25 SEO Strategies to Escape Google’s SERP Dungeon

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility, placement, and ranking of a website on search engine result page (SERP) on Google and other major search engines. Optimizing your website to achieve a higher page placement and ranking on Google is a critical step in driving qualified traffic and leads to your website to build your brand awareness and generate sales.

Try these 25 ways to rescue your website from Google’s SERP dungeon and get your brand closer to the first page!

Basic SEO Strategies

1. Submit your website to Google and Bing via Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster tool.
2. Generate XML sitemaps for pages/blogs and add to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster tool.
3. Ensure you have META title and descriptions tags on your home page with keyword-infused copy.
4. Create unique descriptions on each page and post.
5. Create list of high-value keywords relevant to the industry you work in using tools like Word Tracker and Keyword Discovery, and add to your website copy.
6. Add keyword-infused, short company bio on footer of website (that will appear on all pages) with deep links to pages on your website about that keyword (most likely to “About” or “Products/Services page.”)
7. Install an SSL Security Certificate to allow secure connections from a web server to a browser.
8. Optimize on-page elements such as title tags, H1/H2/H3 tags, and internal linking.
9. Optimize your page’s perceived value by ensuring each page on your website has 2,250-2,500 words.
10. Ensure all primary photos on all key pages have 5-10 words on their image ALT-Text
11. Enhance your 404 Error Page by integrating it into your website’s theme and providing a link back home.
12. Enhance your website’s deep-linking by creating a “Products” or “Services” page and list all products or services you offer, with 1-2 sentence descriptions.
13. Ensure your website is mobile responsive to prevent Google from identifying it as “not mobile-friendly” on your search result listing.
14. Use human-readable URLs for all web pages, blog posts, video pages, and tag/category pages.

Advanced SEO Strategies

15. Add org structured and micro data markup language on all key pages on your website.
16. Create a Google+ Page about your company or brand and integrate into your website.
17. Create a Google Map and/or a Google Business/Local Page for your business and place on your website.
18. Become a LinkedIn Blogger and link blog articles to and from your website and LinkedIn author posts.
19. Write a press release about a major release, company milestone, or special event, and purchase a distribution service from PRWeb or PR Newswire (iReach). This legitimizes the company even further and creates a permanent, highly-ranked listing on Google searches about your company.
20. Get a Wikipedia Article written by a trusted friend or colleague create a short Wikipedia article about your company or brand. Wikipedia is very strict over what copy an article can contain. The key things to remember are the information on the Wikipedia page must be facts, must be third party sources to verify any facts you include, and must have a “History” section talking about how the company was founded.

Social Media & Engagement

21. Add social sharing and “email a page” functionality to all relevant pages and blog posts.
22. Configure social meta data, including headlines, descriptions, and thumbnails on all pages social sharing.
23. Integrate as many embedded social media status boxes as possible, such as your organization’s Twitter stream, Instagram feed, and Facebook Like box.
24. Integrate Google Analytics into your website for tracking user behavior and trends.
25. Setup and configure a Google Alerts account and Social Mention account based on company name and high-valued keywords.

This list is not exhaustive. Savvy digital marketers and SEO aficionados are always finding new methods to improve a website’s SEO. In addition, major search engines like Google may change their logic for placing websites at any given point in time. My advice? Implement as many as these 25 strategies as deemed appropriate for your organization or brand, and follow several popular tech blogs and LinkedIn publishers to stay in the know for SEO!