Getting the right landing page to a high ranking in Google is no easy feat. There are a number of different areas you need to look into to ensure you are getting the most SEO juice out of your pages as possible.
So when looking to improve the ranking of certain landing pages on your site, there are a few things you should check and possibly change if need be. Have a look at the actions you can take below! These steps are designed by any digital marketing agency so it is hoped that by following the steps below you will start to see some positive SEO results.
1. Meta Data
Although not commonly thought to be the most important aspect of your landing page, it is still vital that you take the time to produce some well thought out meta titles and descriptions.
For those who don’t know, your meta data is what shows up in a search engine that entices users to click on your listing. This is why it is so important to take your time to produce high quality meta data. Think of the keywords you have targeted on the page and look to include them in the title and description.
2. Content
Now, we aren’t just talking about waffling on about anything remotely relevant to the topic. Your content needs to be highly engaged and optimised for your specific target audience otherwise both users and Google won’t like it.
A good suggestion is to include the main keyword in the first 100 words on the landing page. As well as this, if possible, include the focus keyword in the heading. That way Google can identify what keyword you are mainly looking to target and rank your landing page accordingly.
3. Schema Markup
You have probably already seen lots of new features in Google, like a featured snippet or instant answers etc. To get your landing page included in one of Google’s new and exciting SERP features, you will need to wrap your content in schema markup.
Schema markup is actually quite easy to implement once you have done your research. There are a number of different markups you can use and it is important to understand the effectiveness of each one.
4. Social Signals
Something so simple it often gets forgotten. Everybody who’s anybody is on social media these days and people love sharing things online. So why not make it as easy as possible for these people to share content etc. from your website?
Be sure to add features like social buttons on your blog content to encourage readers to share. Most of the time it is an out of sight, out of mind situation. You put social buttons on your landing pages, it reminds visitors that they can share content from your site with their friends and family.
5. Page Speed
Page speed has been high on everyone’s radar for a while now, and it doesn’t look like it is going to change anytime soon. So if you aren’t putting actions in place to reduce your site speed you are probably already behind in the game.
Google is focusing more on speed then ever before, especially due to the increase in mobile users and their impatience for low loading websites! The best place to start when investigation your site speed is Google’s very own Page Speed Insights tool.
6. Mobile Friendly
Leading in from the previous point, having a landing page that is mobile friendly should be one of your highest priorities. Google has already started indexing mobile versions of website first (before the desktop version).
This doesn’t mean that you will need to have two different versions of your website, you could create a responsive website that works properly on all devices. But that decision is up to you and your individual situation.
7. Internal Links
When thinking about off page optimisation, one of the first things people think of is backlinks. But they tend to forget about internal links, which is probably one of the easiest off page SEO actions you can implement.
So, on each landing page you should ensure that you are linking to other pages on your site. You should also try to make the hyper linked text a specific keyword. Google sees the hyper linked and views it with a slightly higher level of importance.
There are a number of other actions you can implement to improve the ranking of your landing page. But the above seven points are a solid step in the right direction. Be sure to evaluate each point specifically and identify if there are any areas in which you can improve.
With best SEO practice implemented, the results will tend to reveal themselves sooner or later. So make sure you are doing all you can to keep both visitors and Google happy.
