SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of optimizing on-page content, technical configuration of web pages, and off-page factors such as link building. SEO enables Google and other search engines to direct relevant traffic to your site through relevant keyword searches. Websites with higher SEO value rank higher on SERP (search engine results pages) which increases organic traffic.
Once you have implemented a basic initial strategy, there are some advanced techniques that can take your SEO to the next level. In this article we will cover the SEO basics then go into advanced techniques, which will benefit your company’s outreach.
What is SEO and why is it beneficial?
Did you know that 68% of online experiences start with a search engine? Of these users, 33% will click on the first result, and only 0.63% of Google searchers will even venture to the second page. SEO is essential to the success of online businesses today and generates 1000% more traffic than organic social media.
When you think of SEO, you probably think of incorporating keywords into your content creation to boost your SERP ranking. While this is part of it, there is much more to the ever-evolving process, so it is essential to stay up-to-date on techniques to ensure your company’s success.
The three main aspects influencing SEO today are:
On-Page SEO
On-page or on-site SEO, which is the process of optimizing web pages to improve SERP ranking and increase relevant organic traffic. To improve on-page SEO, businesses must regularly publish high-quality content on topics pertinent to their industry.
The following are essential components to on-page SEO:
Keyword optimization is more than just putting certain words in your content. It entails researching short-tail (1-3 words) and long-tail (3+ words) that your competitors use, researching their content and creating something better.
Title tags and headers must be utilized to ensure complete SEO optimization. Using [H1] tags for your title and [H2],[H3], etc., for subheadings enables Google to understand the structure of the page. Programs such as WordPress add title tags automatically, but if you need clarification, check the site’s code.
Internal links are excellent for SEO because they allow search engines to index new pages quickly and increase your crawl rate.
External (outbound) links assist Google in figuring out the topic of a page and indicate that your page provides quality information that is beneficial for users, which can improve SEO.
High-quality content is essential to any SEO strategy. Unique, quality content adds value to your target audience and is informative, engaging, and entertaining.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO is all a business’s efforts outside its website to improve its SEO and promote its brand. Off-page SEO has become increasingly more important over the past years and is essential to any marketing plan.
The key components to off-page SEO include the following:
Link building is an excellent way to gain more organic traffic and increase brand awareness. It is also one of the key factors Google considers when determining page ranking. The more high-quality links a website has, the more domain authority it will have.
Content marketing is creating and publishing consistent quality content that is essential to SEO. Some great options include press releases, blogging, and guest posting.
Social media won’t necessarily increase traffic to your site the same way SEO does, but it will raise brand awareness, which is essential to marketing campaigns.
Podcasts are increasingly popular and are an excellent avenue to set companies apart as industry experts.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO consists of aspects that affect a webpage’s functionality and user experience. Ensuring your site is working correctly is essential to a low bounce rate, which can affect SEO and overall user experience.
The key components of technical SEO include:
Page load time, which is how long a website or page takes to load text, images, and videos. This process is affected by page type, server issues, code issues, images, too many plugins, or videos that are not compressed. A page load speed of 0-4 seconds ensures a high conversion and low bounce rates.
Canonicalization is the process of preventing duplicate content issues through the indexing of URLs within search engines. Duplicate content can significantly reduce the SEO value of pages.
XML sitemaps show search engines the relationship between pages and files within a website. An excellent sitemap allows Google and other search engines to crawl your website and new pages quickly and efficiently.
Components of a successful basic SEO strategy include:
Determine your baseline performance and which KPIs you want to monitor and improve
Determining a baseline and which KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) you will monitor is essential when measuring the success of your SEO efforts. The KPIs you select must be based on the needs of your company. Ten options include:
Keyword tracking allows you to monitor your search visibility within Google and other search engines for specific queries. The higher your ranking on SERPs, the more organic traffic you obtain through web searches.
New organic traffic and growth monitors the clicks that come from search engines and does not include paid advertisements. Increased organic traffic leads to increased revenue over time.
Bounce rate is the percentage of users that enter your page, don’t click on anything else, and leave quickly. It is an excellent indicator of whether or not you are targeting relevant traffic, whether your content is interesting to your target audience, and if you need help with page issues.
ROI or Return on Investment is the cost of your investment in SEO divided by the revenue from your investment. It will allow you to determine whether the money you invest in certain types of SEO is worth it. Note: Typically, SEO investments take around 6-12 months to see significant returns.
Domain Authority is a search engine ranking scores that show a website’s domain benchmarked against other domains. Higher domain authority = increased traffic.
CTR is the number of clicks you receive divided by the number of times your site is shown. If you are on the first page of SERPs, your CTR should fall around 20%. If it doesn’t, your content is not engaging enough for your target audience and should be revisited.
Average Page Speed measures the speed it takes your page(s) to load and is an essential part of technical SEO. Low page speed increases bounce rates, lowers your search engine ranking, and negatively impacts user experience and satisfaction.
Conversion Rate is the total users taking a desired action divided by the total visits to your site. Companies use this to calculate the conversion rate of purchases, free trial sign-up, newsletter subscriptions, etc. Unlike ROI, this KPI can be measured right away. It is best to get at least three months of baseline data before utilizing this measurement to track SEO success.
Total Number of Backlinks is one of the best ways to increase your ranking on SERPs and grow organic traffic. Tracking your volume and growth of backlinks will enable you to monitor the success of your link-building strategy and guide future efforts.
Backlink quality is just as important as the quantity. Links from websites with high domain authority will yield the most benefits. In addition, you must monitor for any toxic links. These are links from websites that sell spam links to try to cheat the search engine algorithm. Toxic links will harm your SEO efforts.
Create content and upgrade existing content
Before you start creating new content, ensure you improve upon your current content first. Obtaining high ranking content from new content takes time; however, improved optimization of current content can yield faster results.
There are two main ways to update content. They include:
- Updating content to match current trends and update facts. For example, updating posts from 2022 to 2023 is a way of updating content.
- Utilize performance data to determine striking distance keywords. These are search queries that are triggering impressions on your pages, but you aren’t ranked in the top spot. Once you have these queries you can work to optimize the page and increase their ranking.
Once this process is complete you can move on to keyword selection and new content creation. Aim to create 1-2 new pieces of content each month to remain relevant and increase your likelihood for high domain authority.
Build out topic clusters
Topic clusters are pieces of content that are grouped together by a similar topic and subtopics. They are typically centered around a single topic with several internal links to like topics to keep readers on your page and increase click-through rates. Topic clusters offer full coverage of specific topics so users can satisfy their entire query on your site.
Work to rank for journalist keywords
Ranking high in SERPs for journalistic keywords is an incredible way to build high-traffic backlinks. Journalistic keywords are words that a journalist searches for to satisfy a reference, such as data collection and studies that give accurate statistics.
Fix and Steal 404s
It’s obvious you should monitor and fix any 404s on your site, but did you know that finding a competitor’s 404s can be a link building tactic? Run their domain through a backlink analytics tool and you can obtain a list of all their pages that point to a 404.
From there you can determine what content of yours could take its place, and reach out to link to your content instead.
Analyze your log files
Analyzing your log files gives insight to your crawl budget, determines if and how much is being wasted, helps you to identify when there are crawl errors, and determines which of your pages are not crawled regularly.
Perform master internal linking
Master internal linking is one of the best ways to utilize your pages with high domain authority to optimize your other pages. Simply determine which pages have the most backlinks, which pages have related content, and integrate internal links to the related content within your site.
Optimize Pagination by using dynamic parameters
Don’t let technical SEO issues prevent ideal topics from ranking high! Too often, the crawl budget gets used up too quickly, meaning it can take ages for Google to crawl new pages. To prevent this issue, utilize dynamic parameters for your paginated pages.
For example:
- Old way: https://thewhitgroup.com/topics/page/2
- New way: https://thewhitgroup.com/topics?page=2
These URL patterns make it so search engines spend less time re-crawling pages and indexes new pages instead.
Monitor, optimize and resolve technical issues within your webpage and blog, and focus on technical SEO
Monitor your technical SEO aspects frequently. You want to ensure that when you are releasing new content, it is not affecting your page load speed which would lead to higher bounce rates and lower conversion rates.
Utilize additional link-building strategies that focus on off-page SEO
Link building is an essential component of SEO. In addition to the advanced SEO link building strategies listed above, ensure you also focus on the basics. These strategies will lead to increased organic traffic, brand awareness, and revenue growth. Five link-building strategies with high success rates include:
- Digital PR
Digital PR is the process of creating unique content that is valuable and will interest journalists, then inviting them to utilize your content to add depth and value to their articles.
- HARO Links
HARO, or Help a Reporter Out, links are similar to digital PR because they involve working with journalists; however, the process is very different. For HARO, businesses sign up for emails where journalists can request information that will add value to their articles. These emails are monitored, and when a suitable opportunity arises, you make a concise and informative pitch answering their inquiry. Some will provide a link to your website if they use your information. To track the success of a HARO link strategy, you can set up a Google alert and monitor if and when your content is used and linked.
- Guest Post
Guest posting or blogging involves creating content for a company’s blog within your industry. It is a great way to increase brand awareness and set yourself apart as an industry expert.
- Skyscraper Linkable Assets
Though the skyscraper link-building strategy takes a bit of research and time, it can be highly effective when done correctly. Start by researching content relevant to your company, finding pages with the highest rankings and determining their weaknesses. Then create content that adds value and fills in gaps in the available content. Once the page is complete, contact sites that link to the original content and send them a link to the new content, along with reasons they should link to your page instead.
- Unlinked Mentions
Unlinked mentions are great for brand awareness but add no SEO value. Unlinked mentions include:
- Mentioning your company by name
- Citing you without a link
- Using one of your images
Find your unlinked mentions, determine the site owner, and contact them to turn their mention into a link to your site.
Measure and track KPIs and make changes as needed
The process of SEO optimization is ever-changing, and priorities will change. Ensure you stay up-to-date on SEO best practices and continue to measure your success to adjust your efforts as needed.
Create a plan that enables your company to achieve its goals!
Each company’s approach to SEO will vary based on its goals and resources, but key components must be a part of every plan to ensure success. They include:
- Addressing the three components of SEO – on-page, off-page, and technical
- Utilizing your current content by upgrading existing pages, and utilizing current pages with high domain authority to boost lower ranking pages
- Build out topic clusters to increase click through rates and time spent on your site
- Focus on journalistic keywords first
- Analyze your log files and optimize pagination by using dynamic parameters
- Go back to basics and ensure your link building strategy is effective by continual monitoring of KPIs
Tackling SEO by yourself can be overwhelming and a lot of work. If you’re a business in Jackson, MS we can help with your SEO – click here to find out about our local SEO services. The Whit Group provides website and SEO services to help companies reach their goals. Our SEO services include website audits, offsite optimization, and local SEO. We have the experience and know-how to help you succeed in your SEO efforts. Contact us today for a free SEO analysis.