There are so many different tips and tricks for improving the SEO, or search engine optimisation, on your website.
Whilst many people will be aware of the most common ones, such as using keywords, optimising content and incorporating optimized meta tags (meta titles and descriptions) and headings, there are also lots of underrated and probably underused SEO tips and ranking factors that can be implemented too.
In this article, we are going to look at just some of these most underrated SEO tips and ranking factors, including the E-E-A-T approach to creating content, internal linking, website structure, the importance of refreshing content and also image optimisation.
All of these tips and tricks emerge as Google continues to introduce new algorithm updates that impact the way it recognises SEO and how websites rank.
It has never been more important to try and stand out when it comes to your SEO tactics, so here is more of an in-depth look at the aforementioned tips and ranking factors, and how you can go about implementing on your own website:
Some of the Most Underrated SEO Tips and Ranking Factors
E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness within content, and in recent years has become a crucial tactic for ranking highly on search engine results pages.
With the emergence of AI content suddenly swarming the internet, Google needs something to differentiate the AI generated content from that which is written with experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness- this means that if your content meets these criteria, you are helping it to be recognised by Google as such, therefore boosting your ranking possibility.
This is all to do with being fair, and ensuring that content that is written this way, with care and effort, as well as being from trustworthy sources, stand out from articles that aren’t original, or even written by a human!
E-E-A-T is not a direct ranking factor- the variable that Google uses to decide the most appropriate ordering of results when something is searched for, but more of a way to evaluate the content.
As such, it is quite an underrated factor, but one that will not only improve your content in itself, but also contribute to its ranking status too.
Internal Linking
Internal linking is an underrated SEO technique that is super easy to carry out on your website, but one that can have big results when done properly.
An internal link is any link on your website page that links to another page on your website. It allows visitors to your site to find more content on your website, and encourages navigation through the rest of your site too.
Search engines like Google love internal links, and it is an essential ranking factor for them too. This is because Google follows links to find content on websites that it will rank on the search results, so if a page has lots of links on it, it is a sign that it is a high-value piece of content, and therefore should be ranked highly.
Internal links also establish a relationship between different pieces of content on your website, allowing you to establish and push visitors through the most important pages on your website with the correct internal links.
Like everything with SEO, internal linking is a strategy that needs to be planned out to ensure it has the highest effectiveness on your website, and in its recognition by Google.
By setting up a strategy, you can make sure that a search engine recognises the relevance of your pages, the relationship between them and also how valuable they are, which will all work in your favour when it comes to SEO and ranking.
Website Structure
Having good website structure is something that you may already agree is important, but you perhaps haven’t thought about it’s importance from an SEO perspective before.
Having an accessible website that is logically structured and easy to navigate is not only good for visitors to your website, but also to search engines too.
Structure helps search engines like Google to understand your content and rank it accordingly on the search engine results pages, as well as helping visitors find the content they are searching for, which reduces bounce rates. If your website is disorganised and confusing, Google will also see it in the same light, not to mention your visitors, and not rank you highly because of this.
Another word for website structure is website architecture, so the better your website architecture, the more context search engines like Google have about your content pages, and how they relate to one another. This also touches back on the importance of internal links too when you structure your website overall.
And, of course, the better your website structure, the happier your visitors and the longer they stick around on your site, which also feeds back to Google that your content is relevant and important, boosting your SEO.
Refreshing Older Content
Refreshing content on a website is an SEO factor that is often massively overlooked by website owners, mostly because they are focused on pushing out new content, and focusing on the important aspects of that instead.
But there is a lot to be said for refreshing old content when it comes to improving your site’s SEO and ranking on Google. In fact, freshness score is a big ranking factor so it should not be ignored. Ensuring that older content is up to date with working links, optimised keywords and everything that you would include with new content means that it is recognised by Google as active and credible, with up to date information that is relevant.
Also, user behaviour, search engine algorithms and search intent change over time, so ensuring that your content, old and new, reflects these changes and works with them accordingly is vital to keeping your SEO strong and improving your ranking chances on the search engines.
If you were searching for an answer to something, and you came across a page that was perhaps three years old and hadn’t been updated since then, you are more than likely going to trust the information that is on there less than the information on the subject that is on a page that was updated recently- so you need to put yourself in the shoes of the visitor when you look at your content and decide how it needs refreshing.
Optimising Images
When you are focused on putting relevant and optimised content onto your website, it is easy to overlook image optimisation as well, but it is easily one of the most underrated SEO techniques that will play a huge part in your rankings too.
Image optimisation refers not only to the quality and size of the images, but also to the name of the file and also the alt tag. We all have images on our computers that are saved ‘file2’ or ‘JPG019’ and not by an actual, relevant name, and when these go onto your website with the same name it means that Google has absolutely no clue what they are about, and therefore what the page they are on is about either.
This is a great opportunity to bring out that keyword research again and apply it to the images on your site. The file name is an easy one to optimise, and should be named with relevant keywords (separated by hyphens) that makes sense to both visitors to your site, and also to search engines as well. For example, for an image of a girl having a coffee, instead of quickly naming it ‘coffee’, name it something like ‘girl-drinking-coffee’.
Alt tags are also important, as they provide context as well as aiding visitors who may be visually impaired. Known as alternative text, they are used to describe the image to alternative sources, and therefore are another opportunity to get those keywords in and show Google what the image is all about- boosting your SEO and ranking factors.
Conclusion
All of the SEO tips and ranking factors that we have discussed in this article are not difficult to implement, nor are they things that you can only do as someone with excellent SEO knowledge.
Nevertheless, they are all things that are generally overlooked by people when it comes to their website and the content they put on them, but with a bit of work they can be resolved so that Google recognises the site in the appropriate way, and begins ranking it accordingly, also improving the website’s SEO in the process.
With all the algorithm and search engine changes that happen regularly, as well as the changes in the way that people consume and engage with content, it is vital to ensure that you keep your site focused on SEO and ranking factors where you can.
From making small changes like changing the filename of an image on a page, or having a rethink of your website’s structure, or even auditing an old page of content and bringing it up to date, you are making steps towards improving your site’s SEO and relevance, making it more likely that search engines will also recognise it.
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