Did you know that 93% of traffic begins with a search query? Even with a high number of searches being performed, the large majority of users don’t ever scroll past the first page. If you want to get their attention, you need to be on that first page! That’s where SEO comes in. SEO, or “search engine optimization,” is the key to increasing your traffic and growing your digital presence. Once you brush up on your SEO skills and start utilizing advanced SEO tactics, more people will be driven to your site, building your brand recognition. An increase in brand recognition will eventually lead to higher revenue. But becoming an expert on advanced SEO tactics isn’t easy. The trends are always evolving and if you want to become an expert, you need to stay on top of them. There are a variety of tried-and-true ways to boost your SEO — backlinks and press mentions for one — but what are some other tactics you should be trying in order to become an advanced search engine optimization expert? In this article, I’m going to introduce you to some incredible, advanced SEO tactics that will bring you up-to-speed with which ones to use in 2021 to build your brand and make the internet remember your name.

1.   Start with an Advanced SEO Audit

There are a ton of factors that affect your SEO score — even some you may not be aware of. This is why it’s important to periodically perform an SEO audit on site(s). If your tactics are out of date, your content won’t be visible to search engines. How can you show up in the search results if the search engines don’t even know to look for you? Make a periodic SEO audit a part of your business’s marketing strategy to avoid falling into the trap of outdated tactics.

2.   Optimize Your URL

Google won’t pick up a URL it can’t recognize. If you want to show up in more searches, it’s important to take a look at your URL and see if it checks any of these boxes:

• Is it short and sweet?
• Does it use hyphens? Search engines don’t like underscores!
• Does it contain capital letters or all lowercase? Use all lowercase letters. Search engines are case sensitive and may not recognize your capital letters.

Having a clean, easy-to-remember URL will not only help you with your SEO but it will make it easy for consumers to remember you, driving up direct traffic. Direct traffic helps build your site’s authority, therefore, also contributing to your SEO. Sites with more authority rank higher with Google because it means that users are trusting these sites.

3.   Say Goodbye to Keyword Stuffing

As time goes on, the algorithms are getting smarter. While keyword stuffing may have worked in the past, it doesn’t work now. Algorithms can spot a spammy, keyword-stuffed website a mile away. So ditch this old tactic and focus on producing quality content with keywords that are organically placed throughout your copy — including in your headline, at least one subheading, and a few times throughout your body copy.

4.   Increase Your Click-Through Rates with SERP

SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) Features are the results pulled in Google outside of your traditional organic results. The media involved with each SERP feature varies. Some are all text. Some have images involved. Some, like the Knowledge Panel, Top Stories, or Direct Answer, can’t be optimized but others, like Featured Snippets or Site Links can be. Focusing on the SERP Features that can be optimized is key to boosting your click-through rates. The biggest SERP Feature is what’s called Featured Snippets. Featured Snippets outrank organic results and appear at the top of the search results page. In order to snag that coveted spot, your content needs to be written in concise, natural language and include an FAQ section, as Google often pulls content for its Featured Snippets section directly from a website’s FAQ section. Site Links SERP Features can also be optimized for your benefit. Google recognizes site links through schema markup. Additionally, high overall traffic and sound technical SEO could boost your chances of appearing in the Site Links section. Making little tweaks in your original content will boost your SERP. Things such as changing the title, changing the description, or putting numbers inside of the title will help boost your SERP score. Experiment with popular phrases or keywords to help find that sweet spot that your target audience is searching for.

5.   Don’t Forget to E-A-T

E-A-T (expertise, authority, and trust) is a trusted advanced SEO tactic. It breaks down the framework necessary to determine your place in the SERP. It prioritizes content from trusted and credible sources while ensuring that it is engaging and serving a purpose. E-A-T aims to deliver results that line up with end-user intent so it’s important to make this framework a cornerstone of your strategy and one of the advanced search engine optimization tactics you always employ. In order to utilize the E-A-T strategy to optimize your SEO, you can try the following tactics:

• Give each page an author! Add author pictures and a short bio with a link to a full bio at the bottom of the page.
• Highlight any awards or backlinks you have. This helps to prove your authority in your industry.
• Focus on getting good reviews on other trusted sources.
• If you are an e-commerce brand, have your privacy policy and refund policy clearly posted.
• Have an “About” page that clearly explains who you are, what you do, and why you’re the best person to do it.
• Promote your personal brand and those of any additional authors you might feature.
• Double-check your site security.

6.   Build Content Around Related SERP Questions

Tools such as Answer The Public or SEM Rush will give you the insights you need to see what your target audience is searching for. Once you know, you can tweak your pages to match their search inquiries. You want to write words and provide content that people are actively searching for. Anything less is like screaming into the abyss.

7.   Embrace a “Query Mindset”

Once you know what your target audience is searching for, shift your mindset. Instead of thinking of targeted buzzwords, think of them as search terms. Let your audience know that you have the answers to their questions by matching their searching mindsets. One of the features of October 2020’s BERT update was the elimination of “keyword speak”. The algorithm is now searching for more natural terms. For example, instead of typing in “stores near me open now”, a person may search “what clothing stores near me are open now?”. Just that small shift in language can make a difference. When you’re writing your advanced SEO content, stop writing it as if you’re a robot and instead, embrace the idea of using naturally occurring search language.

8.   Certain Technical Aspects Affect SERP

When building your site, remember that it needs to be user-friendly but also algorithm-friendly. Google has a hard time picking up on Javascript and Ajax so opt for an HTML instead. Things like webpage speed, on both desktop and mobile, can also affect both your usability and your indexing. Whether it’s Google or your end-user, no one likes a slow-loading page, which means a quick load speed is important. To boost your loading speed, you can do things like update your website software, use a caching plugin, use a VPS hosting and not a shared one, or compress your images. Do whatever you can to make your website load quickly and easily for the benefit of both your users and the search engines that will index your site. When you’re focused on design and copy, these more technical aspects can often be overlooked but they provide unbeatable advantages that will also boost your SERP score.

9.   Use Meta Titles and Descriptions

Sites contain the option for SEO meta titles and descriptions for a reason — use them! They are both another place you can optimize in hopes of catching the attention of the algorithm and bringing more traffic to your site. Rather than thinking of them as a ranking tool, focus more on their ability to convert your audience. While meta titles and descriptions don’t necessarily help with your ranking, they will help with your click-through rates. And increased click-through rates will increase your authority which, you guessed it, increases your SEO ranking. Pay attention to things like how many characters you’re using (aim for 159 or less) or what would appear nicely in a description of your site on social media shares. Use a call-to-action. Give your audience a reason to click on your site.

RELATED: Meta Descriptions for SEO, How to Maximize Clicks 

10.   ALT Tags for Every Image

Speaking of additional chances to boost your SEO, make sure you utilize ALT tags. Not only does this make your site more accessible to vision-impaired users, but it also provides more content to boost your authority. Make sure all of your ALT tags are detailed and match the image and the copy of the page.

11.   Clean Up Broken Links

There is nothing more frustrating when you’re researching something than coming across a link you need that doesn’t work. To check for and clean up broken links, you can use online tools such as BrokenLinkCheck.com, SEMRush, or Screaming Frog. These tools will crawl your site, locate your broken or rotten links, and give you the opportunity to manually correct them. Broken links, 301 redirects, or 404 errors not only impact how your consumer views your authority but it impacts your SEO, too. If you have these errors on your site, fix them fast! Resolving issues such as these can lead to positive results quickly — sometimes as quickly as two weeks!

12.   Run Ads Inside of Google

Running ads inside of Google will increase your brand awareness. The more someone sees your brand name, the more comfortable they get with your brand and the more likely they will be to search for your page. Increased branded searches and direct traffic will build your authority with the algorithms because they show that people trust your brand and it bills you as a credible source.

13.   Create a Huge Push Around All New Launches

As soon as you launch a new page, share it to social media. Run ad campaigns around it. Build an email marketing sequence around it. Do whatever you need to do to grow interest in it. Much like the psychology behind running Google Ads, the more your targeted audience sees your content, the more they start to trust it. Trust leads to the increased branded searches and direct traffic and those two things will lead to your pages getting indexed quicker. The sooner that your content is indexed, the sooner search results will start spitting it out as a search result.

14.    Switch Up Links on Linked-To Pages

Find all of the top linked-to pages on your website using a tool like Majestic. Once you know the most linked to pages, go to those pages and change the internal links to the pages you want to boost.

15.   Refresh Older Content

Using Google Analytics, check to see which of your pages haven’t gotten much traffic from search engines in the past 6 months. Google, and its users, love new content so to ensure that your website is getting quality traffic, refresh and/or redirect all of those pages to other pages with fresh content. Adding fresh content does not have to mean starting completely from scratch. You can do small, but meaningful, things like switch up the intro, add new backlinks, add or change a FAQ section, or add new sections to already existing blogs. If something has changed recently in your industry — Google releases new guidelines for SEO or WordPress makes major news — you can add that into your content, too.

16.   Create Optimized Landing Pages

You only get one chance to make a first impression, and a well-built landing page never disappoints. Unlike a homepage, which is also important, a landing page can serve as a one-stop spot to draw in your audience and start building a strong relationship with them. It gives your audience a quick overview of what you’re about — making them want to explore the rest of your website, including your homepage, more. According to Wishpond, businesses with 10-15 landing pages see a conversation rate of more than 55% over those with fewer landing pages. And just like a website page, a great landing page is optimized for a keyword and uses sporadically throughout, and includes useful information designed to lead users to the next step in the marketing funnel.

RELATED: What is the Marketing Funnel?

17.   Offer a Wide Variety of Content

Blogs aren’t the only things that increase your SEO ranking. You can optimize your product pages and use guides, lists, infographics, and videos to increase your SEO as well. Switching up which types of content you give your audience is not only one of the smart advanced SEO tactics, it also keeps your audience interested and coming back to your site.

18.   Lean into Your Google My Business Account

More and more people are searching for “near me” results. Why not tap into that local SEO by beefing up your Google My Business account? Not only is this account free, it will also increase the amount of traffic you get from “near me” searches. Google My Business allows you to promote your business locally by getting relevant business information in front of your local customers, it also gives you the opportunity to engage with your customers more often. Whenever something changes, whether it’s your hours or dinner specials, you can update your Google My Business profile directly. Google My Business posts are meant to be short, sweet, and simple so get right to the point and put your best foot forward in order to grab your customers’ attention.

RELATED:  How to Optimize Google my Business for Local SEO

19.   Create Local-Specific Content

Piggybacking off of your Google My Business account, produce more local-specific content. This will boost your local ranking and provide valuable indexable content. More indexable content leads to more search results appearances. In addition to creating more indexable content, you’ll also be showing your local customers that you’re dedicated to promoting and improving your local community. Incorporate local keywords, lean into local events or festivals, or work with other local businesses to boost your presence in the community both in real life and online. Keeping up with your Google Maps listing and social media content will show your community that your business is alive and kicking – and here to stay.

20.   Use Pillar Pages

If you’re looking for a great way to build out a content strategy to match Google’s EAT guidelines, pillar pages are what you’re looking for. Pillar pages use one central “pillar” as your main hub for a particular topic. They allow you to cluster your content with clearly defined hierarchies and internal linking. Internal linking is great to gain traction with Google’s algorithms. It not only improves your SEO, but also improves your user experience by making your website easier to navigate. Pillar pages build an information architecture around certain topics and make it easy for users to click through your content to find what they’re looking for. This also makes it easier for search engine algorithms to crawl through your site and find more indexable content.

21.   Ditch the Plug-ins

Plug-ins are necessary — sometimes. But if you have a ton of inactive plug-ins, it slows your page load speed and drops your SERP score. Not only this but you’re also leaving your site vulnerable to hackers by compromising your site’s security. If you aren’t actively using them, ditch them.

22.   Be Mobile-Friendly

Almost everyone has a cell phone in their hands these days. According to The Search Review, “nearly 60% of all Online Searches are now carried out on a mobile device.” That is a lot of searches that you’ll be missing if your site is too hard to navigate on mobile. Not being mobile-friendly will lead to a drop in authority — and in your SEO score. In fact, even Google themselves gives tips on how to make your site mobile-friendly.

Wrapping Up

SEO can seem overwhelming but really doesn’t have to be. With these advanced search techniques in SEO, and others that you’ll find periodically on our blog, you can start to learn about what it takes to become skilled in advanced SEO! If you want more detailed and personalized help, you can always reach out to us to schedule a consultation with one of our advanced SEO experts   About the author: John Lincoln (MBA) is CEO of Ignite Visibility (a 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 Inc. 5000 company) a highly sought-after digital marketing strategist, industry speaker and author of two books, \"The Forecaster Method\" and \"Digital Influencer.\" Over the course of his career, Lincoln has worked with over 1,000 online businesses ranging from small startups to amazing clients such as Office Depot, Tony Robbins, Morgan Stanley, Fox, USA Today, COX and The Knot World Wide. John Lincoln is the editor of the Ignite Visibility blog. While he is a contributor, he does not write all of the articles and in many cases he is supported to ensure timely content.