A good SEO strategy makes the difference between making your business easy to find on the Internet or being lost in a sea of thousands of other businesses who also want to stand out.
With Google’s ever-changing algorithm, it may seem impossible to know what’s effective at any given time. However, with a well-planned strategy based on the three important factors we’re writing about here, it’s possible to achieve the desired results.
Success in SEO consists of devising a multi-factor strategy that combines the factors to make a chain of great content, credible links, and social networks. Each of these components supports the other, providing an advantage for visitors and readers, building your authority, and increasing brand value. This won’t go unnoticed by search engines, and the reward is a better ranking of your website.
These are some of the most important items to think about in terms of the three pillars of great SEO optimization.
Content (Pillar #1): Make the Most of the Website Content
The first pillar of an effective SEO strategy is the content of your website and its structure. The concept is simple: you can optimize your website and its content only when you know how exactly your market is looking for the product or service you provide.
The Google Keyword Tool is designed to help advertisers in the Google Ads program to choose effective keywords for their paid ads. It’s a free, robust tool you can use to better understand the range of keywords people use and use them their searches to draw them to your website.
Try these three strategies to get started.
- Create a list of phrases related to your business, brand, product, industry, location, and customers. Once you’ve made that list, enter each word in the Google Keyword Tool to see which related terms Google recommends to expand your keyword list. Pay attention to long keywords (e.g. “apartments in London near Trafalgar Square” versus “apartments”). They are easier to rank, and they are as important as your main keywords.
- Type the URL of your website into the website box in the Google Keyword Tool. It will then scan your website and release a list of recommended terms that you have come up with yourself or that you could use. Many of them will be great keywords for your website.
- Create a list of competitors and type their URL into the Keyword Tool as your competition may have a good ranking for certain terms you haven’t thought about. Although you don’t need to directly copy the keyword strategy used by the competition, this can help you evaluate the approach you are taking on your own strategy.
Acquiring knowledge of SEO is important for the success of your online business. However, there are numerous factors to consider when building a strong SEO strategy. In fact, many webmasters neglect one important thing– the relationship between how they host their website and how visible it appears online. Those website owners that are aware of this will quickly switch to hosting that will improve the ranking of their website. One of the fastest ways to improve the site’s search engine ranking and also boost traffic and pageviews is purchasing dedicated or cloud hosting servers.
Furthermore, if you have a WordPress platform running in the background of your website, MySQL providers will provide better user experience and better performance— both of which are vital components for SEO success. One of the first things you’ll notice when you lease the MySQL host, or migrate your website to it, is the significant increase in the load speed of your website.
Keyword Structure
Once you’ve made a list of keywords, take the time to organize them. One of the easiest ways to do this is “consulting” the structure of your website and mapping keywords to important sections.
For example, if you’re a restaurant that provides customer service in New York, you may have a home delivery price page. That way, when individual users search for “food delivery to a home address in New York” they will most likely find your website.
Knowing which sections of your website target which specific keywords and optimizing your content towards this goal will make your SEO efforts far more cost-effective.
Content Optimization
When you are done researching keywords, the next thing you have to do is optimize your content for those terms.
Content optimization isn’t the accumulation of keywords at every opportunity or the fulfillment of a specific formula such as “keywords must appear X times in 500 words”. Instead, remember to include your primary words in article titles and meta tags.
User Experience
When do people visit your website and are they able to do what they want quickly and efficiently? For example, if they want to buy something or find certain information, is it easy for them to navigate? If the answer is “no”, your Google search results ranking is going to be negatively affected.
An easy way to determine if your website is suitable for the needs of the average user is to look at your bounce rate on Google Analytics. One “bounce” is a visitor who left the website immediately after visiting only one page. If the percentage of such cases is high, it may be that your keywords include terms that aren’t relevant to visitors, or that the design of your website is too complicated. Ask yourself what the people who visit you want to find and think of ways you can make it easier for them.
The first questions you can ask yourself are:
- Is your website’s navigation easy to use?
- Is your website’s design as neat as possible?
- Are the important sections of the website adequately highlighted?
Consider hiring a professional designer who’d be able to evaluate your website. It’s possible to design a website in a way that would achieve quality SEO.
Website Design
Is the design of your website clean and professional? If both visitors and search engines conclude that a website looks like spam, it almost certainly is.
If you want to build authority with a website, and you attempt to do so with an outdated design, consider switching to a simple Joomla or WordPress site. These are simple content management systems (CMS) with which you can easily change the look of your website.
Regularly Updated Blog
Since the Google Freshness algorithm update, there’s a positive ranking of websites that update content regularly. This is most easily achieved by opening a blog. By regularly adding new texts that are relevant to your readers, you’ll build your authority and improve your search ranking.
Internal Links (Pillar #2): Link Infrastructure
Links give Google one important signal: some website or reader has found material on your website valuable enough to link it. The more links you get, the more valuable your content is– at least that’s how search engines evaluate it. The more likable you are, the more trust you get, which makes your site better ranked.
Link building was a game of numbers in the past and the links came from a simple strategy that involved “submitting” your website to a bunch of web directories and placing links to your site in comments or forums.
Today, link building is still crucial but it’s harder to make high-quality links. More precisely, there’s more pressure to make them as high quality as possible. The sites that you link to your site must be of good reputation and relevant to your area of business. Here’s how to do it.
Guest Blogger
Nowadays, there’s a growing focus on blogging as website owners look for organic ways to make links. It’s a simple process: find a suitable blog that offers the position of a blogger to write posts that are intended for the audience of that blog. Then, as you are writing as a guest blogger, look for reputable blogs that are relevant to your niche and business and create a blog that they will post for you.
Repack Existing Content
Creating links to your website doesn’t require an army of writers who are constantly creating new content (although, of course, that can be a good way to do things). Instead, it’s enough to repack the already existing content in several different ways across different social networks and platforms.
Do you have a great blog item that’s full of data? It can look great in the form of an infographic that can quickly go viral. A newsletter sent through an email could become a great guest post or social media content.
Turn Real-World Connections into Links
Do you sponsor a local event in your community? Maybe you’re speaking at a conference or doing pro-bono consulting for a non-profit organization? Do you belong to a professional association, amateur association, or civic group? You can take advantage of these opportunities by listing yourself on the websites of these organizations or events.
Find Yourself in Quality Directories
Having your website listed in absolutely every directory that you can find is of no value. It can even be said that it will backfire on you as it’s an outdated link-building trick that Google no longer approves. However, there are a number of directories that are good for your SEO strategy. Look for one of three types of directories instead.
- Local directory: If you’re listed on a local directory, it will increase your chances of ranking better locally.
- Directories related to your business that are focused on what you do
- Established directories with sections related to your profession
Social Media (Pillar # 3): Making Followers, Engaging, and Sharing Content
There was a time when analysts wondered if social media would make SEO redundant and outdated. In reality, social networks have completely changed the way we think about SEO optimization. Today, social contacts mean having a direct impact on how websites rank on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Here’s what you need to think of to get the most out of social media.
Get Involved in Social Media Channels
The best way to create a reputation on social media is to get involved and be active. Remember to think of your social presence as a conversation.
Share content that’s relevant to your followers and friends, but also communicate with them. Involving or interacting also means sharing other people’s content, thanking people who retweet/share/repost your content, and joining people in discussions.
Build Your Brand
Social networks are a great medium for building your brand, and a branded social presence can help create a rumor that will spread the talk about you and bring you new clients, customers, and clicks.
You can brand your social presence in three ways.
- Ensure that the name of your profile or page is branded and that it links to your website
- Ensure that the look of your site is partially transferred to the look of your profile or page
- Share professional content in the tone of your brand, consistently and constantly
Generate Social Information by Making Your Content Easy to Share
Does every page on your website have a share button? What about every post on your blog?
To ensure that they do, install programs such as ShareThis to guarantee that readers share everything they like instantly. To start, focus on relevant networks: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Create a Platform Strategy
“Being everywhere” is a legitimate approach to social networks, but it’s rarely the most effective. Especially if you’re trying to generate traffic to your site and want people to read and share your content. Instead, opt for a few platforms that are most important to you.
The best strategy takes into account the social behavior of your target group. Are they, for example, people who watch videos or/and are Facebook addicts? Spend time gaining followers that generate social activity and connect with your business goals.
Conclusion
The world of SEO is definitely complex, and effective SEO involves managing many different elements, from your content and keywords to social networks and link building activities.
By focusing on the three pillars mentioned above, you can create a foundation and structure that will support your website and keep it ranked well over time.
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