Competing for organic search traffic isn’t going to get any easier in 2021. The amount of online content develops every day, and our current atmosphere is adding considerably more challenges when it comes to SEO.

Not exclusively is the web becoming more soaked with content, but the number of internet users is at an all-time high. That means it’s more significant than ever to focus on a solid search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.

There’s much more to SEO than just optimizing content dependent on keyword research. When done appropriately, your SEO efforts can pay dividends with lasting gains.

The foundation of SEO is all about:

• Proper Site Structure
• Keyword Research
• High-Quality Content

Those pillars will never lose their significance. However, there’s significantly more you can do to boost your online visibility and connect more organic visitors.

Let’s look at what’s changing with search engines and the Top 10 SEO Ranking Factors to Drive Organic Traffic 2021:

#1: Schema Markup for Rich Results

Schema Markup can help impart the content of your site to search engines therefore they can display your content in a meaningful way on the SERP.

Whether you’re writing articles, showcasing products, communicating your services, giving a recipe, or several different situations, Schema markup can assist you earn rich results.

#2: Targeting Featured Snippets

Featured snippets are short blocks of text at the exceptionally top of Google search results. These snippets of text frequently give an answer to the search query without the searcher even needing to click on a search result. So why should you target these featured snippets? Indeed, they can still drive traffic to your site.

#3: Voice Search Optimization

 Voice search has become progressively more popular via home assistant devices and mobile phones, so it’s significant not to overlook it. The good news is that a solid SEO strategy should already set you up for voice search achievement.

Indeed, a considerable lot of the items on this list will help in voice seraph optimization; rich results and featured snippets are normally the go-to results for voice search.

Furthermore, many voice searches tend to contain question words like what, why, where, when, and how. Providing clear and brief answers to common questions can help you rank for all searches, particularly voice search.

#4: Focusing On Click-Through-Rate, Dwell Time, And Bounce Rate

When visitors see one of your site pages as a search result, would they like to click on it? When they click all through, are they busy with the content? Search engines know the answers to these inquiries, and they rank you on it.

A common SEO misnomer is that Meta descriptions should be keywords optimized. Actually, Meta descriptions provide little to no ranking factor. They perform; however, affect Click-Through-Rate (CTR), which in turn affects rank. Rather than stuffing keywords into your Meta description, you ought to write convincing, captivating Meta descriptions that match search plan.

Once you get organic visitors on your site, keep them engaged with the large amount of great content that is noticeably organized & easy to read. Make certain to incorporate internal links so your target customers have plenty of opportunities to work their way down your funnel.

#5: Influencer Backlinks

Influencer marketing has become more and more popular over the past few years. Leveraging the popularity of influencers can allow brands to connect with customers & earn loyalty like never before. If you don’t already have an influence budget, reach out and we can assist you discuss the best influencer marketing strategy for your specific business requirements.

Even those who are driving traffic from influencers might not be accomplishing full SEO potential. Optimized influencer content with strategic backlinks can be one of the most proficient ways of building out a backlink strategy (if you recognize SEO, you know that trustworthy backlinks can have an important effect on your rank).

 #6: EAT: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness

Google uses this acronym to decide page quality; other search engines use similar ranking factors.

• Expertise: Basically, you need to demonstrate that you are a subject matter expert (for example a CPA should write content about tax preparation, not an intern).
• Authoritativeness: Measures your reputations on the topic. Do you have a lot of reviews, and are you extremely recommended by other industry experts?
• Trustworthiness: Ensure you only publish exact, dependable information and refer to reliable sources.

#7: Local Search Results

Search engines have become more probable to display local search results, so you should be optimizing for all the web-searchers in your particular location(s). There is an assortment of things you should be doing both on and off-site.

This includes guaranteeing your website obviously communicates (to both humans & web crawlers) where you’re located and what you do. If you only desire local traffic, you should add your location to your long tail keywords & title tags.

Off-site, you should take advantage of the Google My Business tools & further local business directories.

#8: Mobile Page Speed

Search engines gauge the time it takes your page to load on mobile devices & desktop, and they rank you on it. About half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices, so it’s vital to have a mobile-responsive site that heaps rapidly!

Picture size & formats, render blocking assets unused JavaScript and CSS, server response time, and more all play into your page speed. A thorough site audit and skilled programming can assist you zoom past the opposition.

#9: VIDEO – We Are Serious This Time!

You’ve probably heard “you need to do video!” for years now. That phrase is only becoming more significant: Marketing Charts reveals that people will spend 100 minutes a day watching online videos in 2021; that’s up 19% from 2019. Furthermore, video has been show to expand CTR, lower bounce rates, and increase dwell time. Now that’s a win-win-win SEO situation!

#10: Remove Zombie Pages

Zombie pages are all those pages on your site with old, stale, useless content that doesn’t offer any value. You may think these pages don’t matter because no one is going to see them. Not true! In this example from Backlinko, deleting zombie pages resulted in a 48.7% boost in organic traffic.

Looking for an all-in-one SEO tool to assist optimize the technical, content, UX, & mobile performance of your website? Choose Star Web Maker!