Holistic SEO: How To Improve Your Website

The best holistic SEO approach that you can use to improve every aspect of your website. And using a good link-building strategy is one way to stay afloat. 

Unfortunately, link building on its own is difficult. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy; doing it right takes a lot of effort.

Our Web Tech Experts, like others, do everything they can to dispel the myth that SEO is a sham. While tricks may get you ranked quickly, they rarely work in the long run—and may even backfire. 

Ranking well in Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) such as Google, Bing, or Yandex requires a comprehensive SEO strategy.

With a methodical approach to every aspect of your website. Specifically, the technical aspects, the user experience, the content on your website, and the security of your website must all be in order. 

So, to keep going and rank well on major search engines like Google, you should develop a Holistic SEO Approach to guide you in your website marketing strategy.

What Is A Holistic SEO Approach?

A Holistic SEO Approach in Search Engine Optimization refers to optimizing all aspects of a website to rank higher in search engines. 

The ultimate goal is for a website to meet the needs of its users on all levels. Specifically, by providing the right information at the right time and making it simple and safe to use. 

Simply put, when you use this strategy, you are ignoring keywords and rankings in favor of focusing on the person conducting an internet search. 

Your strategy revolves around the user, their needs, their experience with your website, and providing excellent customer service. It assists you in resolving the issue and allows you to design your content seamlessly.

Look at the image below to understand what SEO approaches does holistic SEO has:

In addition to retaining visitors and converting them into customers, holistic SEO entails doing everything possible to make your website the best it can be. 

For example, you should display high-quality information, provide an excellent user experience, and have the fastest website. In addition, link building will become easier with time.

That is, if your website, like your products and/or services, provides an excellent user experience. People are far more likely to write about and link to such a website. To achieve this goal, website owners should concentrate on several key aspects of their websites. 

Why Consider A Holistic SEO Approach?

Google’s mission is to create the perfect search engine that helps people find what they’re looking for, whether it’s the answer to the question “Where is Wijchen?” or the best toaster. The best way to achieve this goal is to tailor your website and marketing strategy to it. 

That doesn’t mean that if Google says to jump, you should ask how high.

While Google’s algorithm has changed several times, the majority of our advice has remained consistent since we began. 

This advice is straightforward (but not simple!). You must ensure that your website is exceptional. Having a website with high-quality content, a great user experience, and up-to-date security is extremely beneficial.

Google’s entry into the SEO scene was a game changer. Because their algorithm did not simply examine web page content. Rather, it took backlinks into account as well. If you have a backlink, it means that another website has linked to yours.

The holistic method provides better content, attends to your visitors’ needs, and makes them feel valuable to you. 

You create an environment that is not offensive, does not dismiss their needs as frivolous or irrelevant, and allows them to make better use of their time.

The Holistic SEO Approach will assist you in providing a better shopping experience for those who visit your website. 

One of the most important aspects of converting visitors to customers is to treat them with respect from the moment they enter your website. Consider the following key differences between a traditional SEO strategy and a comprehensive SEO approach.

That’s what business is all about. It correctly treats the customer, converting that visitor into a repeat customer. This means that a good holistic SEO strategy will assist you in doing your business even better than usual.

However, none of this will immediately improve your ranking. However, in the long run, it will almost certainly benefit your SEO! Most great websites will receive more links from other websites as well as more social media attention. 

Furthermore, the majority of people behave differently when they visit a website they enjoy.

Especially when compared to a website they don’t understand. Google uses user signals like these to determine how visitors interact with your website. 

Excellent holistic websites will also result in increased conversions. If your target audience likes and understands your website, the likelihood of them purchasing your products or returning to them is much higher. 

What Is Important In A Holistic SEO Approach?

If you have a website, you want it to rank highly in search engines. The more website traffic you have, the more business you will have. Therefore, optimizing your website for search engines makes a lot of sense. Over the years, there have been two primary factors that have been regarded as critical for ranking well.

SEO has many “teammates” who must collaborate in a holistic approach. In many ways, SEO simply targets the search engines, whereas UX targets the visitor, both with the same goal in mind: to provide the best possible experience. 

In reality, numerous common page elements affect both SEO and UX.

Simply looking at the basic elements on a page that influence SEO will reveal a close relationship between SEO and UX. Below are a few elements that are essential for both a successful SEO strategy and a UX site design.

The Overall Site Structure

When a visitor arrives on one of your pages, you want to ensure that they understand where they are on your website. 

It should be obvious to them that there is more to discover on your website. If you are unable to answer the user’s question in Google, at the very least, direct them to it.

You want to keep people from returning to the search results pages. A bounce rate increases when a user returns to the search results pages. it can also harm your SEO. It tells Google that you might not be answering your visitors’ search queries.

Making sure your site structure is reflected on your page is one way to avoid a bounce. That has something to do with an optimized menu, but we believe it has more to do with ensuring your website has a good structure.

A good site structure looks something like this:

Conduct keyword research and properly structure your website.

Setting up the proper website page taxonomy structure entails only one thing at first. That means you’re ensuring that your structure is visible through your breadcrumbs. At the very least, it reflects your site’s menu.

Great Website Content Plan

If you want to rank well, you must create excellent content for your website. That has been true for decades and continues to be true. 

The more value your website provides, the more visitors you will have. And search engines want to ensure that the people they send your way benefit from your services.

You could also consider related posts and products, for example. By creating a nice, hierarchical site structure, you ensure that Google can crawl your pages efficiently and that visitors can easily find what they are looking for. This naturally has an impact on SEO and UX. Most people will want to link back to you if you provide quality content.

In the same way, more visitors will want to read both your blog posts and web content pages. They will even spend more of their valuable time on your blog articles and website pages until they have finished reading what most interests them. Furthermore, Google will notice these incoming links as well as the time spent on the page.

Google may begin to regard your content as the primary source of information on a specific topic. In this case, we are doing WordPress SEO. Images and videos produce rich content.

Both Google and your users appreciate it. Overall, it’s clear that there are numerous areas on your pages where SEO and UX intersect.

Utilize The Role Of Quality Backlinks

Aside from having excellent content, you must also demonstrate the worth of your website to search engines. Obtaining quality backlinks is one of the most beneficial ways to accomplish this. There are numerous methods for generating backlinks. You should work on improving your backlink profile if you haven’t already.

Some ways to get quality backlinks:

Over the years, it has been widely assumed that all you need to do is write content and obtain backlinks. That was usually sufficient. But so much has changed with SEO, especially since 2021. So, while content and backlinks are important, there are some nuances. These nuances are so important that they cross over into other areas of digital marketing.

They go beyond what is commonly referred to as SEO. “Traditional SEO” refers to your typical SEO. It is primarily concerned with content and backlinks. Holistic SEO, on the other hand, is focused on providing genuine value to website visitors. Its primary goal is to address the user’s intent. This is where semantic SEO comes in. That is a completely different blog post.

Read More: Anchor Text: An Ultimate Guide About Building Backlinks

Page Titles And (Sub)Headings

A well-optimized page title and related, visible elements will frequently tell SERPs what your page is about. Already on Google’s result page, the page title informs the visitor what the page is about. So does that component. Subheadings aid both Google and your visitors in scanning a page and grasping the overall concept.

By all means, headings aid users and search engines in reading and comprehending the text. 

For example, subheadings serve as guideposts for readers, making it easier for them to understand what a post or page is about. Headings also indicate which parts of your content are important and how they are related.

In other words, we use headings to display both site content and web text structure, as well as to improve accessibility and content SEO. 

It is critical to understand that you are only allowed to use one H1 heading per page. The name/title of the page or post should be the H1 heading. 

For example, “How a Holistic SEO Approach Can Improve Every Website Aspect” on this page.

Consider your H1 in the same way that you would consider the title of a book. On a category page, for example, your H1 would be the name of the category. Alternatively, it should be the product name on a product page. Then, as you write your content, you can use H2 and H3 subheadings to introduce various sections, such as chapters. 

Top Site Speed Performance

Yes, we must address site speed time and again. It’s one of the factors that have a significant impact on both SEO and UX. 

Google wants to spend a limited amount of time crawling your site each time it visits. Visitors dislike having to wait for your content to load. 

When an SEO recommends lazy loading of images, the user and SERP experience improve.

Let me show you how it works. I have also applied this to my website too. 

See how the images and content of my website appear after every scroll. This is what is called “lazy loading.” 

Apply this to improve your site’s speed and performance. 

When you postpone the parsing of JS and CSS files, you ensure that there is something to see on your page as soon as possible. Again, this is true for both SERPs like Google, Yandex, or Bing and site visitors.

See!

Isn’t it true that it’s not all rocket science?

In short, speed is one of the most important factors in determining whether or not your site receives a good ranking.

To begin with, a fast website provides a far superior user experience than a slow one.

According to research, people don’t buy as much from slower sites, and they don’t read or engage as much on slower sites. That alone should be reason enough to ensure your site’s speed. Aside from being more user-friendly, faster websites can be easier for search engines to crawl, process, and index. 

This means that your posts will appear in search results faster and will perform and rank better. Site speed is a ranking factor that is becoming increasingly important. Learn about site speed optimization tools in this blog post.

Mobile Device User Experience

If you’re not currently working to improve the content on your website and provide value to your audience, you’re giving your competitors an advantage. What applies to site speed also applies to your mobile website as a whole.

Yes, it should be quick! It should also be well-designed and have excellent navigation.

Let me show you with the help of an image what I mean by excellent navigation:

So that both site users and search engines can easily find answers. As well as instant access to what they are looking for. That does not, however, simply cram everything you have into your menu. However, you may need to reconsider your mobile homepage. 

Consider this: 

• Cover the main areas of your website for your users
• Set a mood and entice or invite your visitors
• Give search engine bots access to the rest of the website as well

Even the size of your mobile website’s buttons may have an impact here.

Every one of those recommendations has an impact on mobile SEO, either directly or indirectly. Also, feel free to solicit Google’s feedback on your mobile website, for example, via their Mobile-friendliness test. 

Accessibility ( Easy To Access)

Making a website inclusive is not always a focus of technology. SEO and accessibility are inextricably linked.

Here are some suggestions:

Provide multiple ways for people to contact you. You may force someone to disclose information they are not ready to disclose if you do not provide multiple avenues.

Consider The Points Below:

• Examine the source code; screen readers can only do so much on a website, such as H1, H2, and alt text.
• Check that widgets and plugins are accessible to screen readers.
• The text should be broken up and organized for people with learning disabilities and ADHD.
• Include text summaries in newsletters for neurodiverse people.

Don’t Forget Content Distribution Channels

Promoting your content through other channels improves its ranking.

Social media and email marketing are two of the most popular digital marketing channels for content distribution. Although they are not considered ranking signals, they have an indirect impact on your SEO performance.

There are over four billion email users worldwide, with the vast majority checking their email daily.

Email is so valuable that 80 percent of marketers would rather forego social media in favor of email marketing.

But don’t dismiss social media entirely.

People use social media to share their thoughts and hobbies. If someone shares your blog post and it goes viral on a professional network like LinkedIn, it can result in more traffic and relevant backlinks.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when distributing content:

• A/B testing can be used to determine which formats and types of content perform the best.
• Incorporate a call to action to encourage your audience to share or interact with the content.
• Include social media account links in your email signature and footer.
• Google Analytics can be used to track metrics. 

How To Improve Your Website With Holistic SEO

Notably, many Search Engine Optimizers (SEOs), including myself, are no longer solely concerned with content and backlinks. There are a lot more strategies that need to be implemented. This strategy overlaps with non-SEO marketing aspects.

This can be accomplished by tailoring your website content to pique the visitor’s interest in what you have to offer; a good SEO consultant can help you with this. 

The better their experience, the more likely they are to progress through the conversion funnel and be converted from a visitor to a customer.

That is why you created the website in the first place. You want to make money, and the only way to do so is for those visitors to become customers. 

The end goal is accomplished through the various qualities found on your website. To understand how to use a holistic SEO approach, first grasp the concept of the conversion funnel. 

The best features include:

Simple Navigation

• How easy is it for them to find the information they seek?
• How important is that information?
• The caliber of information you share on the internet.
• Does the service or product meet the needs of the visitor at a reasonable price?

To be successful in these qualities, you must first identify your primary project type. From branding and design to website and app development and marketing and SEO/SEM.

When using the conversion funnel strategy, there are four stages or phases in converting a visitor to a customer. 

The Four Stages Include:

Awareness:

This is the stage at which a person becomes aware of your internet presence as well as your services or products.

Interest:

After learning about what you do and where you are located, your product or service piques their interest and they want to learn more.

The person searching then navigates to your website.

Consideration:

Your website content should be so convincing and interesting that the visitor begins to consider purchasing your product instead of your competitor’s.

Conversion:

When using the holistic SEO approach to market your products or services, there are a few key questions to consider. These questions add interest to your content and encourage visitors to take the next step. 

Some questions to consider include:

• What is the purpose of your website?
• What are your objectives for your website and its visitors?
• How do you intend to attract visitors?
• What kind of customers do you hope to attract and target?
• How can you improve your customer service beyond what you’ve seen?

It’s critical to understand that in a holistic website SEO approach, it’s no longer just about ranking on Page #1. 

Keep in mind that traditional internet marketing has always revolved around appearing on page 1 of search engine results. The commonly held belief is that people are lazy and will not search for websites past page one.

The issue isn’t achieving page one ranking goals. It’s more about what to do with the people who see you on page 1. As a result, they visit your website to see what you have to offer. If it is insignificant, they will move on to competitors.

Step #1: Website Development

Many website developers will claim to be SEO experts. However, they only include a few SEO factors. Including meta titles for each page, for example, is an SEO practice, but it is not the only thing that should be done for website development. On that note, web developers should collaborate with SEO experts to make their websites as SEO-friendly as possible.

As you have seen, their SEO results aren’t perfect. One of the metrics in the report is titled “SEO.” However, other factors also influence SEO performance. For example, if your website does not load quickly, this is due to the “Performance” and “Best Practices” metrics.

A slow website, on the other hand, will affect SEO performance.

It’s unlikely that your website developer ran the web dev-test on your site before it went live.

However, this is something your SEO person will look at and, if possible, improve. Keep in mind that your website developer most likely did not estimate the cost of your website based on having perfect web scores.

That would be extremely difficult to accomplish, so don’t take it out on them. However, once they’re close to completion, it wouldn’t hurt to run a test on the development site.

Step #2: Content Strategy

The SEO expert has an unusual ability to identify topics that your target audience is likely to read. He or she can tell you how long a blog post or article should be and how frequently people search for a specific topic. 

Of course, a content manager can come up with interesting topics to write about.

But what if they collaborated with the SEO expert to ensure that the topics would result in increased traffic? Additionally, the SEO professional can examine previously published content to determine how much traffic it currently receives. 

They can then suggest that the content be lengthened and republished to achieve better results.

Here Is A Steps To Create A Content Strategy: 

Read More: Step-by-Step Content Creation Guide [Writing to Publishing Content Successfully]

Step #3: Social Media 

There was a lot of speculation in the past that having a large social media following would be a ranking signal for Google. However, Google has stated unequivocally that social media followers and pages are not ranking signals. But there’s a catch: while social media has no direct impact on SEO performance, it does have an indirect impact.

As an example, let’s say you write a fantastic blog post about a hot topic in your industry.

The blog post is then shared on social media. 

Because of the importance of the post, it spreads throughout your industry. As a result, you will receive backlinks from other industry-relevant blogs that decide to reference your content.

Backlinks from third-party websites affect your rankings. As a result, your social media and SEO efforts must complement one another. They must collaborate for you to achieve the greatest possible reach. Is your social media manager posting content with your SEO goals and objectives in mind?

If so, what are they doing? And, if not, what should they be doing?

By the way, some excellent studies show that social media activity is related to improved SEO performance. This relates to correlation rather than causality. Simply have excellent content that performs well on social media. It’s probably great content that helps with SEO performance.

Step #4: Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising

In reality, SEO and Pay Per Click (PPC) are two distinct strategies for increasing traffic to your website. And each one of them has advantages and disadvantages. However, it’s a good idea to double-check that your ads are working in tandem with your SEO. 

For example, paying Google Ads is an excellent way to appear at the top of search results.

Similarly, if you’re running Google Ads because you’re not currently ranking well in organic search results (non-paid results), that’s fine. 

But, is it possible that you now appear at the top of Google and are unaware of it? If this is the case, you may be paying for an ad when you are already ranking organically. That could be a waste of money.

However, it is possible that it will not. It is determined by your strategy. Here’s another example of how SEO and PPC should complement each other. 

You want people to land on a page that converts well when they click on your PPC ads. Have you asked your SEO specialist which pages on your site have the highest conversion rates? Someone who considers a holistic SEO approach is capable of doing so. 

To enumerate, they should be able to figure it out fairly easily, especially if Google Analytics is installed. 

It’s possible that your PPC manager needs to tweak their ads to direct traffic to a more appropriate landing page. Pay-Per-Click Marketing is an excellent method of generating clicks to your website through search engine advertising rather than “earning” those clicks organically.

Step #5: Email Marketing

In general, Low-Cost Marketing Strategies are marketing approaches that work best for small businesses with limited marketing budgets. It focuses on low-cost tactics with a high return on investment and a viral component, such as social media and word-of-mouth. As a result, promoting the most popular content via email will almost certainly result in more backlinks.

Let me show you how it can benefit your website:

Email marketing is the use of an email platform to promote products or services while developing relationships with potential customers or clients. 

It’s essentially direct mail, except it’s done electronically rather than through the postal service. It is the act of sending a commercial message, usually to a group of people, through the use of a digital mailbox.

Similarly, email publishing is one of the most effective marketing and lead generation strategies to consider. specifically, for long-term, outstanding, and competitive results. 

As a result, SEO knowledge can be applied to email marketing as well. When you send an email, try to elicit some sort of response from the recipient.

This could be to persuade them to read a recent blog post. This relates to what we said about content strategy. 

Make certain that the content being promoted is relevant to your target market. You can see this through Google Analytics, which your SEO professional should be paying attention to. 

Read More:

Conclusion

My final piece of advice for this blog post is to think about your SEO marketing strategy.

Have you had it reviewed by an SEO expert? Should you if you don’t? If this is something you’re interested in, we’d be happy to assist you. Simply send us an email via our contact page, or scroll down to submit your request via the contact form below.

Sure, you say, but where do you begin?

We understand if this advice makes you feel overwhelmed. Fortunately, there are numerous ways to expand your knowledge of the aforementioned topics. For starters, there is a free SEO for beginners course available for you to learn how SEO works.

If you want to put this knowledge to use, you should look into All-around SEO training. As a result, you’ll receive numerous hands-on tips to begin improving many aspects of your site. It doesn’t just teach you about SEO; it also ensures that you know how to apply what you’ve learned!

Do you simply want to read and learn more? Check out these beginner’s guides to get you started! Similarly, if you want to learn more about link-building strategies and other important SEO skills, you should check out our free web content SEO audit blogs! Otherwise, best of luck with your SEO and, by extension, your marketing in general.

However, if you require additional assistance, please Consult Us and let us know how we can assist you. You are also welcome to share any additional thoughts, suggestions, contributions, recommendations, or questions in our comments section.