Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, was a term coined back in 1997. Today, the amount of importance it has created for itself is enormous. According to a survey conducted recently:
However, it is important that the focus lies on the word ‘quality.’ SEO has to be performed with finesse and expertise. Doing it wrong can cause more harm than good. Here are a few ways to manage your SEO efforts effectively:
Keywords form the basis of how search engines identify and list your website in the search results. As a result, their importance is manifold, but the factor to bear in mind is that Google, changes its search algorithms almost 200-300 times every year. With this pace of evolution, a business has to select keywords that stay relevant for long periods of time.
The secret to achieving this is to focus on natural keywords that make the content user-friendly. Google’s latest overhaul now picks out content on the basis of relevance, to the terms entered in the search box, and not the density of keywords found in it.
Carrying on with the point that we began discussing in the previous section, the quality of the content matters a lot. It is easy to search and identify the type of queries that users make frequently today. The key to an effective SEO strategy lies in picking out these burning topics and addressing them elaborately in your content. This creates a customer friendly and searches engine friendly version of your digital platform at the same time.
Hyperlinks, images, videos and other visual content, like infographics, play a huge role in improving SEO rankings of a website; but it all comes back to the way these elements are added. Creating internal links to other pages of the website is helpful, but what creates a greater visibility is earning external links.
Referencing and shout-outs can be sponsored but having naturally earned external hyperlinks can work wonders for your website and its search result rankings.
Backlinks: The Social Capital of the Web - External links are key to showing the value of your content to search engines.
Last but not least, is the fact that at no point do you forget that at the end of the day everything has to be about your consumer. Audiences today are shying away from lengthy blog posts and are becoming more inclined towards visual content. Listen to them and give them what they want. That is the optimal way of staying on top of your SEO game.
In conclusion, we would like to emphasize the fact that SEO can make or break an online business quite easily because it has a considerable stake in ensuring the sustainability of the business. Therefore, it is important that you get it right from the beginning.
When you are ready to start building your traffic to your site check out some of our guides and services. SEO 101: Developing Your SEO Strategy can give you a great starting point for outlining your goals.