How To Improve SEO Results Fast - 7 Tactics That Work

Get to the top of Google search results in 2 weeks!

This is how most SEO scams out there start.

The truth is one of the disadvantages of using search engine optimisation to increase site traffic is that it takes time. SEO is always long-term so if you want to learn how to improve SEO results, you often need to think about months in advance. That’s why we always create SEO strategies that cover at least 6 months in advance.

With SEO, you need to build a solid, effective SEO strategy. AND you need to stick to it.

However,

There are some fast-ranking opportunities that WORK. You can improve your SEO much faster than you might think when you know what to do.

While what strategy you should use depends on various different factors, from the condition of the website to the health of the backlinking profile, those we chose to highlight below work in the vast majority of cases.

1. When Should You Expect To See Google Ranking Improvements?
2. 1. Embrace The Technical Side Of SEO
   1. Implement HTTPS On Your Site
   2. Take Care Of Mobile Users With AMP Pages
3. 2. Embrace Image SEO Tactics
4. 3. Write Better Content
   1. Refresh Old Content
   2. Improve Content Readability
5. 4. Improve CTR For Top-Ranking Pages
6. 5. Improve Website Navigation
7. 6. Steal Backlinks
8. 7. Optimise The Site For Faster Loading Speed
9. Conclusions

When Should You Expect To See Google Ranking Improvements?

Before we talk about SEO strategies that work fast, we HAVE to highlight the true answer to the question:

“How long does it take to improve Google Rankings?”

Unfortunately, there is NO EXACT ANSWER to this. The true answer is “it depends”.

Numerous elements impact how much time it takes to improve Google rankings. Some that you should be aware of are:

• Budget – Just as any promotional strategy you would use, the more money you can invest, the faster the results! When the budget is limited, your approach needs to be more strategic.
• Skill – How good you are at search engine optimisation will impact how fast rankings improve.
• The current site – If more work is needed to improve on-site SEO and other related design/development issues, more time will be needed to rank.
• Competition – If your niche/industry is highly competitive, you will have to work harder and for a longer time to get results.

With all of this in mind, remember that it might take longer to rank than you initially think. However, as long as you see results, you are doing something right.

Now,

Let’s get right to those quick SEO tactics you are surely here for.

1. Embrace The Technical Side Of SEO

Truth: Technical SEO is complicated. 

AND

You do not want to get it wrong or your rankings go down fast. 

At the same time though,

When your website is not technically sound, it does not really matter what search engine optimisation technique you use. Your results will be lower than possible.

Technical SEO is normally a part of advanced SEO and we wouldn’t recommend it to beginners. But, there are some things anyone can do to increase rankings faster. 2 strategies are particularly important:

Implement HTTPS On Your Site

Ever since 2014, HTTPS is an important Google ranking factor, although it is dismissed by so many site owners. Websites that are not secure struggle when it comes to ranking.

And they will struggle even more in 2021. 

The big problem is that nowadays, secure websites are a mandatory ranking factor.

To put it as simple as possible, every single page on your website needs to use HTTPS. It is quite easy for small websites to make the change but can be very complicated for complex, large websites.

Check to see if all your pages load with HTTPS. If not, solve this problem, because it is a problem, and you have to do it as fast as possible.

When the website is too complex or you lack the technical knowledge to get it done, look for web developers that can help you.

Take Care Of Mobile Users With AMP Pages

AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages and started as an open initiative officially backed by Google. Basically, AMP is an improved modern version of mobile-friendly pages.

According to Search Engine Journal:

AMP is made out of 3 components:

• AMP cache – A CDN (Content delivery network) that guarantees speed and loads the content.
• HTML tags – Used to increase the rendering of common web patterns.
• AMP JS – A specific library that manages resource loading and practices needed to increase rendering speed.

If you use WordPress, it is very easy to implement AMP because there are plugins that help you. If you do not, it is better to work with experienced web developers.

The last thing to remember about accelerated mobile pages is that you will end up with 2 versions of a page, AMP and non-AMP. IT IS VITAL that a rel=”canonical” tag is added to the AMP page and that a rel=”amphtml” tag is added to the non-AMP page.

Other technical SEO steps you could take but that recover more advanced knowledge include:

• Using Crawling Software – They help you to identify website technical health so you know what changes need to be done.
• Correcting Semantic Markups – These are important because they tell Google what the page is about.
• Fixing 404 Errors – This is normally done with the use of redirects.

2. Embrace Image SEO Tactics

Every single website has images on it. Or…it should have images.

In the SEO industry, one of the overlooked optimisation factors that a lot of people dismiss or forget about is Image SEO.

To learn more about how to use Image Search SEO, read our guide that features 10 Image SEO Tactics that are particularly effective.

To keep things short, every single image you use on your website should be optimised in one way or another. This can increase search engine rankings fast in various ways.

As an example, most people these days upload images as they are on a website. They do not use the best format and appropriate sizing. Usually, images are too large and will drastically reduce page loading speed, which in turn lowers search engine rankings.

The article we linked above tells you more things that you can do but if you are limited on time, the 2 most important image SEO-related tasks to perform to get results fast are:

• Compress images – They need to load as fast as possible and you should consider using lazy loading.
• Use appropriate meta tags – Besides making sure that the image file name includes the keyword you optimise for, you need to add a caption when it makes sense, a description, a title, and an ALT tag. While you can avoid doing this on images that are a part of the design of your website, for all the other images such elements have to be present.

3. Write Better Content

Obviously, creating better content is not easy but if you want to rank fast in search engines, there is a pretty good possibility you need to up your game. 

Google has been saying this for years and people finally started to listen. Writing longer content is very effective at increasing rankings because it accumulates more backlinks.

A study conducted by Backlinko showed us that this is correct.

The problem is that it is not easy to write over 2,000 words for every single page. This is quite time-consuming.

Also

There is no way to determine the adequate content length. Due to this, you need to put yourself in the shoes of the audience.

Try to properly answer search intent with every single article you publish. Without adding fluff, talk about everything related to the chosen topic. Chances are the article will naturally end up being longer than 2,000 words.

Another thing you can do is to:

Refresh Old Content

When you have some articles that already have good traffic from search engines, you can expand on them. Existing content has authority and readership. At the same time, you do not write from zero so it is easier to boost word counts.

A very simple way to figure out what pages to refresh is to use Google Analytics. Go to Behavior – Site Content – Landing Pages.

Segment the traffic that you get to “Organic Traffic”.

Carefully go through the landing pages and see when you can add some more content. However, make sure that you do not overdo it. This would be a huge problem as it can easily lead to keyword stuffing, which is not something that should happen.

You can go even deeper and look for pages that get fewer and fewer visitors every month. When you see this happening, it usually means that rankings go down.

See if you can improve the content and increase word count at the same time. This might increase the authority of the page that loses traffic.

Improve Content Readability

We should also highlight the fact that any content you create needs to be very easy to read. Simply put, if the content is not easy to read, the visitor will most likely not read it.

As a result, it is very important to format content so that it becomes very easy to read and navigate. This helps keep visitors on the site for a longer period of time, which in turn will impact conversion rates and SEO.

The easiest way to format web content is to use headings and subheadings. They can easily split the content into various topics. The reader can easily identify everything and go to the parts of the text that are of high interest.

Another great formatting tip is to add numbered lists and bullet points. They are particularly helpful when you want to simplify complex topics.

Obviously, there are many other things that you can do in order to improve content readability, like adding images, bold text, or italics. Just use what makes sense and you will notice that visitors spend more time on the page. This can quickly increase search engine rankings.

4. Improve CTR For Top-Ranking Pages

A page’s title tag is utilized to specify the webpage title. When you do a search in Google, this is how it shows up:

The title tag is very important because it is practically the headline of the article. It needs to entice searchers to click and go to the page.

By CTR (click-through rate) we practically mean how many people click on the link after they see it. This is NOT a ranking factor in Google but it is important for rankings in an indirect way. It is normal for the search engine to prioritize results that get more clicks since CTR can be seen as being an indicator of quality content.

Even if Google does not change rankings based on CTR alone, you still need to improve titles for your articles. This is because you want to rank high in search engines in order to get site visitors.

In order to improve title tags and make them attractive to visitors, here are some suggestions:

• Add Power Words – These are effective because they appeal to the viewer’s emotions. Choose those that are relevant and be careful that you do not overdo it.
• Add Parentheses Or Brackets – These improve readability and break up the title.
• Take Advantage Of Curiosity – Every copywriter will tell you that curiosity is a very strong technique. When you manage to entice a person to satisfy curiosity, the number of clicks you get from search engines is increased. Obviously, you have to be careful that you do not use clickbait and you HAVE to be honest.
• Stick To The Right Number Of Characters – Google cuts off all title tags that are too long. Use tools like SERPSim to determine how your title tags show up in search engines.

The last thing to mention is that although the title tag needs to be shorter than a specific number of words, this does not mean that the actual title of your page cannot be longer.

Besides the title tag, you also want to optimise:

• Page Description - This appears in SERP and lets the user see more information about the page. You can create an accurate and clear description that is practically a brief. Emphasize the main keywords and try to write something that increases the possibility that someone will click.
• ALT Tags - ALT (alternative text) tags (or descriptions) are utilised to describe videos, images, or any other visual media placed on pages. These have to be used in order to tell the search engine what the present visual media is.

5. Improve Website Navigation

Google has ONE goal:

Offer the best search engine experience for users!

Due to this, search engines reward websites that offer a really good UX (user experience). A big part of this is creating a very effective navigation scheme for the entire website.

When a visitor does not find what he/she looks for, there is a huge possibility that the person leaves. As a result, the bounce rate is increased and the time visitors spend on the site decreases. These elements do impact search engine rankings.

We should also highlight the fact that poor navigation will create a negative brand perception in the mind of the visitor. It is very possible that a visitor will just look for the competition to find what is needed.

Would you stay on an ugly website where you cannot find what you look for?

Based on how large the website is, creating a clear navigational structure can be difficult. What is particularly important is to focus on the most important pages. A general rule to follow is to create a navigation structure that makes it very easy to find any other page in under 3 clicks.

The navigational menu has to be clearly labelled so that it makes complete sense. Also, it is important to implement a good Search feature to make it even easier to locate the content a visitor wants.

6. Steal Backlinks

We cannot really call this stealing but this is the term used in the industry so we will use it.

Simply put, the idea is to replicate backlinks by using low-quality, outdated pages.

In order to properly understand how to use this strategy, think about the following scenario:

• You look for something on Google.
• You click on the top result.
• You end up on a horrible page that does not answer the query and features bad content.

The first instinct is usually something like “how can this be number one?” Your second instinct should be “I can take advantage of this.”

In order for that content to be number one, it needs high-quality backlinks. Chances are, when most of these backlinks appeared, that page was actually one of the best. But things change.

What you can do is to create better content than what ranks at the top of Google for keywords of high importance for your business. There is even a very good possibility that you already have much better content on your website.

Find the bad content that ranks well and find backlinks towards that page. A very easy way to do this is to use the Content Explorer in Ahrefs. Find low-quality, outdated pages by setting the following filters:

• Over 50 referring domains – You want to find pages that already have backlinks.
• Date over 3 years – This finds outdated content.
• Word count lower than 1,000 – This increases the possibility of finding low-quality articles.

All of this helps you to locate low-quality pages. Make a list of everything you find. In the Content Explorer click on Backlinks to look for potential linking opportunities. Find email addresses and try to get in touch with the owner. Then, pitch your better article as a replacement.

You can surely find numerous email templates that you can use to contact website owners but we recommend that you do not use them. It is just a lot better to write a unique email for every single backlink opportunity you find. Just tell the webmaster what you want and pitch your article.

7. Optimise The Site For Faster Loading Speed

The Google ranking algorithm takes site speed into account when determining ranking. If the page takes too long to load, the visitor becomes frustrated. As a result, there is a huge possibility that he/she will just leave.

Generally speaking, when the website loads in more than 3 seconds, you most likely lose around 50% of your visitors.

It is very important in search engine optimisation to improve bounce rates when you want higher SERP. A great way to do this is to improve website speed.

Usually, the main factors that negatively impact loading times are:

• Image file size – This should be logical. The larger image files will load in a longer time. Always optimise image files and compress them as much as possible.
• Caching – Whenever the internet browser loads a web page, various resources are also loaded. Internet browser caching actively stores such resources on your computer. On the next visit, they will no longer be loaded because they are already present. Implement some sort of caching system so you can reduce loading speed for repeat visitors. (Remember that the Google bot is also a returning visitor).
• Script handling – CSS and JavaScript files can drastically slow down a website. Due to this, whenever you need to use such files, make them as small as possible. Also, you should only use what you absolutely need.

Improving site loading speed automatically offers a better user experience. You also boost conversion rates and Google loves your website more.

Conclusions

If you want to improve SEO results fast, you need to embrace the tactics that work fast. However, keep in mind that there are limits to this. The reason why the strategies mentioned above work is they send the right signals to search engines. However, search engine optimisation is not an overnight win.

It takes time for websites to rank very high in search engines. At the end of the day, your goal is the first page of Google for the best possible keywords, preferably the first 3 positions.

Do not expect to get such results very fast!

You will need to work hard and keep working. If you need help, get in touch and we will gladly perform an initial free audit for you.