{"id":41939,"date":"2023-09-28T07:00:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T14:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dhblog.dream.press\/blog\/?p=41939"},"modified":"2025-05-21T18:38:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T01:38:37","slug":"improve-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www-dev.dreamhost.com\/blog\/improve-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Improve Your Rankings Using These 20 SEO Techniques"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ever played Monopoly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angling to get the best real estate on the board is the name of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purchased property on Illinois Avenue or St. James Place? You\u2019re likely to get good traffic and see a Return On Investment (ROI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the more out-of-the-way Mediterranean or Baltic Avenue spaces? You may miss out on crucial crowds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a lesson here for real estate moguls and website owners alike: Location is critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to internet real estate, the really cool thing is you can actually upgrade<\/i> the location of your website on search engine results pages when you apply Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, to help you do just that, we put together this guide full of actionable steps SEO beginners and intermediates can take to improve website rankings and get you in front of more potential customers<\/b>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is SEO?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Search engine optimization is the act of making changes both on and off your website in order to help it appear closer to the top of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) when people are looking for products, services, or information you offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n\t\n\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/svg>\n\t<\/a>\n

What is SEO?<\/h3>\n

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving a site\u2019s ranking in search results. Search results are aggregated based on a number of factors, including a site\u2019s relevance and quality. Optimizing your site for these factors can help boost your rankings.<\/p>\n \n Read More <\/a>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The ultimate objective of search engine optimization is to assist in making your website more visible and attractive to website visitors \u2014 boosting their conversions into clients, customers, or a loyal audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Should You Focus On SEO?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"SEO<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When you sit down to find something on the internet, there\u2019s one place the majority of us turn to first: a search engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means if you want to get your website noticed, you have to make sure that it appears in search engines like Google, Bing, etc. Most ideally, on the first few pages \u2014 beyond which only the most determined searchers have the attention span to click.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best way to do this is by investing in a variety of SEO activities. After all, BrightEdge found that SEO is the number-one driver of traffic<\/a> to websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ready to rise to the top by optimizing your website to not only be more findable but more usable, trustworthy, and engaging?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Onward!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

20 Ways To Improve SEO<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When compiling this list of SEO strategies, we started with an assumption: You\u2019re busy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the techniques here are ones that intermediate and beginner website owners or managers can implement fairly easily with a reasonable time commitment, and can build upon in the future as time allows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember, you don\u2019t have to use all of these, although you certainly can. Even a handful should be a good start toward giving your site a boost on SERPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, we\u2019ll be focusing on advice targeted at Google since it\u2019s the most popular search engine. It also happens to release the most helpful information about how its algorithms work. That said, many of these strategies should also help you on most other search engines, such as Yahoo Search or Bing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading to learn about some of the most approachable areas of SEO to focus on \u2014 and how to tackle them. These tips will help strengthen your visibility and provide you with powerful Google search results and lots of organic traffic now and <\/i>well into the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On-Page SEO Tips<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On-Page SEO<\/a>, or on-site SEO, describes all the changes and improvements you can make to your website to impact your search engine ranking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On-site content is a huge area where you can apply SEO. Other elements that can be optimized include hosting, mobile readiness, links, headings, and more than we could dive into right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Use WordPress For Your Website<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Right out of the gate, we\u2019ll start with one of the best things you can do for SEO: Build your website using WordPress<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, partly because WordPress is built in a way that\u2019s inviting and readable for both human readers and the algorithms search engines. WordPress websites are well organized, fast to load, and ready for mobile users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n\t\n\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/svg>\n\t<\/a>\n

WordPress<\/h3>\n

WordPress is an open-source Content Management System (CMS). Since it is free and accessible, WordPress is used to power almost any type of website, from blogs to e-commerce businesses.<\/p>\n \n Read More <\/a>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also extremely user friendly for website owners and managers, making it easier to do all the things you need to do on the backend to optimize things like content and header tags (more on both soon).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s the ecosystem of tools that work with WordPress to help folks implement SEO tactics, such as the plugins we\u2019re going to discuss later in this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you aren\u2019t already on WordPress, learn how simple it can be to get started in our guide How to Start a Website in 5 Minutes with WordPress<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Choose Your Hosting Provider Carefully<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Promise \u2013 we\u2019re not just saying this because we\u2019re a hosting<\/a> company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re saying this because it\u2019s true: The hosting provider you pick is vital for good SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Google takes page loading speed into account among its many ranking factors<\/a>, a good host that prioritizes website speed can help push you to the top of SERPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your host also affects the amount of downtime your site experiences and the location of your server \u2014 both of which are thought to influence Google ranking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google has even confirmed that it uses HTTPS as a ranking signal<\/a>. That means it\u2019s ideal if your web host of choice makes it easy to use HTTPS. FYI, with DreamHost, HTTPS protection is free<\/a>, thanks to our partnership with Let’s Encrypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n\t\n\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/svg>\n\t<\/a>\n

HTTPS<\/h3>\n

HTTPS is a secure version of HTTP. With HTTPS, data sent between browsers and websites is encrypted with the TLS\/SSL protocols. That means data can\u2019t be modified or read during transfer.<\/p>\n \n Read More <\/a>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

So when you\u2019re setting up your SEO-friendly WordPress website, you\u2019ll want to choose a host that\u2019s reliable and has a reputation for excellent performance. Better yet, a WordPress<\/i><\/a>-specific<\/i> hosting plan that\u2019s focused on providing impressive speeds with little to no downtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even for an existing site, you may want to consider switching hosts if your current provider doesn\u2019t meet these criteria to help support your SEO efforts from the ground up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Prioritize Page Speed<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As noted above, the load time of your website pages is a confirmed consideration most search engines make when ranking websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why a good chunk of technical SEO tricks are focused on ensuring every aspect of your site works properly to keep up with speed requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we have a full guide on ways to speed up your site<\/a>, here are some of the high points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n