When it comes to SEO strategy, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. What works for one site might not work for another. That said, there are some best practices that never go out of date—and others that have been replaced by more effective strategies. Here are 10 tried and true tactics that will help you get more eyes on your content:
READ: WHAT IS SEO (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION)?
1. Stop putting keywords in the same spots
The hallmark of a strong SEO strategy is its diversity. You don’t want to place your keywords in the same spots every time, because Google will soon recognize that you’re gaming the system. Instead, mix it up! Put your keyword in the URL, title, meta description, first paragraph and last paragraph—even multiple times in each context.
The more places you can use your keyword without annoying readers or creating an awkward flow of text on a page (which should be avoided anyway), the better off you’ll be.
So remember: Don’t put keywords in just one spot anymore! There’s no need for this kind of rigidity when there are so many other ways to do things right now.
2. Make a list of what you want to be ranked for
When you’re working on your SEO strategy, it’s important to figure out exactly what it is that you want to be ranked for. This list should include everything from “I want to be the number one search result for ‘dog grooming’ in my town” to “I want people who are looking for information about how to build a website with Squarespace.”
For example: If I own a dog bakery and I want more customers, I need traffic from people who don’t know about me or my products but will buy them once they do. That means that my keywords need to be things like “dog bakery,” “fancy cakes for dogs,” etc., instead of just “dog treats” or even “bakery near me.”
READ: 10 ETHICAL SEO HACKS TO GET RANKINGS FASTER THAN EVER
3. Write for humans
Talk to your audience.
You’re writing for humans, not search engines. This means you should be speaking directly to the people who are interested in your topic and providing content that they want to read. If you’re trying to rank for a specific keyword phrase and it doesn’t make sense when read aloud, then there’s probably something wrong with your content. Writing for humans should be an important part of your SEO strategy in 2022.
4. A/B test your headlines and titles.
You can also experiment with different forms of the same headline. For example, if you want to see what headline works better in your email marketing campaigns, run an A/B test on your subject lines. Or if you’re looking for a way to improve conversions on one page but not another, use variations of titles and subtitles as well.
You can also use content experiments to test different types of messaging or calls-to-action in certain parts of your site (for example, home page vs product pages).
By utilizing A/B testing your flesh out your SEO strategy and focus on what works instead of wasting time on an SEO strategy that doesn’t perform for you or your users.
5. Diversify your inbound links
The best way to diversify your inbound links is by targeting sites that are relevant but not in your niche, country, language or industry. You can also look for websites that have linked to your competitors but not you. To identify these types of sites you need a link building tool such as Ahrefs and Moz Link Explorer (or similar).
For example, if you’re a software developer then you might find that there are companies that run businesses related to real estate and ecommerce who have linked out from their site to a competitor’s product pages in the past but not yours. That would be a great place for you to reach out and build relationships with potential partners since they’ve already been linking out on their website which means they’re likely open-minded about who they partner with!
6. Focus on topics instead of key phrases.
It’s important to remember that it is not necessary to optimize your content for every single keyword phrase that you can think of. There are a lot of people out there who believe this is a good SEO strategy, but it’s simply not true. In fact, if you focus on optimizing your content for a specific key phrase too much, you’ll end up with something that doesn’t actually benefit anyone—you or your audience.
As we’ve mentioned before in our article about writing for your audience and tips on how to do it well , the best way to make sure you’re communicating effectively is by focusing on topics instead of key phrases. You want people who come across your content because they’re looking for information relevant to them, so if they see something interesting and helpful (instead of just keywords), then they’ll be more likely stay around longer while engaged with what you have created!
7. Take an honest look at your site’s speed
If you’re in business to make money, you should be concerned about site speed. You may not know how fast your website loads or how many milliseconds it takes for a page to load (that’s what we do), but as an owner or manager, it’s important that you understand the impact of slow loading times on bounce rate and conversion rate. This will help ensure that users are satisfied with their experience using your site and that they’ll continue coming back for more.
In addition to improving user experience, focusing on site speed can also positively affect SEO ranking in the SERPs (search engine result pages). Google measures page speed as one of its ranking factors; therefore, if you have a slower-loading website than competitors in similar verticals/niches, chances are good that yours will rank lower than theirs—and they’ll probably be able to achieve better results from their traffic due to lower bounce rates and higher conversion rates!
Improving your page speed and addressing any speed or loading issues should be high on your priority list for your SEO strategy.
8. Do a cross-browser check
As you’re designing and developing your website, it’s really important that you check how your site performs across all the major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox and Opera. This is important for your SEO strategy and for your users. If there are any issues, such as a page not loading or being slow to load (you can use Google’s PageSpeed tool for this), these will be penalized by search engines like Google, as well as providing a bad experience for people using you website.
Make sure your site is mobile-friendly.
Another thing to consider is creating a mobile-friendly version of your website (or better yet, have a fully responsive website) so that users can access it from their phones or tablets too. This is an important part of SEO because people tend to search for things on their phones more often than on desktop computers these days, and circles back to your users experience when using your website.
9. Think about who you’re linking to and why
Now, I know what you’re thinking. You can’t link to any site that happens to be relevant to the content of your site. That’s not the point. The point is that if you’re going to link out, link out for a reason. Linking doesn’t work unless it serves some sort of purpose for you in the long run.
So think about who you’re linking to and why:
- Relevance: Sites should be relevant or related somehow—whether they’re related by content or industry or audience—and they should ideally also have some kind of connection with each other (like being owned by the same company).
- Quality: It’s important that links are quality links; this means being sure they’re editorialized well and displayed in contextually appropriate ways on both sides of the web page—not just on yours!
10. There is more than one way to approach SEO, you just have to find what works for you!
There is more than one way to approach SEO, you just have to find what works for you!
But how do you know if the approach that you are using is working? What if it’s not? How can you tell? You can’t just focus on one thing and expect it to work all of the time. If a website or blog post isn’t ranking in Google, maybe there is something wrong with their keywords or their content. Maybe they aren’t focusing on long-form content or they are trying too hard to rank for too many different keywords at once. Maybe it’s time for them to change up some things and try again!
People need flexibility when it comes down from what works best in terms of their SEO strategy because things change constantly due to new algorithms coming out frequently from search engines such as Google (which shows us how important adaptability is).
The key here is being able to adapt quickly enough so that when one method stops working we don’t miss out on opportunities by waiting too long before switching gears.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a lot of different factors that go into your SEO strategy. It’s not just about what keywords you use, but also the way those words are used in context and how your site preforms in terms of speed and build quality.
There is no one right way to do SEO, but there are many different approaches that have been proven effective over time. Take some time today to think about your current approach and identify which areas could be improved upon in order to make it more effective!
If you’d like to discuss your SEO Strategy, we’d love to hear about it! We can help you with your SEO strategy and get you more traffic and conversions!
