Why is search engine optimisation so important for your website?
One of the lessons learned from the recent Covid-19 pandemic concerns the need for businesses to boost their online presence.
Right now, SEO can help you achieve this goal.
Here are some SEO strategies that can prove useful to your business.
1. Compile a list of your keywords and check their relevance on Google
Keywords are the foundation of your SEO campaign. The easiest way to identify the words or phrases that are relevant to your business is to use Google Suggest. There will be no doubting the reliability of the keywords since they are coming directly from the search engine. If you are looking for tools with some options, you could try Google’s Keyword Planner or Bing’s Keyword Research Tools. They will help you find the keywords used by your potential candidates and clients.
When choosing keywords, it is important to remember that “long-tail keywords” (phrases) are less competitive than “short-tail keywords” (one or two words). However, your website can still easily rank highly using long-tails even with low search volumes.
Meanwhile, tools such as SEMrush can inform you of the search volume and competitiveness of your target keywords.
2. Create new content or make it better
You can make sure your website stands out from the crowd by creating new content or by improving your existing material. Whichever option you choose, the most important factor is to incorporate content that people will notice and read.
Fortunately, you don’t have to write something sensational or make statements you can’t justify. Instead, you can reach out to your target audience by:
- Communicating your thoughts effectively
- Impressing your readers with engaging words that stir their emotions
- Making sure you only utilise trustworthy content
You can also bring your old content up to date by removing any obsolete information and by introducing new insights. Updating your web pages may also require an SEO audit.
In addition, always try to remember this essential SEO rule: never publish or display duplicate content on your web pages. If you don’t remove plagiarism from your site and Google detects it, then a reduced ranking is often the penalty.
A lot of recruiters have the same blog themes, such as writing résumés or preparing for interviews. It is perfectly acceptable to write about these familiar topics but you must ensure that you present them from a different perspective while still offering helpful advice.
Rather than just regurgitating common knowledge to your readers, why not offer some insightful guidance?
3. Build links to your site by using engaging content
Besides writing helpful content, you need to ensure that it will appeal to your readers. There are various ways of doing this. For example, you could add:
- Graphs or charts
- Pictures
- Banners
If you have the right content, you can share it through link building. There are several strategies you can use, such as:
- Submitting blog posts to authoritative and popular websites.
- Using the blogs to establish yourself as an authority in your recruitment field.
- Building a niche for your backlinks.
- Searching for broken links on another site and offering to replace them with your content.
- Analysing your competitors’ backlinks – This age-old strategy is still effective. Find a site that is also ranking for your keywords and then check its backlinks and find which pages are relevant to your content. Once you have done this, you should reach out to those publishers and website owners and ask if they can link to your site.
- Hiring experts to help with your backlinks.
Want additional insight? Download Harness the Power of Social Media to learn more
4. Satisfy your candidates’ search intent
Let’s say you have tried to rank your target keywords but you’re not having much success. The most likely reason for this is that your content doesn’t match your candidates’ search intent.
In fact, it will no longer suffice to select keywords based on their search volume. While this approach can help you attract visitors, there is no guarantee that it will lead to more conversions.
Nowadays, when choosing a keyword, it is essential that you consider user intent. What motivates an employer or job candidate to respond to your content? What are the reasons behind their online search?
Once you have found the answers to these questions, you will be able to customise your content and generate more leads and conversions.
For instance, you will certainly need to understand how a candidate will find your job list. Remember, people from a particular location may have a specific way of conducting search engine enquiries.
Optimise your site’s loading speed
Loading speed is a vital element of your SEO strategy as Google has included it in its ranking criteria. A fast-loading speed will also discourage your potential clients and candidates from turning to your competitors instead.
If you optimise the speed of your website, you will soon notice an improvement in your:
- Conversion rates
- Search ranking
- Online traffic
- Leads and conversions
As most people are now using their tablets and smartphones to access the internet, it’s crucial that you optimise your site for mobile use. Furthermore, Google awards higher rankings to mobile-friendly websites.
Conclusion
SEO is an indispensable marketing tool for websites that want to boost their online presence. Your first priority is to search for keywords that can lead potential clients and candidates to your site. There are tools you can use to identify the words and phrases relevant to your efforts. Nevertheless, incorporating these keywords on your web pages will not suffice. You will also need to ensure that your content is interesting enough to appeal to readers. There are several ways of making your content stand out. You can add a few images and pictures to the text. Or, you could encourage your audience to visit your pages by offering a new or different perspective relating to a familiar theme. Don’t forget, your target audience will only visit your site if it provides answers to their questions.