page SEO Audit

Search engines favor pages with well-optimized content, proper keyword usage, and structured HTML elements. Simply put, if the web page is poorly written or structured, and users don’t find value with what’s on your website, neither will search engines. 

The four most important elements of on-page SEO are:

• Title tags and meta descriptions
• Header tags
• Content quality 
• Internal linking

For web pages to rank well, they must target relevant keywords that align with the search intent. The pages need to be easy to read and deliver information that is unique and purposeful. If the pages contain broken links, duplicate content, or fail to connect with the audience, it is unlikely search engines will prioritize them. 

Your web designer should be familiar with how to use title tags, meta descriptions and header tags correctly. Content quality is up to you, or your copywriter. Internal linking is a task for your SEO team. This is why professional website design and optimization is often a combined effort from multiple experts. 

User Experience Audit

User experience (UX) refers to how visitors interact with your website. Some factors that play into UX include:

• How easy it is to use your website
• How quickly people can find the information they’re looking for 
• How aesthetically pleasing your website is

Great UX balances functionality, design, and accessibility to deliver an experience that fosters engagement and conversions. It offers a clean, professional design that enhances credibility and trust. UX incorporates the right navigational elements, like an easy-to-use menu and breadcrumbs that guide the user’s journey. It also includes effective calls-to-action that compel visitors to convert.  

Effective UX design should be intuitive, modern, and unique. It should appeal to the target audience, and feature well-organized content that uses typography and colors consistent with the brand. It fosters engagement and interactivity, with simple touch points such as a confirmation message after sending a request for more information through the contact form.

Think of your website as an extension of your customer service department. Like your customer service team, your website should also communicate well with your potential customer. It should answer all their questions and respond to their needs. 

A user experience audit looks at all those factors to determine if your audience is getting the best possible experience. Simply put, if you are not tweaking these factors and measuring the data, you may be leaving money on the table. 

Off-Page SEO Audit 

Off-page SEO is your website’s reputation on the web. It’s how often other websites are linked to your site, and how often they are mentioned online. It’s in the reviews that are (or are not) online and what they say about the customer experience with your business. 

A wide range of factors help build this reputation. This includes generating high-quality backlinks to your site, leveraging online directories such as Google My Business, Yelp, and industry-specific directories, or mentions in online communities such as Quora and Reddit. In addition, press releases, online reviews, and social media mentions help drive this reputation.  

Off-page SEO is about building trust with your audience. When search engines receive signals that your site is reputable and users find its content worthy of engaging with, it results in higher organic rankings and domain authority. 

Building this trust is a long-term strategy that requires strategic placement of your brand in places on the web that the search engine has already deemed trustworthy. An off-page SEO audit looks at all these factors around the web to determine the level of trust being built and where it can be improved. 

#2 – Website Optimization

Website optimization is at the core of every successful SEO strategy. It’s about creating an experience that is user-friendly, intuitive, and structured in a way that communicates with search engines that your website is functional and easy to navigate. 

This requires both on-page and behind-the-scenes optimization that results in a remarkable user experience. Website optimization covers how the website was built, the copy and images used on the site, any information search engines may use to preview your website, and more. 

Here are a few ways to optimize your website for the best possible experience: 

Improve page speed – You can improve page speed by minimizing load times with optimized images, compressed files, and browser caching. Faster website load times are an important ranking factor for the search engines because it improves the user experience. 

Prioritize the mobile experience – Globally, over 60 percent of website traffic comes from mobile devices such as smartphones. Google is crawling the mobile version of your website for rankings, so it’s a good idea to make sure it’s optimized for rankings, and user experience. 

Optimize site structure – A website should be easy to navigate with intuitive features, menu, and internal linking. This extends to having a crawlable sitemap and short, SEO-friendly URLs so the search engine can easily recognize your site’s hierarchy. 

Enhance metadata – Meta titles and descriptions should be compelling and unique to draw visitors to the site. This information is shown in search results and can have a significant impact on whether users click through or move on to the next result.  

Image optimization – Each image on your site should have a unique and descriptive name and alt text, so that users can more easily understand the context of the image on your site. Google also uses this information as a ranking factor. Compressed images also increase loading speed, another ranking factor. 

Enable HTTPS – Since July 2018, Google effectively made HTTPS mandatory for all sites with a “not secure” message if a site did not install an SSL certificate to improve security. HTTPS is a must for SEO and user experience. 

There are hundreds of free and paid tools to help with various aspects of website optimization. There are tools to give you page speed insights, evaluate your content, and provide data about website traffic and current SEO rankings. The right tools can help you to improve your site for users and search engines alike. 

These suggestions will not only help with SEO, but also help increase your website conversions.

#3 – Competitor Analysis

When it comes to SEO, it’s not all about you. Since SEO success is about outranking other websites, the first thing you need to do is understand why other sites are outranking yours. 

Researching competitor’s sites is a critical step in search engine optimization that helps businesses understand how others have achieved success, and identity opportunities to outperform them. 

This process includes looking for several important factors: 

• Identify top competitors 
• Analyze keyword results relevant to your products and services
• Evaluate competitors’ backlink profiles 
• Evaluate their content strategy 
• Assess technical SEO of competitor sites
• Monitor brand mentions and social media engagement

This information later becomes the foundation for a custom-designed SEO plan, built to succeed within your geography, and your industry. Sure, you can implement best practices on how to improve SEO, but you should also discover what type of content strategy it will take to outrank your competition.  

#4 – Customer Research

Successful SEO requires a deep understanding of the target audience. Customer research plays a crucial role in shaping an SEO plan by uncovering how potential customers search for information, what problems they need solutions for, and which types of content resonate most with them. 

By analyzing customer behavior, preferences, and pain points, businesses can create content that aligns with user intent, leading to higher engagement and conversions.

One of the key benefits of customer research in SEO is identifying the right keywords (we’ll talk more about keyword research next). Rather than focusing solely on high-volume keywords, businesses can target long-tail and intent-driven keywords that their audience is actively searching for. 

This approach improves search rankings and attracts highly relevant traffic that is more likely to convert. Additionally, customer research helps businesses understand their audience’s content preferences such as blogs, videos, or social media. 

Customer research also helps provide quality UX ideas. You can evaluate customer behaviors through website analytics to understand how to improve SEO through more effective menus, forms, and calls to action. 

Here are a few steps to start with customer research. 

Define Your Audience

It’s important to understand who your audience is. Look at who is buying your product or service and what problem they are solving in the process. Google Analytics, email marketing analytics, and social media analytics can all give you wonderful insights into how people are interacting with your brand. It can help you to understand their pain points and create content that positions you as the solution. 

Understand Search Intent

Understanding your user’s motivations behind a search query is critical for optimization. Whether the search intent is navigational, informational, or transactional, mapping user needs to keywords with high-quality content is where you’ll find the most value.  

Develop The Customer Journey

Customer research helps map the customer journey by revealing their needs, pain points, and decision-making process. You can identify key touchpoints and optimize interactions by gathering insights through surveys, interviews, and data analysis. This ensures that marketing, sales, and support efforts align with customer expectations, leading to higher satisfaction and conversions.

By taking the time to understand your customers, you can more effectively create content that will resonate and have value. 

#5 – Keyword Research

Keyword research may be the most important step in search engine optimization. It’s the process of discovering and prioritizing the keywords and phrases that your target audience uses to find your products and services on the web. By utilizing these keywords effectively, your business can increase its visibility in organic search, drive quality traffic, and convert more visitors to leads.  

Three significant factors when it comes to choosing the right keywords: 

• Relevance – This is tied to search intent as mentioned above. Are they satisfying their curiosity with the search or are they looking to buy? 
• Authority – The keywords you select have the ability to enhance your company’s reputation. Will you be able to create content around these words that position your company as an expert? 
• Volume – There must be at least some demand for the content you create. The internet is too large of place to simply create content and hope that people find it.

“Insight from keyword research should shape your content strategy, as well as your overall online marketing strategy,” says Jason McSweeney, Founder of Joint Media Marketing. “Without it, you are throwing ideas at the wall and hoping they stick.” 

To find the keywords that hold the most value for your business, there are many free and paid tools that will help you make informed, data-driven decisions. Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, and Moz Keyword Explorer are great places to start.

Create a list of 10-20 keywords that relate to your business and input them into these tools. Look at data such as search volume, cost-per-click, and competition. It’s important to evaluate which keywords hold the most potential, which are the easiest to rank for, and which will be the most difficult. 

Here are four factors to identify through your keyword research:  

• Keywords with a high search volume that are worth pursuing
• Keywords with low competition that present the best/fastest opportunities to rank
• Keywords with high conversion rates worth doubling down on
• Keywords with low conversion rates to determine if they require more effort 

It’s important to use your keyword research tools to review competitor sites that already rank for these keywords. This can be the most insightful information as you can see the impact of these keywords in real time. 

Keyword research provides the blueprint for success as you look to create content and optimize your site for search engines. It’s how you know what your audience values, and what’s working for other websites within your industry. Make sure that you are as thorough as possible with this step.I t will shape the outcome of your efforts. 

#6 – Content Production

Now that you’ve done your keyword research and know what you want to rank for, you are ready to create content that matches the search intent of those keywords with your business goals.

There are a lot of different types of content that you can produce. It’s important to experiment and determine what resonates the most with your audience. All of these forms of content provide search value. 

• Website – It’s critical that your website pages show up in the right searches. Each web page should be written with search in mind. For instance, if someone is looking for “Plumbers in Naperville, IL” you’ll want to make sure that your website is optimized for that search phrase.
• Blog – A blog also has tremendous SEO value. To continue the plumber example, this is where you can showcase your expertise to your audience with articles like “How to Install a Toilet,” or “How to Fix a Leaky Pipe.” Many times they just want to see that the article looks credible, and they’re ready to call you to come address their issue. 
• Video – People learn differently. Some prefer to take in new information in written form. Others thrive on video. You can still use video on your website and through a YouTube channel to rank higher within the search engines and generate more visibility for your business. 
• Infographics – Infographics are a great way to create a visual image that conveys a complicated concept. Again, some of your audience may learn better with an image that makes something complicated easier to understand. SEO is about improving the user experience.

Content production is where your business has the opportunity to provide true value for your business and your customers. When this content is optimized to help your customers and rank highly within the search engines, you have an opportunity to truly expand your reach. SEO is about making sure this content ends up in the right hands, and converts into sales. Talk with us today about SEO content creation that converts and grows your business. 

#7 – Backlink Acquisition

Backlinks from high-authority websites can have a tremendously positive impact on the visibility of your site, and drive quality referral traffic to it. Conversely, backlinks from spammy, disreputable sites can destroy your online reputation, and even result in a blacklisted domain. It’s important to proceed accordingly. 

There are many ways to generate quality backlinks to your site. Creating link-worthy content is at the top of that list. From website and blog content, to videos, infographics, and other media, the goal should be to create content that others find so valuable they want to share it with their audience. 

This can increase visibility not only in traditional search, but image search, YouTube, ChatGPT, and other platforms. It’s also the basis for search algorithms on platforms across the internet. 

In addition, you can list your business in relevant directories such as the Better Business Bureau, Yelp, and your local chamber of commerce. These are sites that search engines already trust and recognize as a reputable source of information. 

Press releases are another way to generate quality backlinks. First, if the press release is newsworthy, journalists and bloggers may write their own stories and link back to your site. Second, distribution sites such as PR Newswire create quality backlinks while generating additional visibility. 

Influencers have become a powerful tool for creating backlinks as well. When high profile people talk about their experience with your brand and your products and services, it becomes an easy way to generate backlinks and more interest in your company. 

Another strategic way to generate backlinks is through broken link building. By identifying broken links on authoritative sites and providing your content as a replacement, it is a quick and effective way to divert traffic from an established source to your site. 

#8 – Measuring Impact

Effective SEO requires measuring the impact of your efforts and refining your approach. That’s where performance reporting comes in. Two of the most essential tools for tracking SEO success are Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

Google Analytics provides in-depth insights into website traffic, user behavior, and conversion rates. By analyzing metrics such as organic search traffic, bounce rate, and session duration, businesses can determine which pages are performing well and which need optimization. It also helps track goal completions, like form submissions or product purchases, allowing marketers to tie SEO efforts directly to business outcomes.

Google Search Console focuses specifically on a website’s search presence. It reveals valuable data like keyword rankings, click-through rates (CTR), and indexing issues. This tool helps SEO professionals identify technical issues, such as crawl errors or mobile usability problems, that could hinder search performance. Additionally, Search Console provides data on backlinks and site coverage, giving a clearer picture of a website’s visibility in search results.

By leveraging both tools, businesses can make data-driven decisions to refine their SEO strategy, improve rankings, and enhance user experience. Regular performance reporting ensures that efforts aren’t wasted on ineffective tactics and allows for continuous improvement in search visibility.

#9 – Content Tuning

If a piece of content is already ranking on the first page of Google but isn’t quite at the top, tuning that content, or tweaking it, can help push it higher. This process involves refining on-page elements, improving relevance, and enhancing user experience to increase engagement and authority.

A few things you can do to give that piece of content a friendly nudge upwards: 

• Review the content ranking above it and determine if there are gaps where you can provide more relevant information. 
• Optimize the title tag and meta description to make it more relevant and improve click through rate or improve rich snippet material. 
• Consider whether there are more practical examples you can use to illustrate your points within the content. 
• Add more internal links to pass authority from high-ranking web pages to the target content. 
• Make sure that your page is mobile friendly, loads fast, and can keep people on site for as long as possible. 
• Don’t view this as a one-time task. Monitor and refresh the content regularly to keep search engines crawling it and improve your chances of rising. 

Taking Action

Learning how to improve SEO doesn’t need to be overwhelming. You can generate more visibility for your business and improve sales by following these steps. Every small adjustment that you make to your website contributes to your long-term success. 

SEO is an ongoing process that’s never complete because your competition will always be looking to acquire your position. It takes activity to remain relevant, and Google’s search algorithm evolves often. The key is to remain consistent and track performance, while making adjustments over time. 

The sooner you begin optimizing content, the sooner you can expect results. The first position of Google is the modern day equivalent of being listed in the phone book- at the top of the page.

At Joint Media Marketing, we’ve helped many B2B and B2C clients achieve great results through SEO. Contact us today to learn more about our SEO services and strategies.