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If some of your web pages once drew a lot of traffic but now do not, you probably need to revise the content on these pages to make them visible on the first page of the search engine results (SERP) again. The more visible your website is to the user, the higher the conversion rate it can achieve.
The internet is an extremely competitive environment because numerous websites compete for a user’s attention every single second. That is why using content and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies is vital for the survival of any business, be it an online grammar checker or a multinational oil refining company.
Although the process of content revision might sound daunting, it does not necessarily involve eyeballing your website content to identify what could be improved and optimized. This process does not imply creating brand-new pages, either.
Why SERP and Conversion Rates Are Important
Organic traffic to your website depends on how high a search engine ranks it. If your search ranking is not good, you will not get visibility, authority, and conversions. Top-ranked websites get all the traffic from Google and other search engines. This ultimately generates more leads and sales. In turn, those websites that appear on the second page of search engines will attract hardly any user attention.
When your website occupies the top spots on the SERP, it attracts more users and generates organic traffic. This traffic increases your conversion rate. This is a measure that shows how many visitors have responded to a call to action, such as hitting the share button or making a purchase. That is why the position of your website on Google is directly linked with its financial performance. Let’s have a look at how you could revise your website content to increase your SERP and conversion rates.
Optimize Your Page Titles to Improve Your SERP and Conversion Rates
Page or meta titles refer to the text that appears above the uniform resource locator (URL) on a SERP. This text provides both website visitors and search engines with information about what your page or site is about. As with any other piece of content and SEO strategy, meta titles are significantly important when it comes to increasing your SERP and conversion rate.
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To make your page titles highly effective, they need to be as concise and accurate as possible. This is because Google displays only around 50 characters of a meta title. As a rule of thumb, make sure all your page titles have a primary keyword, a secondary keyword, and your brand name.
Meta titles are not used for ranking. However, they can still make a big difference in attracting users to your content.
Fact Check Content
Google values credibility, so one of the easiest ways to keep your content fresh is to engage in fact-checking. Whenever you use links to external online sources, you need to ensure that these sources are still available. The same goes for outbound links to your content. Sometimes other domains take your content down or change URLs without your permission.
Also, you should search for more recent information on the same topic or subject. There is nearly always newer data available. If you find such data, replace your old facts and figures with new ones. Then link them to the newer sources.
Common sense is also subject to change. Therefore, searching for dated language on your pages (for example, a statement that Pluto is a planet) is another way of making your content fresh.
Address Your Audience’s Needs for a Better SERP Ranking
One of the main mistakes we make when writing content is that we write it as if we’re writing for experts.
However, if you want to make your web pages appear on top spots of the SERP, you need to put the searcher’s interests and concerns first.
People who search for information online do not know as much about the subject matter as they would like. That is the reason why your content must be as readable and direct as possible.
Revise your content and make sure it answers the searcher’s questions. Ensure that it addresses their needs quickly and in a hassle-free manner.
Update Your Keywords
Just like text content, keywords tend to become irrelevant and outdated over time. Therefore, they must be frequently revisited to make your web pages appear on the top of the first SERP.
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Without knowing what terms your potential customers use to find information online, it is impossible to make your content highly ranked by search engines and increase your conversion rates.
To conduct good keyword research, create a detailed customer persona. This will give you a better understanding of what your customers will be searching for.
Afterward, create customer-specific topics and come up with possible keywords. Once you have done this, you can evaluate the content of your page. Make sure it reflects the searcher’s language by using both exact and near matches.
Optimize Your Content for Mobile
With the growing number of mobile device users worldwide, it is no surprise that mobile-first indexing has become a buzzword in the world of SEO. Search engines have followed this trend by embedding mobile-first indexing in their search algorithms and enabling it for all websites. Basically, this means that your website should provide the same user experience for both mobile and desktop users.
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Otherwise, the odds are that your pages will not appear on the top of the first SERP. To make your content mobile-friendly, you could use images of different sizes for different devices to shorten the loading time on mobile devices.
Moreover, remember that smartphones and tablets can display less information than a laptop can. Therefore, take steps to improve users’ immediate access to the content they are searching for.
Conclusion
In summary, we would like to highlight that creating brand-new content to increase your SERP and conversion rates is not the best idea, especially when your existing content already targets certain keywords. Instead, it would be more beneficial with regard to SEO to restructure your subheadings, rewrite certain sentences, and rebuild your internal linking network.