Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of optimising your website to get organic traffic from search engines. All search engines have primary search results, where content is ranked based on what the search engine considers to be the most relevant to be relevant to their users.
Unlike paid ads, payment is not involved in getting traffic to your sites. There are different parts to SEO, including quality and quantity of traffic, as well as organic results. The optimisation part of SEO includes content curation that goes into the website or blog to ensure that the users and search engine crawlers can understand it.
If you are new to SEO, the best place is to start is by learning the basics as well as knowing the things you should focus on. SEO services in Singapore have changed over the years, and this requires that you stay on top of the trends shaping it. However, this is easier said than done since there is a lot of confusing information on the internet.
For this reason, it is recommended that you hire an agency to do your SEO in Singapore. A Singapore SEO services expert will take less time and help you gain results without spending a fortune doing it on outdated SEO services.
In this article, we will look at the top 10 things you need to take into account when looking for SEO services in Singapore.
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Keyword research
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Exceptional content
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Structured Data Markup
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Technical SEO
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On-page optimisation
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Voice search
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Featured Snippets
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Linking building
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Indexing
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Mobile SEO
1. Keyword Research
Keyword research has to be the most important SEO services today. Keywords are the lifeline that ensures your content shows up when a search engine searches for solutions to their problems. Keyword research helps you in pinpointing the appropriate user intent to go after and to identify what your audience is searching for on search engines.
Moreover, what your audience searches for is as important as how they go about the search. Even the slightest shift in keyword research can make or break your SEO strategy and campaign.
For this reason, it is necessary that you understand the norms used in your industry and how they shift. You also need to understand your buyer personas to understand the appropriate SEO services in Singapore.
2. Content
Recent Google algorithm updates reveal that Google is intensifying its focus on evaluating content based on quality, depth, and breadth. This means that you need to shift from the mindset that you should create content to keep the blog or website alive.
By creating exceptional content, you are more likely to acquire links, which will improve your domain authority, which translates to better rankings. You need to have content that solves a problem and motivates the reader.
For starters, do thorough research on the problems faced by your audience and create content that provides relevant and valuable solutions. However, the content must use a language that resonates with the user and guides them to take action. Experience and content maps could help you in drafting a stellar content strategy for your SEO campaigns.
3. Structured Data Markup
To rise above the competition, you need to use structured data markup whenever and wherever possible. As AI applications on search engines become more common, structured data will be a key factor in how the search engine crawlers index your content.
Irrespective of how good your AI is; if it takes too long to crawl the required information, it will affect the outcome of your SEO services in Singapore. AI requires fast processing of content and how the different pieces of information are related to each other.
The bottom line is that you need to understand how structured data, schema, passive, active search behaviours, and how they connect to user behaviour that signifies intent. Moreover, webmasters and SEO services experts need to understand the contextual relationship between the topics and user behaviour and how they are supported by structured data markup.
4. Technical SEO
Website building has become more complex, and this makes technical SEO something you should look into today. Some of the key areas of SEO services in Singapore that you should look into include:
- Optimising your website’s page loading speed, since search engines are rewarding websites that deliver content in the shortest time possible
- Progressive web apps: you need to start thinking of how your website can exist as a PWA in the future. This will ensure that users can bookmark or put your site on their home screen for easier access
- JavaScript: You need to start looking into how search engines are interacting with JavaScript-driven websites. This means that you need to familiarise yourself with the basics of JavaScript for better SEO campaigns
5. On-page Optimisation
On-page optimisation refers to all the SEO services and activities done on the website to improve its rank on SERPs. This includes the actions you take to improve the content, title tags and the meta description. However, this needs to be an ongoing process since SEO services change often.
Some of the ways that you can win with on-page optimisation include:
- Creating content that answers the users’ queries
- Optimising your internal site search provides relevant results
- Ensuring that repeat customers can restock frequently purchased items with ease
- Shortening the conversion process
- Ensuring that the customer support team responds to user queries that are related to the business
- Users can navigate to physical locations
While link building is one of the crucial SEO services in Singapore, on-page optimisation is the epitome of SEO success for most organisations.
6. Voice Search
Mobile search had been put off for a long time, and we are seeing the same trend now with voice search, as one of the most important aspects of SEO in Singapore. While it might not be fully embraced yet, there is a huge potential. Voice search is an easier way to request answers in a variety of scenarios. However, it is not ideal for complex answers, such as when users are trying to compare products or services.
With that said, voice search is set to change the game for multilingual and multinational websites. Marketers also realise that to use voice search effectively, and human or machine translators cannot make the response.
To get the best out of voice search, you need to consider your target audience since it varies across regions, countries, dialects, and social classes, among other factors.
7. Featured Snippets
Since SEO is all about visibility in the SERPs as much as it is about clicks, you need to optimise for featured snippets and other Google SERP features. This includes recipes, answer boxes, carousels, and the knowledge graph, among other features.
Every time you can achieve an answer box or snippet, you will be on hand to see a spike in organic traffic. You will have to optimise your content to ensure that search engine crawlers can index the content for the answer box.
8. Link Building
Over the years, links have remained a significant ranking factor, not only on Google but on other search engines as well. However, not all links are equal. Spammy links are bad for search engines, and you should not acquire links that will leave a spam footprint on your website’s link profile.
For this reason, links should only come from high-quality authority sites in your niche. However, getting the occasional bad link is not a big deal, but when done repeatedly, your website could be heavily penalised for these black-hat SEO services.
The key to a good link profile is to strive for variety. This means that you should not always get one type of link and maintain a healthy ratio of links. However, it is not as easy, and practice will help you diversify your link profile for better SEO campaigns.
9. Indexing
Most marketers cannot tell the difference between crawling and indexing. They are related, but not mutually exclusive. If you do not get indexing right, you will be leaving entire sections of your website not crawled. This will greatly hamper your search ranking and you will have wasted time and resources on SEO services in Singapore.
For this reason, you must perform an in-depth site audit. You are bound to discover issues that a simple audit may not have taken into account. For example, canonicalising your pages and failing to identify the trailing slash issues.
This neglect will lead to indexing of double or even triple the number of pages on your website. Moreover, doing things such as nofollow and noindex will negatively impact indexing, and it will interfere with the search engines’ ranking algorithms.
10. Mobile SEO
Google’s mobile-first index is the new standard for search that focuses on mobile websites. However, this will not affect desktop sites as long as they have the best results for a query. The future of web development is augmented towards a standard design for Android or iPhone. As part of the offered Singapore SEO services, you should ensure that the site works optimally on both platforms.
Sooner or later, there will be a shift in search engine algorithms. For this reason, you should stick to responsive designs since it gives your site an equal opportunity to get indexed as both a desktop and mobile site.
The Top 8 Tips to Consider in SEO to Get Ahead of the Curve
Search Engine Optimization is crucial for websites as it helps people find your site on search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. Well, optimized sites get more traffic and rank better over time; this results in more lead generation and sales. Online searchers can’t find your site without SEO, and your site’s existence will mean nothing.
So, SEO means your sites’ web pages rank higher on search engines. Additionally, ranking refers to your content’s position on the search engine results pages (SERP’s). When people search for a particular word or phrase related to your business or brand online, it is essential to ensure your page appears among the top 3 results.
Research indicates that 95% of people never make it past the first pages on search results; this is why appearing within the ten results on the first three pages is paramount. Therefore, getting the right keywords will enable your brand to reap the benefits of attaining organic traffic every time people click your site from a list of search results.
This article focuses on the top 10 most crucial tips you need for your site to rank better to gain more organic traffic and improve your search rankings without risking a Google penalty. Let’s get started.
Use the right keywords
For your site to rank high on search engines, consider including keywords in your content, this is how Google gets something to index hence helping people quickly find what they are searching for. Researching key phrases related to your brand or your business can help you find and attract potential customers.
Where you place keywords in your content is just as crucial as how many times you use them. Ensure your keywords appear at least once in the title of your page tag, webpage URL, meta description, social media updates, and the first 100 words of your content.
Consider these five factors to help you choose the right keyword.
- Think like your potential customer. Identifying your target audience will help you identify the most likely words and phrases in their online search.
- Study your competition. Highlight a list of your top competitors, go through their sites to identify the kind of keywords they are targeting.
- Identify the long-tail keywords; they help in attracting relevant traffic, they are less competitive and easier to rank.
- Use the keyword research tools search as Google Ads to identify potential keywords. These tools provide data on keyword volume and trends, keyword competition and more.
- Monitor and analyze results to help you find trending keywords and new keywords that your competitors are using.
Improve your site loading speed
A slow-loading website frustrates users and results in a higher bounce rate, which means low traffic for your site and ultimately fewer sales for your business or brand. Strange Loop research shows that a one-second delay can lead to a 7% loss in conversion rates. For this reason, page speed is a critical factor in SEO.
Page speed has been used as a ranking factor by Google since 2010, and in 2018 it ramped up the significance of page speed with the “Speed” update. What this means is that slow speeds affect web pages rankings. So, how do you improve your site’s ranking? Let’sLet’s explore some best practices to consider.
- Compress images on your site. The more compressed they are, the faster your pages will load. Tools such as WP Smush Pro for WordPress, Caesium and Mass Image Compressor can help you in that.
- Clean and compress your code. The cleaner your code, the faster your pages will load.
- Activate your browser caching to improve loading speeds for people who have visited your site before.
- Upgrade your hosting to a premium host or a dedicated server.
- Test your page speed with multiple page testing tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights and WebPageTest.org
Optimize your site for mobile devices
76% of online consumers shop on mobile devices, which will increase with the rise in accessibility for intelligent devices. Hence, it’s essential to ensure your site is optimizing such that it looks great and functions correctly on any device regardless of the screen size.
A site that is not mobile-friendly affects both SEO and how the audience perceives your business online. For a fact, only 52% of users are likely to engage with your site again after a bad mobile experience; this means less traffic to your site and a negative brand image.
Consider these tips to improve your site’s mobile friendliness.
- Focus on user experience. Use more readable fonts, easy-to-find call-to-action, and thumb-friendly designs that users can scroll through and click elements on your page.
- Integrate responsive designs; this ensures your website adapts to any device screen, making it easier for users to view and scroll through your site.
- Implement a clean, easy to use a navigation bar that creates a positive environment for your users to find and access information.
- Create mobile-friendly content; this will make it easy for your target audience to scroll through. For example, ensure your paragraphs are 2-3 sentences for your audience to read and skim through.
- Optimize meta tags and descriptions; they determine whether someone proceeds to click on your search results listing.
Link to other websites with relevant content
Link building to high-quality sites and sources is one of the most effective ways for search engine optimization. Linking enhances trackable organic traffic, making your site a more scalable resource and valuable. Research conducted by uSERP indicates that 56.3% of SEO experts consider backlinks quality and quantity impact rankings.
For Google to rank your site higher, you must have an extensive list of high-quality links for competitive keywords. Remember, it’s about quality, not quality, that matters. You are more likely to build trust in your area of expertise with a few authoritative links than many poor quality links.
Here is a list of links to think about:
- Inbound links, also known as backlinks, occur when another authoritative site with relevant content related to yours links back to your site. Inbound links indicate that your site has higher quality content. Google uses this as an essential factor in SEO ranking. You can get inbound links using tools such as SEMrush.
- Outbound links, as you strive to create quality content for your audience, pulling content and some research from reliable sources with high domain authority is paramount; this ensures optimal value to your audience.
- Internal links help you tie your pages together and link your content for Google and the target audience. Ensuring makes each of your pages valuable and hence passing on some authority. Ensure that you create new content, including a solid web of internal links with descriptive anchor text describing where the link leads.
Build social media signals
Social media provides a great platform to engage your target audience and hence a way to promote and increase your brand visibility. These case studies indicate the impact of social shares, tweets, pins, shares and likes on search engine rankings. Social signals make your content easily traceable hence attracting traffic from social media profiles.
Websites with a strong online social presence are more accessible and easily shareable across social media platforms. Hence, increased conversion rates. To properly establish and grow a social media campaign, you need to consider onsite and offsite elements.
Some of the onsite elements include share buttons (like, recommend, tweet), connect buttons (Facebook page, Follow on Twitter, Follow on LinkedIn), A blog. In contrast, offsite elements include a Facebook page, Twitter account, LinkedIn page, and YouTube account.
Here is a summary of how to build more social signals.
- Create helpful content that that’s share-worthy across your social media platforms.
- Host a social media contest to get more shares.
- Add visible and easily accessible share buttons to your post.
- Link and Mention and link to social media influencers in your post and ensure you notify them.
- Encourage people to share by asking them to.
Publish unique content
Creating and publishing high-quality content provides excellent results. At least one piece of content is created each day by 60% of online marketers. The most important factor that Google and major search engines consider is sustaining relevance and ensuring content is up to date; this way, more people are likely to click on your webpages hence increased traffic.
To create high-quality content that will rank well with Google, use target keyword phrases. These keywords should be in the headline for easy readability by the user.
Well-curated SEO content should focus on addressing the needs of its target audience. As a result, the result increases the likelihood of your content being shared across social media platforms and attracting inbound links.
Here is a summary of 7 pro-tips for writing compelling, high-quality content:
- Create with a unique voice. Your content should align with your target audience, your brand’s persona and ultimately satisfy your overall business goals.
- Conduct some research. To effectively address the needs of your target audience, you must be well knowledgeable, including statistics, data and metrics to improve your content credibility.
- Narrow your content focus. Each article or content should have a single clear idea flow from the introduction to the conclusion.
- Ensure to optimize for digital content. Great content should be easily readable, optimized for search using SEO best practices and content strategies.
- It should have a headline that grabs the attention of the targeted audience. A headline that sparks interest, stir emotions makes the reader want to learn more about the topic.
- Ensure your work goes through several edits before you publish it. Writing improves with several rounds of revisions.
- Include actionable tips. Good content should provide readers with value. Hence, increasing the likelihood of them sharing and, better still, coming back to your site in search of more.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO refers to enhancing the technical elements to boost the ranking of its pages in the search engines. Technical SEO helps search engines access, crawl, interpret and index your website without difficulties. Its main objective is to optimize the infrastructure of a website.
Google and other search engines provide online users with the best results for their online queries based on many factors. Some factors depend on user experience, like how fast the web pages load.
A technically viable website loads faster and is easy to crawl for search engine robots. A suitable setup helps search engines understand the site without sending visitors to dead-ends due to inactive links. Let’s explore some key features of a well technically optimized website.
- The site loads faster.
- It is crawlable for search engine robots.
- It doesn’t consist of dead links.
- It is secure and therefore guarantees visitors privacy.
- It doesn’t confuse search engines with duplicate content.
User experience
A site with a compelling user experience has low bounce rates. When people land on your page and stick around for a while, it is a good indicator to Google that your content is relevant and serves your target audience’s needs. Hence a boost in its rank in search results.
Some signals that affect the search engine rankings include:
- Click-through rate: refers to the percentage of people who click on the links to visit your site.
- Dwell time: How long the visitors stay on your site.
- Bounce rates: the number of people that leave your site upon entry.
When titles, content and metatag description are highly optimized, your site will get more clicks, deliver value to the target audience and boost your search engine ranking.
Features of websites that provide the best user experience include:
- The website’s architecture is simple.
- Its web pages are responsive to a variety of mobile devices.
- It loads faster on any device.
- It has well-formatted content that is easy to read and scan through.
- It is consistent in how it appears and behaves across web browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer etc.
- Has good navigation that ensures users visibility.
- A website should adhere to relevant design best practices and standards, making it more dependable.
Conclusion
SEO can be complicated, especially if you do not follow the trends shaping the best practices. For this reason, you should hire an agency that offers professional SEO services in Singapore. However, with the above ten points, you will be able to know if you are getting your money’s worth.
Contact us today for professional SEO services in Singapore. Our support team is on hand 24/7 to provide you with a free and non-obligatory quote.