When a user quickly jumps between different websites without spending much time on any individual page, this is called “pogo sticking.” Pogo sticking can have a significant impact on website performance and rankings in SERPs because it is a tracked metric that indicates to search engine crawlers that the content is not relevant or interesting, resulting in lower rankings in SERPs and decreased organic traffic. Thus, it is important to ensure that users stay on your website for longer periods of time through optimized content and page design.
When a person lands on a webpage that is visually interesting, they are more likely to stay on that webpage and website for longer. Here are some tips to make your website as eye-catching as possible:
8. Minimize website load time.
Search engines take website load time into consideration as a metric when determining ranking positions. There are many things you can do to minimize website load time:
- Use JPG or WEBF formats for images and other media files. These formats are optimized for faster loading times and help reduce page load time overall. Optimizing images can also help reduce page size, resulting in improved website performance and increased organic traffic.
- Cut back on the number of HTTP requests. Each request requires additional time, so reduce the number of requests necessary for pages to fully load — this means removing unnecessary images and scripts from the webpage, as well as reducing the size of existing assets.
- Compress files. This can help reduce file size and thus the number of requests necessary for a page to load.
- Remove unnecessary plugins. Plugins add additional features and functionality to a website, but can often slow down page loading time, making it difficult for crawlers to accurately identify the content of a website. Having too many plugins can lead to security vulnerabilities and poor user experience.
- Utilize content-caching. By caching content, websites can serve pre-generated versions of webpages quickly, so they are displayed almost instantly to visitors. Content-caching reduces page size, improves website performance, and helps crawlers more easily identify website content and return relevant query results.
9. Optimize your images.
Choosing the right imagery is a critical aspect of SEO marketing. They should reflect both the brand and content of the website, and be clear, bright, and clean. Relevance to the website's subject matter helps search engine crawlers more accurately recognize and catalog the content of the site. Images should also be optimized for loading speed because, as mentioned above, page load time has a direct impact on rankings in SERPs. Here are some tips to optimize your images for SEO:
- Shrink images to a manageable size. Large and high-resolution images can significantly slow down your site, which can be frustrating for visitors and negatively impact your search engine ranking. Reducing image sizes to no more than 1920 x 1080 pixels strikes a balance between visual quality and web performance. Similarly ensure that their resolution is set to 72 DPI (Dots Per Inch), the standard for web use.
- Choose the right image file format. Using JPEG or WEBP files can help reduce file size without compromising quality. Both of these file formats are optimized for faster loading times, as they have smaller file sizes due to their compression algorithms. Both of these formats support a wide range of color depths, allowing for high-quality images that load quickly.
- Utilize alt text. Alt (alternative) image text is used by search engine crawlers to determine the context of an image and helps crawlers better understand the content on a webpage. Choosing words with higher semantic richness helps crawlers more accurately understand the purpose of an image. Moreover, alt attributes should be meaningful and descriptive, as this helps both users and crawlers better find what they are looking for.
10. Put internal linking to work.
Linking one page of your website to another page on the same website is referred to as internal linking, which helps people find other pages on your site. Internal linking is an important part of successful search engine marketing. By utilizing internal linking, you can help search engine crawlers more accurately identify content, resulting in better organic traffic and better SERPs results.
Internal linking helps users quickly find relevant information on the same website without having to search for it. For example, you could link to a page that provides more detailed information about a product or service featured on the homepage. This helps provide users with additional context and encourages them to explore your website further.
However, having too many links can clutter a page, reduce its relevance in the SERPs, and result in an increase in page load time and a decrease in user experience. Checking regularly for broken links is vital because they can negatively impact website performance and damage user experience, reducing search engine rankings and decreasing organic traffic. If you create and maintain working links that fit naturally into your website, you will see an increase in SERP ranking and thus organic traffic.
Additional tips for optimizing SEO.
Creating and maintaining a well-designed website and webpages are the bread and butter of good SEO. However, once they are optimized, there are even more strategies to consider. Follow these five additional tips to further deepen and develop your understanding of SEO marketing.
Keep users on your page longer.
When it comes to SEO marketing, "pogo sticking" can have a significant impact on website performance and rankings in SERPs. Here are some tips to keep users on your pages longer:
- Make content easy to read. Content that is easy to understand and navigate improves user experience and ensures higher visibility in SERPs. It can also help crawlers more accurately identify the content of a website.
- Keep paragraphs and sentences short, use clear headings and subheadings, and provide ample white space between elements to improve readability and the flow of the page.
- Provide relevant images or videos. This helps users more quickly understand the content of the webpage, resulting in increased dwell time.
- Break up content into smaller chunks. With smaller pieces of content, such as bullet points, lists, or shorter paragraphs, you make your website easier to navigate and more digestible for readers. Smaller chunks of content can also help crawlers more accurately understand what a website actually contains.
- Create fresh and updated content. With regular content updates, you ensure the site remains relevant for crawlers and interesting for readers. Fresh content helps improve website performance and increase organic traffic. Maintain a regular schedule of new content creation in order to keep users engaged.
- Utilize long tail keywords: Long tail keywords are words or phrases that are more specific than regular keywords. They usually have fewer searches, but they can help your website stand out because they're more likely to be relevant to the content on your page, and less likely to be used by other websites. Including long tail keywords in titles, headings, subheadings, and page content can also help you rank for more specific searches.
Remove or update unused or underused pages.
Many websites have “zombie pages” that are low-traffic and don’t contribute much to the overall SEO of a website. These zombie pages are created over time and can be caused by a multitude of factors such as outdated content, poor keyword optimization, and a lack of internal links.
Removing or updating unused or underused pages is an important part of successful SEO marketing. By removing zombie pages from your website, you can help ensure that search engine crawlers more accurately identify its content. Updating pages with fresh, relevant content can also help make them more visible and engaging to readers.
Note that having one strong page is much better than a handful of weak pages. A single page optimized with relevant keywords, interesting content, and engaging visuals can help your website rank higher in SERPs and attract more organic traffic.
Refreshing outdated content is another effective option for successful SEO marketing. By updating and revising old content, you can keep it relevant for crawlers and interesting for readers. Refreshing content with new keywords and visuals can also help make the page more visible and engaging. Furthermore, when content is updated regularly, it helps to establish trust and consistency with readers.
Get more backlinks.
An important aspect of technical SEO is link building, another component of implementing links to your website. Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your own website, and they help crawlers better understand the content of a page and its relevance to a given search query. Getting more backlinks can also help your website stand out from competitors and attract higher organic traffic. Here are some suggestions for gaining backlinks:
- Contact key bloggers and journalists for content. By reaching out to influencers in your industry, you can create valuable relationships that can lead to higher visibility in SERPs and increased organic traffic. What's more, influencers may also be willing to promote your website via their podcast or by sharing links on their own platforms, further increasing your chances of success.
- Accept quality guest content offers. By having guest authors contribute to your website, you can add more relevant content to it and increase its visibility in SERPs. Having a variety of authors on your website can help make it stand out from competitors and attract more organic traffic, too. Guest authors may be willing to promote your website or share links on their own platforms, further ramping up your SEO marketing efforts.
- Find publishers who will give you guest post opportunities. By having your content published on other websites, you can increase the visibility of your website in SERPs and attract more organic traffic. Plus, having your content featured on high-quality websites can help establish trust with users and make your brand stand out from competitors. Research industry blogs and websites that feature relevant topics or keywords related to yours to help you identify potential target sites that could be interested in featuring your content.
- Seek out relationships with influencers. Find influencers within the same niche or industry to establish trust and credibility for your brand. These relationships may also lead to opportunities for guest posts or the chance to conduct an interview, which are helpful to establishing relationships with key players in your industry.
- Promote your content. Utilizing social media channels and other online platforms helps you reach a wider audience and establish trust with users. If your content is shared by other websites, it can result in more backlinks.
- Utilize testimonials. Testimonials are written accounts by customers or clients providing positive feedback about a product, service, or experience. By featuring these positive reviews on your website, you can build trust with users and increase SERP visibility and organic traffic.
- Donating to nonprofit organizations. Not only can you show your commitment to a cause and demonstrate your dedication to creating a positive impact, but most nonprofit organizations have websites where they post donation information, which can drive more organic traffic to your website.
Create content on shoulder niches.
Shoulder niches are topics related to your website’s main topic. By creating content on shoulder niches, you can provide valuable information to readers while also helping improve your rankings in SERPs for relevant keywords. Shoulder niche topics often provide valuable information, answer potential questions, or offer practical suggestions.
One way to identify potential topics for creating content on shoulder niches involves researching trends within the same niche as yours or within similar industries. This will allow you to gain insights into what strategies other websites are using and how their websites rank for relevant keywords. Additionally, studying popular blogs or websites may give you ideas for new topics that could be interesting enough to draw readers’ attention and generate more organic traffic for your website.