20 SEO shortcuts To Rank Websites Quickly: Guru Secrets Revealed
SEO shortcut can be defined as using smarter ways to achieve top Google ranking.
Because Google is unpredictable doesn’t mean that there are no smart ways to achieve higher higher-ranking with your blog.
There are constant algorithms changes and there is no telling what will be the new rule of seo.
Even at that, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t some things that are steady in terms of search engine optimisation.
These website tweaks have been working for many years and I don’t see them changing anytime soon.
So if you are looking for SEO shortcuts that can help you rank your website on Google quickly, then you’re in the right post.
Let us now take a look at least 20 shortcuts, at least, if that is what they really are.
20 SEO Shortcuts to Rank Higher in Search Engines
- Not Having an SSL
SSL is one SEO shortcut that is easy to apply in websites.
When sites like facebook, SONY and Equifax can experience data breaches, I don’t think Google will soft pedal on site security in their list of ranking factors.
I don’t think they want their users to lose personal information visiting unsecured sites that were ranked higher in their search results.
If you have not installed an SSL certificate on your website, I recommend you do so.
SSL certificates are very cheap.
As a matter of fact most hosts offer it for free.
You don’t want website users coming to your site and see a notification like “site not secure” warning.
Site security is an important function factor for Google so I recommend you factor it into your plans to improve the website and rank higher in search engine results.
- Not Having the Proper Amount of Content and Ignoring Internal Linkin
One question Google keeps asking about every site it ranks higher is if these contents have the best answers to uses’ queries.
Another question it asks is if the writer is a voice of authority in the industry.
New insights is also another sign of quality for a blog post or a website.
A comprehensive post that thoroughly deals with an issue is also another means of ranking high in Google search engine results.
The message I’m trying to pass here is if you’re looking for an SEO shortcut that can help your SEO efforts, then I recommend you invest more time writing quality and comprehensive posts.
Google places high priority on sites that offer valuable information – sites with rich contents.
Gone are those days when you could just churn out 300 to 400 words articles and fill hundreds of them on your website and expect to have thousands of visitors coming in from Google organically.
It doesn’t work that way anymore.
From personal experience, I can tell you that for a 400-word article to rank high in Google search engine, it must be a topic with little or no competition.
The moment someone else writes a more comprehensive post on that same topic, that new content will definitely outrank yours.
So my recommended recommendation for you is that you put more effort into integrating contents that provide answers to users in content writing efforts.
this way you can enjoy high-ranking positions and free organic traffic for a long time to come.
- Internal linking is important
Internally linking your content on your blog is another SEO shortcut that you can apply for high ranking in Google search engine
Let me give you an example from a personal point of view.
I had a blog with about 200 words of content.
I knew of Google Webmaster Tools now (Google Search Central) but I never thought it was very necessary or important.
My assumptions were that Google bots were proficient enough to identify all contents in my site without me pointing them in the right direction.
I decided to check my site performance in my webmaster console account only to find out that less than 30% of my published contents was crawled and indexed in Google.
After carrying out my research, I discovered that the fault was mine.
Google bots had difficulty crawling my website.
The major cause was lack of internal linking in my contents
Though I use internal linking plugins but they are not as efficient as linking it on my content.
What am I trying to say?
Internal linking is very important if you want your web pages to be crawled and indexed in Google search engine results.
If you have not been applying internal linking to your contents, I recommend you start doing so immediately.
- Not Optimizing for Local Search
One of the easiest SEO shortcuts you can apply to your website for higher ranking is by optimizing for local search.
Local SEO is the new way to follow for people that want to rank high for low competitive keywords.
If you want to grow your business, especially when it’s a new one, you need to improve and increase your website traffic by optimizing the right keywords for local intent.
Let me give you an example.
If you have a business that is into plumbing in Queens, rather than publish blog posts on best plumbers you can find in the United States, you can get more traffic and rank higher in search engines if you publish contents on best plumbers in Queens.
This is how you target your local market and grow your business from there.
As your business expands and you can have enough funds to sponsor paid ads or wider SEO campaigns to reach out to the statewide market.
You can take advantage of the Google my business account where you can import your local city, your street address, your phone number and the name of your business.
This information should also be displayed clearly throughout your websites.
It is with this information that Google uses to categorize your website so it shows up if someone within your locality searches for your kind of business.
- Not Creating Link-Worthy Content
There is a reason why Google placed high value on backlinks.
Backlinks are a kind of vote that proves that a certain page is important and of value.
It begins to make more sense when these backlinks are natural.
There are two ways of generating backlinks to your web pages.
The first option is to actually reach out to other websites so they can link back to you either by writing for them or finding a way to contribute to their website in exchange for backlink.
The second option is to create high-quality content that will attract links to your website naturally.
This is why it’s important that when you publish content on your website, they should be link-worthy.
Your visitors should read your posts and have the desire to share information with their friends and family because the contents you publish are worth distributing.
This is why social shares are ranking factors for Google because it proves that your content is worth sharing on social media platforms by your readers.
Whether you are publishing readable text on your blog or you are using videos, podcasts, web miners or infographics ensure that they are of great quality.
How do we know contents that are of great quality and link-worthy?
They should be informational, inspirational, educational, and entertaining.
- Not Having Unique Meta Tags Such as Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Another SEO shortcut that can be used to achieve higher ranking in Google results is meta tags, that is title tags and meta descriptions.
The use of title tags and meta descriptions have been ignored because their importance is being downgraded.
While some SEO experts say it doesn’t have any effect, others insist it does.
But I can tell you that these are important SEO strategies that help Google understand what your content is all about.
The good news about meta tags is that they are not difficult to add to your blog posts.
With the use of plugins like All-in-SEO plugin, you can quickly include meta tags in all your posts.
Do ensure that your tags and descriptions contain the important keywords you are trying to rank for.
- Thinking Your Awesome Content Will Get Links without Any Optimization or Formal Link Building
I understand the importance of creating a link to my blog posts.
But do not make the mistake of thinking that your awesome post can get backlinks by themselves.
If you already have an established blog, then every post you publish will naturally get backlinks because you already have an established following.
But for young bloggers, it’s important that you promote your contents and actively go for quality backlinks so as to achieve higher ranking.
It is common knowledge that backlinks is one of the SEO shortcuts to achieve top search engine rankings.
The fact that you’ve created a linkworthy post will definitely make it easy to get backlinks the moment your publications receive exposure.
You can reach out to other bloggers to inform them of your content.
Your contents are already share-worthy so getting backlinks to them shouldn’t be difficult.
Even if they don’t link back to you, they can share your posts and their readers and social media followers can reshare your post as well.
This increases your chance of getting backlinks naturally.
You can also make use of the broken backlink method.
You’ll be helping a webmaster identify a broken link in his page and getting a backlink in return.
There are lots of posts on this topic you can find online if you don’t know what I’m talking about.
- Guest Posting without Investigating the Site (s)
One good way of obtaining backlinks to your website is through the use of guest posts.
Guest posting on other similar blogs is a wonderful way to gain exposure and backlinks.
A single backlink from a high domain authority website will definitely help your SEO efforts.
This is why established websites get lots of inquiries about guest posting opportunities and to publish your contents you must write high-quality guest posts for them.
That said, it’s important that you do not allow guest posting to land your site into trouble with Google.
SEO experts have continued to warn that even when guest posting is a sure way of obtaining high-quality backlinks, doing it at the wrong sites can have negative effects on your ranking.
Because you are searching for sites to write to publish your content in exchange for backlinks doesn’t mean you can just pick any sites.
There are lots of spammy websites out there with lots of outbound links and crappy content.
Writing for such sites for a backlink can have negative effects on your ranking because this is against Google policy.
So before you begin to reach out to other websites for backlinks, I recommend you investigate the sites well and ensure that they have good standing with Google.
So you’ll be sure of where you’re publishing your content.
- Not Promoting Your Content
You don’t just publish a comprehensive post and expect it to start pulling in free organic traffic from Google.
You must actively promote your content pending when it achieves higher ranking from Google.
You can start your content promotion with social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google my business and other social media networks you can find online.
It’s not just about driving traffic to your website through the use of social media, by regularly posting contents and receiving social shares, you can increase your search engine ranking.
Though it is not listed in Google list of ranking factors, experts continue to prove that social signals are important ranking factors for Google.
So do not ignore the power of social media in gaining higher-ranking and free traffic.
Remember getting free shares starts with publishing a link-worthy content.
- Concentrate on Web Page Speed
Pagespeed has continued to be an important factor both for Google and users.
If you have refused to factor in your webpage speed into your SEO efforts, then you will be losing money on the long-run.
There are a few disadvantages of slow-loading sites.
First of all the use of handheld devices and smartphone has brought about short attention span in people
If your page loads slowly, users tend to hit the back button thereby causing you to lose a visitor and potential customer.
Another disadvantage of slow loading sites is that users leaving your site quickly increases your bounce rate which in turn lowers your ranking with Google
Thirdly Google has its way of identifying sites that are slow and will not rank these sites higher because it will bring about bad user experience
You can mitigate this loss by taking proper steps to increase your page speed.
The first step to increasing page speed is by using better hosting plans.
Changing to a lighter theme and deleting unnecessary plugins that slow down your sides can also help.
The file sizes of your images and multimedia contents can also slow your sites.
If you use large image files for your content, then I recommend you use plugins that can help you reduce their sizes like smushit or lazy load to load them only when users get to their section.
There are cache plugins that you can use to deal with caches and minify JavaScript and CSS files.
These tools can help you improve your site speed for better SEO. To check your site speed you can make use of Google’s pagespeed insights tool.
- Stop Focusing Solely On Keywords
In the past, to rank in Google, all you have to do is identify certain keywords, install them in your title and spread them all over the pages.
The use of keywords has brought about so many blackhat practices one of which is keyword stuffing.
But the current algorithms ruled out by Google such as hummingbird have gotten smarter and look at keywords in context.
What I’m trying to say here is that strategically placing your keywords in your post is not a guarantee that it will rank.
From personal experience, I will recommend that you write naturally.
Even without planning it, you will observe that you have naturally infused synonyms and keyword contests to your post.
You do not need to focus solely on keywords in order to achieve top ranking.
Remember search engines continue to place user experience as a priority.
Which is why I always recommend that you think of your users first when you write your blog post.
Does it mean sites shouldn’t optimise their content with keywords?
My answer is no.
Search engines still rely on keywords to a certain extent so understand what a blog post is all about.
What I’m trying to say is that they have gotten better in understanding context while detecting spammy and thin contents.
So the days of repeating certain key words over and over again in your blog post in order two achieve top rankings are over.
It is recommended that you create quality content that provides useful information to your audience.
If you desire to rank number one in Google, then create contents that deserves the top spots.
- Quality Versus Quantity Links
This is another ranking factor that Google has gotten smarter with overtime.
The use of backlinks to achieve higher ranking.
You’ll be wrong to think that directing hundreds of low-quality links to your money sites will help you achieve higher ranking.
But I can assure you that it doesn’t work that way anymore.
Backlinks are still strong determining factors for higher search engine ranking.
That doesn’t mean that you will create low-quality content and blast links to it.
You can only get penalized for such actions.
You have the option of buying hundreds of links from SEO agencies but I recommend that you tread with caution because this practice can also get you banned in Google.
Your site could get banned if it is observed that you received large volumes of links in a short timeframe.
If these links are coming from sites that are not relevant to your niche it could also get your site in trouble with Google.
Websites with low domain authority linking to your site in high volume can also affect your ranking negatively.
So I recommend that for backlinks, get them from sites with high domain authority.
Quality has always proved to be more effective than quantity.
The case remains the same with backlinks.
- Optimize Your Website For Mobile
Adapting to changes in the business environment is one sure of remaining in business.
The same goes for webmasters.
The technology trends in our society have diversified our target audience.
Not all visitors to your website are sitting in front of their desktop.
Mobile is now the new order of the day.
Google has adapted to this change in behaviour of its users and you have to keep up with this trend.
Research from over 10 countries has shown that there are now more mobile users on the internet than desktop users.
This is why you should ensure that your website is properly optimized for mobile users.
Your website layout, landing pages, sales pages and blog posts should be optimized for mobile users.
Most website designers know this and WordPress themes are already optimized for mobile users.
You should ensure that your mobile users are not finding it a challenge to assess contents on your website.
- Plan Your Content with Proper Keyword Research
I Understand that we have talked about keywords and its uses.
That said, we cannot take away the importance of keywords in writing contents Google can understand quickly.
This is another SEO shortcut for higher search engine rankings.
Getting topics to write about in your blog post is an effective way to achieve higher ranking.
Even till now, experts and content creators continue to use keyword research to write contents.
The aim of keyword research is to aid you plan your content strategy.
With keyword research, you are able to come up with blog post ideas and write contents on topics that people are actually looking for.
It is recommended that you use keyword research tools like SEMrush.
It can help you discover in-depth keywords, data competition analysis, keyword position tracking and other useful features that can help you come up with easy blog topics to rank.
- Write an Effective Blog Post Title
The essence of planning a blog title is not because you want to rank high in search engines.
Google already understands what your blog post is all about and will rank you for the right keywords.
But when your blog post comes up on the first page of search queries, it is your blog title that will attract users to click on your link.
This is why you need to write effective blog post titles.
You don’t want to put much effort in writing quality content, achieve top ranking and not get the traffic you desire because you don’t have catchy headlines that are click-worthy.
A click-worthy headline will surely increase click-through rates which is an important factor for SEO.
- Add Images and Videos to Your Blog Posts
If images and videos are not important, Google will not dedicate separate search pages for them.
Images and videos increase users’ engagement with your article and this can bring about low bounce rate.
User engagement with your article can help your site rank higher in search engines.
This is why you should include images in between paragraphs in your post.
ensure that you optimize your images for SEO because they can also get you traffic from search engines.
Videos are more engaging than images so you can convert your blog posts to videos because videos can also be seen as a content marketing strategy and business branding.
- Add a Meta Description to Your Blog Post
What is a meta description?
Meta description is an HTML meta tag that can be added to a page.
The aim of meta tags is to aid search engines understand what a page is all about.
SEO experts have continued to reiterate the importance of meta descriptions and titles on each page.
I understand that Google has gotten better in understanding what a page is all about, but it gets easier if you can help them understand it faster.
The faster Google understands what site is all about, the faster you are able to rank.
A good meta description explains a lot more what your content is all about and also increases click-through rates on social media because when you input your meta description that will be viewed.
When visitors view your meta description, they are able to understand what your content is all about.
Ensure that your focus keywords are included in your meta descriptions and should not exceed 155 characters.
Yoast SEO plug-in is an effective tool that can help you add meta tags to all contents in your blog.
So I recommend you download one and activate it.
- Make Your Articles Easier to Read
Another Important SEO shortcut that can help your site rank higher in search engines is how easy it is for readers to understand what your contents are all about.
Readability is an important factor that is considered by search engines for higher ranking.
User experience is the main aim here so readers should easily comprehend the message your contents are passing.
Because computers and mobile devices are not safe platforms for the users to read, their short attention span causes them to scan your articles before deciding to read it.
So if you don’t make it easy for your visitors to understand what your article is about in less than 30 seconds, they tend to click away.
Needless to say you have a very short time to convince your readers to stay.
You need to improve your readability and make it easy for your readers to scan through.
The readability of blog content can be made possible with the use of short articles, shorter sentences and smaller paragraph.
Punctuation, headings, and bullet list are also important factors in improving content readability.
SEO yoast plugin can also help you with readability score.
This can be found in the analysis section.
It is important that you make your blog content easy to read if you want to improve user experience and search engine rankings.
- Optimize Older Blog Posts
Google loves contents that comprehensively deal with a topic.
So if you have old blog posts that are short and have not been ranking and pulling in traffic, you have two options.
One is to delete them.
Another option is to improve them.
To improve your blog post, you should rewrite and make them more detailed.
Remember that for these posts to rank higher, you have to make them better than sites that are outranking them.
You can make use of tips that have already been published in this post like the use of meta tags, title tags, meta descriptions, internal links, useful outbound links and increasing word count.
Not just blabbing through the article to increase word count but actually adding real contents to increase article value.
This way you are able to improve the chances of your contents ranking high in search engines.
- There are no shortcuts
I understand that you came to this post to read about SEO shortcuts that can aid you to achieve higher ranking in Google.
If the steps listed here are seen as shortcuts, then you have what you’re looking for.
But I can assure you that all these tips that have been written here are hard work.
The truth continues to remain that there are no shortcuts to success in any field.
If users continue to see low-quality content ranking high in Google search engines, it will bring about bad user experience and in return bad business for Google.
This is why search engines have continued to reiterate the importance of publishing quality contents because providing the best answer for their users remains their priority.
Though there are other technical things you need to do to a page for bots to understand what it’s all about.
Most of these tips have been published here, one of which is the use of meta tags, guest post properly and promoting your contents.
Before you continue your search for SEO shortcuts for higher ranking, I urge you to consider these two quotes
“There are no shortcuts…”
Matt Cutts
Google Senior Engineer
And…
“If you think there’s a shortcut to get there, I can almost guarantee you there’s not. It takes hard work.”
Duane Forrester
Senior Project Manager
Bing.com Webmaster Project
SEO efforts take time and the visible effects of your backlinking strategy can take from months to years to work.
But if you continue to search for ways that can help you attain top-ranking in days or weeks, then you have no other option than to use blackhat methods.
However, what is common is that Google has continued to improve its intelligence and is now identifying sites using black hearts method quickly.
So whenever you try to cheat search engines, just have it at the back of your mind that your top-ranking can only last for a short time.
Even if you discover a new method to trick search engines, other blackhat users will wonder why, investigate your site and copy it.
Soon your methods become popular and Google changes their algorithm to target such sites and your ranking is affected or your site gets deindexed.
Why not invest in quality contents so as to avoid Google penalty and Yahoo ban.
Always remember that your readers are the ones that will buy your products or hire you for your services you offer.
So when you publish content, think of your readers first before search engines.
I am sure you will definitely get the top ranking that you are looking for.
