Technical SEO Tips for Better Brand Awareness

The websites of yesterday were far less complex than they are today. It seems like a new CMS with even more promising functionality pops up every day. However your website is built, search engine optimization (SEO) is still one of the primary methods for improving brand awareness. Over the last decade, major shifts in the way Google ranks your website have occurred that affect technical components like how your website is coded.

Of course, traditional SEO techniques like on-page SEO and online PR still work. What’s changed radically is the increased need for technical enhancements. Since Google uses over 200 factors in ranking websites, most of which are processed algorithmically, it’s important to play close attention to this area. More specifically, to technical SEO.

Today, you have more options than ever before to showcase your content in the search results by using some technical SEO love.

We recommend 5 technical enhancements you can employ right now.

5 Technical Enhancements for 2019 to Rank Higher and Raise Brand Awareness

1. Everyone’s gone mobile. Mobile optimization has its rewards.

Faster mobile sites mean more potential visibility in Google. Even if your site is already mobile friendly, you can do more. You can improve load times with specifics provided by Google Lighthouse. As an example, you can choose to load your primary text before loading larger image or video files. This will help your site load faster on mobile devices, especially for users with slower connection speeds. Speedier load times means better rankings in Google. Get a speed test here.

2. People are asking, “Hey Google. Find…” Help Google discover and deliver your content to the right people.

The dawn of voice search has arrived and it’s here to stay. Voice search creates a unique experience for users to interact with your content. Want to start making your site voice ready? Google Speakable, which is in Beta, offers code you can add to sections of your website for voice search. Then, when users say, “Hey Google, find…” you’ll be optimized to increase your chances of Google delivering your content rather than your competitors’.

3. Use better content to tell your story quicker.

Emphasize quality over quantity in your content strategy. You can say more with microcopy, remove any slow loading JavaScript and compress large files such as images for faster load times. Loading faster means building relationships faster and less abandonment from users. This makes for a better overall user experience.

4. Showcase your brand in the search results.

Using Google’s Knowledge Graph entities allows you to start building a relationship with your audience right on the search engine results page (SERPs). Offer content to Google searchers before they even click over to your website. The Google Knowledge Graph uses schema markup to showcase contents directly in the search results such as books, events, video games, movies, music albums and much more.

5. Trigger action by encouraging click-throughs from the search results.

Add compelling meta titles and meta descriptions along with Open Graph tags. Encourage click-throughs by giving users a glimpse of what content they’ll see once they click on your site from Google. With Open Graph tags, you can also control the content that users see once someone shares your web pages on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. Open Graph tags help you achieve way more control over the first messages users see first from your brand.

Things you can do to improve technical SEO:

● Run a Google Lighthouse mobile audit across your site to discover areas from improved mobile experience.

● Add Google Speakable markup to your site, currently in BETA, and prep for Google Voice Search.

● Test the mobile speed of your website and look at Google’s recommendations after the scan finishes.

● Add schema markup to your site to improve its chances of showing up in the Knowledge Graph and other areas in the search results.

● Explore other technical SEO opportunities that your site may be missing out on.

If you still have questions about technical SEO and your website, email us, and we’ll help you!

About the Author

Michael Ramirez is the SEO Director for Design Positive. Michael’s SEO approach blends traditional customer-centric marketing principles with forward-thinking SEO practices. His unique strategies consistently deliver search engine results without sacrificing user experience.