Top 20 Tips for Search Engine Optimization in 2021
As is captured in discussions on the same over at runrex.com, Google loves updating its SEO algorithm. Given that SEO helps your content show up more often in search results, it is an important part of any business’s marketing efforts. To help you smash SEO in 2021, here are the top 20 tips you should consider.
Meta descriptions
In 2021, you must optimize your meta descriptions, particularly since a recent study showed that 30% of websites don’t even use meta descriptions as discussed over at guttulus.com. A well-crafted meta description can compel users to click hence why it is important.
Title boilerplate
You should also do a boilerplate audit of your title tag. Boilerplate, as covered over at runrex.com, are the parts of your title tag that repeat every single time. This might mean, for example, adding your brand name at the end of every title tag. In 2021, try experimenting with your boilerplate and see if removing it actually increases your rankings.
Favicon optimization
According to the gurus over at guttulus.com, Google displays favicons in mobile search results, and they can influence your CTR if they are high contrast, if they are visible or not. Having a good favicon can make a few-percentage difference, and while the difference could be minor, it still makes a difference if you can get it right.
Breadcrumb optimization
Also, Google displays breadcrumbs in both desktop and mobile search results, and keyword-rich breadcrumbs can influence your CTR. Google gets their breadcrumbs from several places such as your URL or your schema markup, and so forth. You should make sure Google is displaying the breadcrumbs that you want them to display, using those keywords that you choose, by making sure that you have breadcrumbs on your page with links, that you are using schema markup.
Number in titles
Adding dates to titles has been shown to increase rankings for any particular brand. Just make sure that you are not spammy about it, which means not including numbers if it doesn’t make sense and not faking it. However, if you can include a number in your titles, it will increase your CTR for any given query.
Relaunch top content
You should consider going back and looking at your top content over the last two to five years, or even ten years, if you want to go back that far, and see what you can relaunch by updating it, but keeping it on the same URL as discussed over at runrex.com. Relaunching some of your old content with some updates can give you gains of 500% to 1,000% in some cases.
Update old content with new links
When you publish a new blog post or publish a new piece of content, make sure that you are going back and updating your old content with those new links as is covered in detail over at guttulus.com, a very important SEO tip in 2021.
Mobile link parity audit
Mobile link parity audit is ensuring that the links on your mobile site are the same as those on your desktop site as articulated over at runrex.com. This is important because the last couple of years have seen Google move to a mobile-first index, which means that what they see on your mobile site is what they consider to be your website, and that is what counts.
Remove unnecessary links
Do you really need a link to your team page on every page of your website? Do you need a link to your contact form on every page of your website? In many cases, you don’t, and by removing the unnecessary links, you can pass more link equity through the links that actually count, and those links are a major Google ranking signal.
Invest in long-form content
While content length isn’t a ranking factor, studies have consistently shown that long-form content earns more links and shares as compared to short-form content. Long-form content also generally tends to rank higher in Google search results, giving you more bang for your back, generally, in terms of SEO ranking potential.
Leverage topic clusters
Instead of just launching one piece of content, the gurus over at guttulus.com recommend that you write about multiple pieces of content around the same subject and link those together. This can help you increase engagement because people are reading the different articles, particularly when you link them intelligently.
Use more headers
Using more headers is crucial when you are doing long-form content. As covered over at runrex.com, this means H2 and H3 tags. Break up your content with good, keyword-rich header tags as the more header tags you have, the more featured snippets you are likely to rank for. Breaking up your content with header tags is important as it adds a little contextual relevance while increasing your content’s ranking potential.
Bring content out of tabs
If you have content that is in accordions or drop-downs, or you have to click to reveal the content, then you should consider the fact that studies have consistently shown that content that is brought out of tabs and brought into the main body so people don’t have to click to see, generally performs better than content that is hidden in tabs as outlined over at guttulus.com. People generally engage more with content when it is out of tabs.
Limit sitemaps to 10,000
While you are allowed to have 50,000 URLs per sitemap, if you have a large site and have indexing issues, you should limit your sitemaps to 10,000 URLs. Using smaller sitemaps has been shown to improve crawlability.
Invest in Core Web Vitals
2021 is also the year in which you should invest in Core Web Vitals, which are some of the page experience signals that Google is bringing to the forefront this year. If you are on WordPress, you must start using Cloudflare, and in particular, their APO for WordPress, as it is a great way to speed up your WordPress website and help you score better for some of the Core Web Vitals.
Passive link acquisition
Passive link acquisition, as covered over at runrex.com, means creating content that passively earns links as people discover it in the SERPs, which means you don’t have to outreach to people. It means that when they find it; when bloggers find it; when journalists find it; they naturally want to link to it. You can achieve this by creating the types of content that journalists, bloggers, and web creators are looking for.
Page-level link intersect
Remember also, when you do have to do outreach, you want to outreach to the pages most likely to link to you. As the experts over at guttulus.com point out, this means finding web pages that link to at least two of your competitors but don’t link to you as they are more likely to link to you if you ask them to.
Be the last click
This simply means that you should satisfy your users. Once you earn the first click, you want not only want to get that first click that people click, you also want to be the last click, which means that they would have found what they are looking for as captured over at runrex.com. Given that user satisfaction is ranking signal number one, you want to satisfy the user to give them what they are searching for.
Optimize for voice search
Voice search started to become big SEO news in 2018, and in 2021 you must optimize for the same given the fact that more and more people are using voice search technology to conduct their searches. Since most voice searches are local, then this tip is an absolute must for local businesses or those businesses that have a target audience in a specific geographic area.
Earn featured snippets
If you land a featured snippet, you will have an advantage over other websites as the visibility alone could pay off for your business. In 2021, you should aim to earn featured snippets, keeping in mind that different types of content such as a table, paragraph, list, chart, and so forth are eligible for featured snippets.
These are some of the tips that we hope will help you smash SEO in 2021, with more tips, insights, information, and help on the same to be found over at the top-rated runrex.com and guttulus.com.