15 min to read

As a digital agency, we are always looking for updates and trends from search engines. If you need your website to index better, implement some of these tips. We understand some will be difficult, others easier and SEO is not immediate.  

Read this article if you are trying to figure out how to increase organic traffic and make your content stand out from the crowd. A professional Search Engine Optimization Agency will have the tools for driving long-term visitors, improve brand recognition, and build customer relationships incorporating content and relevant data. This will be picked up by search engines and your website will be rocking soon. 

In this blog post, we’ll provide specific strategies and tips for increasing organic traffic using SEO covered in our comprehensive piece. Anyone can follow these steps, whether a novice or an experienced SEO professional. So don’t wait any longer - let’s go through some proven SEO techniques to help you reach your goals!

CodeDesign is the leading digital marketing agency in Lisbon Portugal.

Understand the Basics of SEO

In today's digital age, having a website for your business is a must. However, having a website alone isn't enough. You need to make sure that your website is visible to potential customers. This is where SEO comes in. SEO, or search engine optimization, improves your website's ranking on search engine results pages.

Why is SEO important? Well, if your website isn't ranking high on search engine results pages, potential customers won't be able to find you. Using SEO effectively can increase your website's visibility and ultimately drive more traffic to your site.

Understanding the basics of SEO is crucial for any business looking to succeed in the online world. In Codedesign we have clients all over the world, but time difference and certain territories, like Australia, sometimes we need local content optimization. 

Develop a Content Strategy

Creating a successful content strategy is key to engaging your audience and driving organic traffic to your website. With so much online content, your strategy needs to stand out from the crowd. Start by identifying the needs and interests of your target audience and tailor your content accordingly.

This could involve creating blog posts, videos, infographics, or social media posts that provide valuable information and insights. It's also important to ensure that your content is easily shareable and distributed through various channels such as email, social media, and guest posts on other websites.

By consistently delivering high-quality content that resonates with your audience, you'll build a loyal following and attract new visitors to your site who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.

Optimize On-Page Elements

To truly maximize the effectiveness of your website, it's crucial to focus on optimizing the on-page elements that visitors see first, such as title tags, meta descriptions, headings, and URLs.

These elements not only help search engines understand what your website is about, but they also directly impact a user's first impression of your site and its relevance to their search query. Read this complete guide on digital marketing funnel and then choose the right digital marketing channel for your business.

By crafting clear, concise, and informative title tags, meta descriptions, and headings, you can help users quickly understand what they can expect to find on your page, while also providing valuable context for search engine crawlers.

And by ensuring that your URLs are clean and easy to read, you can further improve your site's visibility and user experience. Don't overlook these important on-page elements - take the time to optimize them and reap the rewards of a more effective website.

Off-Page Strategies

To make your website stand out in the crowded online world, it's crucial to implement off-page strategies. Link building, social media promotion, and guest posting are just a few of the tactics that can help boost your website's visibility and attract more traffic.

You can increase your website's authority by garnering backlinks from other trusted sites through link building. Social media promotion can help you reach a wider audience by sharing your content on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Guest posting on relevant blogs can also help establish thought leadership and drive more traffic back to your website. By taking advantage of these off-page strategies, you'll be well on your way to achieving online success. Here is a complete guide on how you could use the digital marketing funnels to expand your customer base and how sell directly on Amazon with a detailed plan on Amazon listing optimization.


SEO is one of marketers' most powerful tools for driving organic traffic to their sites. When used correctly, the above strategies can help you achieve higher search engine ranking and greater visibility among your target audience.

Investing in SEO requires time and dedication, but with proper planning, research, and implementation you will see significant improvements in organic traffic that will drive conversions and business growth.

To fully maximize your strategy's potential, staying up-to-date on the latest trends and practices is imperative. Finally, constantly monitor your site’s performance using analytics tools to track progress and adjust as necessary. By following these proven strategies, even the most novice of website owners can greatly increase their chance of success in the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape.

How is SEO Landscape changing?

As a digital marketer, the constant flux in search engine algorithms presents a formidable challenge. Consider this: in 2021 alone, Google initiated over 800,000 experiments, leading to more than 4,000 modifications in their search algorithm.

For many marketing professionals, these figures can seem daunting. How can one craft successful strategies when the game's rules are continually shifting?

The solution lies in being strategically adaptive. This begins with staying abreast of the latest developments in the industry. Should there be any significant modification in the search algorithm, it's almost certain that the SEO community will discuss it. Check these Amazon FBA tips to grow your business and see how optimising your Amazon listing could help you grow. 

Here's another seemingly paradoxical advice: exercise patience and don't rush to respond to every update. The reasoning? Occasionally, Google may realize an update didn't yield the desired outcome and decide to roll it back. So, allowing the dust to settle following an update is prudent before recalibrating your strategy.

Aim for the long game.

As a top-notch digital and SEO agency, we liken our SEO approach to a carefully curated mutual fund. It's not an instant win like the volatile stock market; instead, it's a steady accumulation of valuable efforts, yielding sustainable growth.

Let's get this straight - SEO isn't a sprint; it's a marathon. Organic results don't come overnight like a mutual fund's slow and steady compounding. Instead, they result from continuous dedication, patience, and strategic implementation.

There's a reason we urge clients not to expect lightning-fast results. The essence of SEO lies not in immediate gratification but in cultivating a sustainable, long-term strategy.

Quick-fix solutions like technical SEO and content marketing could somewhat alleviate a low ranking. However, our expertise is developing comprehensive strategies that systematically target multiple initiatives over time, ensuring a more robust, all-encompassing solution for your online presence. We're in it for the long haul and believe that's where the real value lies.

Let's look into some trends we will implement for our clients

With the rise of AI, incorporation in many tools and changes in Google we will focus a lot of our attention on specific subjects. We will push for mobile, AI, Voice, Accessibility, Local, Hyper local and Automation. Let's explain it further,

Alexa, Siri, Google are always listening, so let's use voice search!

“Alexa, can you suggest a great alternative for heavy cream?”

This is a query I recently put forth to my Amazon Echo device while I was caught up in the frenzy of baking a pie, my fingers dusted with a layer of flour. It appears that I am far from alone in utilizing voice search technology. Predictions suggest that by 2026, over half of all American internet users will be engaging with voice assistants for their search needs.

There's an inescapable reality that voice search is rapidly integrating into our daily routines. So, the question arises, how do we ensure our content is designed to cater to users who are primarily searching via audio cues rather than visual stimuli?

The solution is two-fold:

First, prioritize mobile optimization for your website. Considering the majority of voice searches take place on mobile or other smart devices, Google indeed prioritizes sites that are mobile-friendly and have swift loading times.

Next, adopt a proactive approach to content structuring. Try to predict and include the potential questions your audience may ask. For instance, discern and incorporate long-tail question keywords into your H2 or H3 headings.

Moreover, it's also vital to focus on conversational language and phrases that people typically use during voice search. Unlike traditional text searches, voice searches are more likely to be in the form of natural, complete sentences. So, instead of focusing solely on keywords like "heavy cream substitute", it might be more beneficial to incorporate full-sentence questions like "What can I use as a substitute for heavy cream?" into your content.

Leveraging structured data, or schema markup, can also provide more detailed results to users and help search engines better understand your content. This can significantly improve your chances of being the answer to a voice search query.

Remember, as voice search technology continues to evolve and permeate our everyday lives, SEO strategies must adapt and stay ahead of the curve. By doing so, we improve the user experience and enhance our digital visibility in this exciting new frontier of search technology.

Use video as much as possible.

Video content has been making a big splash in the SEO pool. With the advent of video Featured Snippets on Google, many of us have noticed a significant shift in how search results are presented. Typically, these snippets are triggered by "how-to" queries that require a step-by-step instructional guide.

To illustrate, let's say you're in a bit of a pickle, stranded roadside with a deflated tire. A quick Google search on "How to change marketing agency without losing performance" could lead you to an informative video snippet on the subject. But we believe video snippets are merely the tip of the iceberg. As we move forward, we anticipate Google to weave in even more video content into its search results. So, it's crucial for businesses and marketers to up their game in video SEO.

Here are a few strategies to optimize your video content effectively.

  • Implement YouTube Chapters: Chapters quickly segment your video into consumable sections, typically based on distinct topics or steps. This additional layer of organization helps viewers and Google grasp the narrative of your video more effectively. Moreover, it enables Google to leverage individual clips from your video to be utilized in Featured Snippets.

    Incorporate Closed Captions (CC): Closed captions contribute significantly towards making your video content accessible and understandable to a broader audience, including Google. While YouTube does provide automatic captions, they can occasionally miss the mark. So, it's best to manually input your closed captions for precision.

  • Optimize Metadata - Title, Tags, and Description: Much like webpages, videos too come with their set of metadata - titles, descriptions, and tags. To ensure your video is easily discoverable, you need to optimize these elements in line with SEO best practices.

  • Get back to our article:
    HOW TO USE YOUTUBE ANALYTICS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR BRAND'S VIDEO CONTENT STRATEGY

Remember, video content isn't just about engagement anymore; it's a significant part of your SEO strategy. By optimizing your video content effectively, you stand a better chance of being spotted by Google, thereby boosting your overall visibility in search results.

Great minds think alike, and everyone else too

As a digital strategy, we've spotted a significant trend that's impossible to ignore: the emergence of the "People Also Ask" (PAA) feature on Google. PAA boxes now appear in about 43% of all Google search queries.

The coveted PAA box is strategically positioned on the search engine results page (SERP), often near the top. Naturally, earning a spot in this prime location is a goal for any business seeking to optimize its digital visibility. Fortunately, with some targeted content modifications, you can improve your odds of securing a position within the PAA box.

The first tactic to consider is strategically using question words in your content. Notably, most PAA boxes begin with interrogative words such as "how," "where," or "can." As such, integrating questions and their answers within your material can significantly increase your chances of ranking within the PAA box.

An efficient approach to finding relevant questions is to utilize keyword research tools. Such tools allow you to identify long-tail keywords framed as questions which are pertinent to your domain. Once identified, you can incorporate these query-structured keywords within your content, including them in crucial areas like headings or H2/H3 tags.

Another valuable strategy is introducing a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section on your web pages. This serves a dual purpose: it helps in summarizing key information for the user, enhancing their experience, and provides rich question-answer content that search engines can index. In terms of SEO value, this can substantially improve your chances of being featured in the PAA box while simultaneously boosting the overall organic ranking of your site.

Also, consider exploring tools such as 'Answer The Public' or 'AlsoAsked' to discover what questions people ask about your topic or industry. By answering these questions comprehensively in your content, you effectively improve your chances of being chosen for the PAA feature.

In summary, being featured in the PAA box is a significant achievement in terms of SEO. By understanding how Google selects its content and implementing a few key changes, you can increase the probability of your website appearing in this prime location, enhancing your brand's visibility and reach. Read this guide on E-commerce supply chain and voice search optimization.

Artificial intelligence for content development 

Artificial Intelligence-powered writing tools such as Jarvis and Copy.AI have indeed carved out their niche in the content creation landscape. Yet, none have garnered as much attention or experienced a surge in popularity quite like ChatGPT.

As the record-holder for the fastest-growing consumer application to date, ChatGPT is remarkably adept at crafting content that closely mirrors human-generated copy. Early in 2023, Google unveiled its own AI-powered conversational assistant, Bard, adding another player to the growing AI content market.

Interestingly, despite its entry into AI, Google continues to champion the value of authentic, high-quality content with its 'Helpful Content Update.' This algorithm enhancement rewards content that delivers a rich, gratifying user experience. This leads us to an important question: How, and to what extent, should AI be integrated into your content strategy?

The key is leveraging AI to augment and expedite your workflow, not to completely overhaul or replace it.

While AI-generated, lengthy-form content might struggle to pass Google's quality filters, it can be an invaluable tool for crafting short-form content such as FAQs. Employ AI to produce a foundational layer of content, then enrich and personalize it with your own expertise and insights.

Incorporate AI throughout various stages of your content development cycle. For instance, AI can streamline research, summarizing vast amounts of information in moments. Moreover, AI proves invaluable for repurposing existing content for diverse platforms and mediums.

However, it's vital not to over-rely on AI for all your content needs. Complement AI's efficiency and speed with the creativity, intuition, and discernment of a skilled human writer. Let them refine the AI-generated copy, injecting invaluable insights and unique perspectives that only a human can provide.

In this way, you can leverage the power of AI while ensuring your content remains engaging, insightful, and richly human – a combination that continues to be rewarded in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

CodeDesign: International Digital Marketing Agency

Are you ready to take your ecommerce business to the next level? We at CodeDesign, are here to help. As a leading digital agency, we specialize in creating innovative, user-friendly, and high-performing ecommerce solutions that transform online retail businesses.

At CodeDesign, we believe every business is unique and strive to ensure our solutions reflect this. We work closely with our clients, taking the time to understand their business goals, target audience, and unique selling points. This enables us to create tailored ecommerce solutions that meet and exceed our client's expectations.

Our digital team comprises highly skilled professionals with expertise in various domains, including web design, UX/UI design, digital marketing, data analytics, and more. We leverage this diverse skill set to provide comprehensive ecommerce solutions, ensuring our clients' businesses flourish in the digital world.

Are you ready to elevate your ecommerce business? Get in touch with us at CodeDesign. Let's create something extraordinary together.

FAQS - Frequently Asked Questions

What are the key SEO strategies to boost organic traffic?

The key SEO strategies to boost organic traffic encompass a holistic approach focusing on high-quality, relevant content creation, keyword research and optimization, mobile optimization, improving site speed, securing your site with HTTPS, and building quality backlinks. A successful SEO strategy involves understanding your audience's search intent and providing content that meets their needs, which helps improve your site's visibility in search engine results. Additionally, incorporating long-tail keywords can capture more specific search queries leading to higher conversion rates. Ensuring your website is mobile-friendly and loads quickly enhances user experience, further boosting your SEO performance. Lastly, obtaining backlinks from reputable sites within your industry signals to search engines that your site is a credible source of information, thereby improving your rankings.

How can content optimization improve my website's SEO performance?

Content optimization can significantly improve your website's SEO performance by making your site more visible and attractive to search engines and users alike. This process involves using relevant keywords naturally within your content, ensuring your titles and meta descriptions are compelling and include main keywords, structuring your content with proper header tags for easy readability, and creating quality content that provides value to your audience. Including images and videos with optimized alt tags and descriptions can also enhance user engagement. By focusing on providing the best possible content that answers your audience's queries, you can improve dwell time and reduce bounce rates, which are positive signals to search engines and can lead to higher rankings.

What role do keywords play in SEO today?

Keywords play a pivotal role in SEO today as they help search engines understand the content of your website and match it to users' search queries. However, the approach to keywords has evolved from mere stuffing to focusing on relevance, search intent, and context. It's important to conduct thorough keyword research to identify terms and phrases your target audience uses. Incorporating these keywords naturally into your content, titles, headers, and meta descriptions can improve your visibility in search results. Additionally, understanding and targeting long-tail keywords can capture more specific search intents, leading to higher quality traffic and improved conversion rates. Keywords also play a crucial role in other aspects of SEO, such as backlink building and content strategy, making them fundamental to any successful SEO effort.

How can I make my website mobile-friendly for better SEO?

Making your website mobile-friendly is essential for better SEO, as Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking. To ensure your website is mobile-friendly, start by using a responsive web design that automatically adjusts content layout to fit the screen size of the device it's being viewed on. Optimize your website's loading speed for mobile devices by compressing images and leveraging browser caching. Simplify navigation to make it easy to use on smaller screens, and ensure that buttons and links are spaced well enough apart for easy tapping. Regularly test your website's mobile usability with tools like Google's Mobile-Friendly Test to identify and fix any issues that could impact your SEO performance.

What are on-page SEO elements critical for ranking?

Critical on-page SEO elements for ranking include title tags, meta descriptions, header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.), URL structure, and keyword optimization throughout your content. Title tags should be enticing and include main keywords near the beginning. Meta descriptions provide a brief overview of the page content and should also contain relevant keywords. Proper use of header tags helps structure your content, making it easier for search engines to understand and for users to read. A clean, descriptive URL structure that includes keywords can further enhance your SEO. Additionally, optimizing images with descriptive alt tags and creating engaging, valuable content that satisfies user intent are also essential for on-page SEO success.

How does user experience affect SEO and organic traffic?

User experience (UX) significantly affects SEO and organic traffic as search engines, particularly Google, prioritize sites that provide a positive user experience. Factors such as site speed, mobile-friendliness, easy navigation, and high-quality content contribute to a good UX and can lead to better rankings. Websites that are designed with the user in mind tend to have lower bounce rates and higher dwell times, which are key indicators of user satisfaction and are used by search engines to gauge a site's value. Improving UX can lead to more organic traffic, as users are more likely to engage with and return to a site that is user-friendly and meets their needs efficiently.

What off-page SEO tactics can I employ to boost visibility?

Off-page SEO tactics to boost visibility include building quality backlinks, social media marketing, guest blogging, and influencer outreach. Acquiring backlinks from reputable websites within your industry signals to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy, thus improving your rankings. Actively engaging on social media can increase your brand's visibility and lead to more shares, potentially earning backlinks. Guest blogging on relevant websites not only provides backlink opportunities but also exposes your brand to a wider audience. Collaborating with influencers can amplify your content's reach and generate social proof, further enhancing your off-page SEO efforts.

How can I measure the effectiveness of my SEO strategies?

Measuring the effectiveness of your SEO strategies involves tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) such as organic traffic, search rankings, bounce rate, conversion rate, and backlink quality and quantity. Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console provide valuable insights into your website's traffic, user behavior, and how it appears in search results. Regularly monitoring these metrics can help you understand the impact of your SEO efforts and identify areas for improvement. Additionally, tracking your rankings for specific keywords over time can give you an indication of how well your content is performing in search engine results pages (SERPs).

What is the importance of voice search optimization for SEO?

The importance of voice search optimization for SEO is growing as more people use voice-activated devices, like smartphones and smart speakers, for internet searches. Voice search queries tend to be longer and more conversational than typed queries, so optimizing for these can help you capture this audience. This involves targeting long-tail keywords that mirror natural speech patterns, focusing on local SEO (as many voice searches are location-based), and providing clear, concise answers to common questions directly in your content. Optimizing for voice search can improve your visibility in voice search results, enhance user experience, and drive more organic traffic to your site.

How do technical SEO aspects like site speed and architecture influence rankings?

Technical SEO aspects like site speed and website architecture significantly influence rankings as they directly impact the user experience. A fast-loading website helps reduce bounce rates and improve engagement, signaling to search engines that your site is user-friendly, which can boost your rankings. Similarly, a well-structured website architecture makes it easier for search engine crawlers to understand and index your content, improving your visibility in search results. Ensuring your site is mobile-friendly, secure (HTTPS), and free from crawl errors are also crucial technical SEO practices. By prioritizing these technical aspects, you can create a strong foundation that supports your overall SEO strategy and helps improve your site's ranking in SERPs.



About Bruno Gavino

Bruno Gavino is the CEO and partner of Codedesign, a digital marketing agency with a strong international presence. Based in Lisbon, Portugal, with offices in Boston, Singapore, and Manchester (UK) Codedesign has been recognized as one of the top interactive agencies and eCommerce agencies. Awarded Top B2B Company in Europe and Top B2C company in retail, Codedesign aims to foster personal relationships with clients and create a positive work environment for its team.  

He emphasizes the need for digital agencies to focus on data optimization and performance to meet the increasingly results-driven demands of clients. His experience in digital marketing, combined with a unique background that includes engineering and data, contributes to his effective and multifaceted leadership style.

Follow Bruno Gavino on Linkedin


About Codedesign

Codedesign is a digital marketing agency with a strong multicultural and international presence, offering expert services in digital marketing. Our digital agency in Lisbon, Boston, and Manchester enables us to provide market-ready strategies that suit a wide range of clients across the globe (both B2B and B2C). We specialize in creating impactful online experiences, focusing on making your digital presence strong and efficient. Our approach is straightforward and effective, ensuring that every client receives a personalized service that truly meets their needs.

Our digital agency is committed to using the latest data and technology to help your business stand out. Whether you're looking to increase your online visibility, connect better with your audience, get more leads, or grow your online sales. For more information, read our Digital Strategy Blog or to start your journey with us, please feel free to contact us.


CodeDesign is leading:
- Digital Agency
- Digital Marketing Agency
- Digital Ecommerce Agency
- Amazon Marketing Agency


Add comment