Starting out with SEO is never easy, everyone is an expert, but we all know there are no “quick-fixes” and the work of a (good) SEO is never done. Now, more than ever, it is important to understand the importance of search engine optimization(SEO) and how it relates to your Marketing and Digital Marketing Objectives
SEO Tips and Content Optimization
In this article, i will share some basic and new SEO tips which can help improve your SEO performance through content and keyword gap analysis and optimization, competitor benchmarking, backlink analysis, repurposing your content and how to handle Google Algorithm changes and page drops.
Content is (Still) King:
Tip 1: Get more Organic Traffic from your existing Webpages by covering subtopics that Google wants to see.
How: Do a Content Gap Analysis
Audit your Competitor’s Content, reverse engineering Quora and other platforms to find low competition keywords is an uncommon, yet highly effective tactic.
Idea: Going for keywords that appear in the top SERP is a quick-win that can give your SEO keyword research a practical and implementable boost.
You can use a tool like Keywords Everywhere – Keyword Tool which is a Google Chrome Extension, which helps out a lot with your keyword research. See below.
– How: Do a backlink audit using the page URL to find top-performing pages that generate the most traffic for them
– Use a filter to find specific keywords related to your topic.
– Keyword planner can analyze the keyword density on a page. Focus on: Relevance, Monthly Volume, Competition (CPC) and Position.
Look at the top pages for the related questions and see If you feel you have a better answer to the already existing answers. Then post your answer and a relevant link from your website.
Tip 2: Keyword Analysis Focus on Search Intent
Avoid keyword unicorns, focus on intent first (high search volume isn’t always converted to clicks). This is especially important for medium to small businesses that would like to maximize their budget and compete effectively within their budget.
Ask yourself these 3 questions:
- Do people searching for this likely have intent to buy what I have?
- Can I convert this traffic into leads?
- Is there enough search demand to make it worth creating and promoting?
Add Modifier Keywords to your Base Keyword Top Modifiers:
- Best
- Top
- Buy
- Current Year
Tip 3: Monitor your Competitors Backlinks and steal them!
Set up an alert for new backlinks to your competitor sites, if your page has a better response (refer to Tip 3 list), and reach out to the author with your better resource.
N.B! Make sure the referral is fresh and your content beats your competitors.
Tip 4: Repurpose Your Best Content:
When you repurpose your content you can expand your reach on multiple platforms with a wider audience.
Turn your best performing content into:
- An infographic
- Podcast
- Video Marketing
- Map
- Slideshare presentation
- Use your own surveys with email subscribers and social media followers.
- Gather seemingly Mundane Data and make it interesting (Infographic, Video or Map)
- Include case studies and stats on your website (Stats build trust and page authority).
Google January 2020 Core Update
Many SEO’s are starting to fall into the Google Algorithm despair trap.
The fundamentals still remain the same, Google has assuaged our concerns and confirmed that the recent January 2020 Broadcore Update will pretty much work the same way as other updates.
Here is Google’s official acknowledgment of the update:
What the Google January 2020 Core Update Means:
Google makes hundreds of algorithm changes per year, you may have heard of (Penguin, Panda, Pigeon, Fred, etc.) are implemented to address specific faults or issues in Google’s algorithms.
Google’s algorithms have between 200 and 500 ranking factors and signals, these are intended to improve the user experience of searchers, who are Google’s most important stakeholders.
What this means is that Google has slightly changed the priority, order, weights, or values of these signals.
How To Recover from an Update
Before you press the panic buttons, a drop in ranking may mean that Google is adjusting the SERP to prioritize the webpages that answer the search queries the best!
What can you do?
Keep focusing on:
- User intent.
- Quality content.
- Clean architecture.
- Google’s guidelines.
Make sure that you are constantly optimizing the basics like, Onpage and Offpage optimization, optimize for speed and invest in creating good, high-quality content that responds to users’ needs more effectively.
Focus on building trust by sharing actionable and accurate stats, that will build your brand’s authority.
