SEO is easy. Right? Wrong! SEO is probably one of the toughest concepts to understand on the internet today. Okay, so SEO is tough. So, should you stop focusing on it? No! That is the biggest mistake you can do in terms of digital marketing. To make the game a little easier, you can try a few quick and easy-to-implement strategies in your plan for SEO today.
With Google accounting for over 79% of the search engine traffic, it is important that you optimize your website for search engines right away (Source). Here are 10 basic and actionable tips that are ideal for business-minded individuals in the playing field of SEO.
1. Generate Awesome Content
This one is a no-brainer. Generate awesome content – likes and views will follow. With the right type of content, you can easily attract the attention of the target audience. Actionable content with research, numbers, images is much more attractive than just a long 10,000-word blog.
Top bloggers will emphasize the use of simple language. So instead of using fancy words try to tone the level of content down to its roots. This way, you can reach the audience in a much more effective way. For example, use the words ‘requirements’ or ‘needs’ instead of ‘requisites’ to keep the sentence simple.
2. Make Lists (Like This One)
Lists are the best way to get the attention of people. The title ’10 Actionable SEO Tips’ sounds much more well-defined and interesting compared to ‘SEO Tips’. By optimizing the flow and tone of content you will be able to adapt to the changing landscape a lot better.
Instead of writing long and chunky paragraphs, you can make lists and include several sub-headings in your content. This way, your audience will have an option to directly skip to the most important part of the content in a jiffy, thereby increasing the readership.
3. Perform Keyword Research
We cannot emphasize the importance of keywords enough. Without the right research on keywords, your content is doomed to fail. A well-defined keyword analysis will help you target the right audience at the right time. The keywords are your door to good rankings on search engines results pages.
You can use free online tools like MOZ and SEMrush to perform keyword analysis for your content. If you have the necessary resources, you can hire an SEO-expert to help you out with the overall content flow and tonality. A professional SEO specialist will help you optimize your content with just the right amount of keywords. This specialist will also help you balance the amount of promotional and informational content in the blogs and articles.
4. Increase the Readability of Content
Good readability is one of the fundamental requirements for good ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). Without good readability, even the best content will go unnoticed. Creating subheadings, lists and adding images are a few good ways to increase the readability of content.
You should also use medium-sized fonts with ambient colours (ie grey text instead of black) to keep the attention of users. Both the use of too much and the use of too little space between characters can be a major turn-off for the audience. Break text into paragraphs of two or three sentences each.
5. Check Webpages for a No-Index Tag
Are you generating awesome content and following all the tips mentioned so far in this list? Even in doing so you won’t be getting many views if your page isn’t indexed.
The no-index tag prevents search engines from scan your content and adding it to their results pages. Without scanning, your content goes to waste. You can check the no-index tag for a webpage in the back-end. If it is enabled, disable it right away to start reaping benefits of your SEO work.
6. Perform Competitor Analysis
A timely and regular competitor analysis will help you stay in touch with the latest blogging trends in the industry. With a comprehensive competitor analysis, you can come up with relevant topics that target the pain points of your audience.
Remember, people on the internet are not intrigued by the features of your product/service. Instead, they want to know how it solves their problems. By thinking from the perspective of your end customer, you can redefine your content to be more likeable.
Competitor analysis of your most popular competitors websites will help you generate more customer-centric content. Look at that they are doing, and try to do it better!
7. Generate Backlinks
Backlinks is another one of the key pillars of good SEO. You can generate your own backlinks by establishing the right contacts on the internet. Invite guest posting content on your website as well as post regular content on the websites of your friends to generate backlinks.
You can also perform backlink analysis (using something like ahrefs) on competitors’ websites to find their strongest links in the industry. The better the website that links to you, the more effect it will have on your SERP rankings.
8. Post Content Regularly
Your first blog post got a million views? Great! Now it is time to pull up your socks and work on generating an equally intriguing second blog post. With regular content you can stay in touch with your end customers. Do not forget to optimize the old content on your website while generating the new content. Content optimization is the key to sustainable SEO.
9. Optimize Website Loading Speed
Your audience will most likely look at 5-10 different blogs/websites for information they require. If your website lacks the necessary loading speed, you are effectively losing a potential customer. Website optimization is a practice that requires attention both at the front as well as the back-end.
10. Don’t Forget Local SEO
Local SEO is different to other types of SEO. If your business is tied to a location (such as if it is a shop, or services only the local area), then make sure you are listed on Google Maps, and any other local directories. People want results related to where they physically are, and making sure all your map listings are correct and up to date can have a huge effect on where search engines rank you.
Bonus Tip: 11. Never Stop Learning
Thanks to the ever-dynamic digital landscape, it is nearly impossible for an individual to use a single SEO strategy that will work 100% of the time. So keep adapting to new trends to stay ahead of the competition.