Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is about trust. Earning Google's trust through your content should be your utmost priority.
The following 5 points will give you ideas on how to structure your SEO strategy:
1. Keywords
Follow the golden rule. Less is more. Overloading keywords in meta tags and having them appear in too many places within a page is a thing from the past.
Instead, research into how much your keywords are being searched and predict the cost of running campaigns for these terms using the Google Adwords' Keyword Tool. Your chances of success? Hard to say. Understand the demand for the term and/or phrase and plan out the work required to achieve it.
2. On-site Optimization
An ideal optimized web page would include:
- Subject in title tag
- Subject in URL
- Subject in image alt tag
- Specify subject throughout text content
- Link back to category page
- Link back to homepage
- Site map links to all pages
3. Building Credibility
Be present on social media platforms. Brands that don't have exposure with these outlets face being buried under their competitors. Actively engage in your customers to show your expertise. Encourage positive feedback and reviews on your product. And lastly, show real team members. The importance of knowing who is originating content and being the voice behind a company provides a personal touch.
4. Good Content
Writing and posting original content goes a long way. Whether it be text-based, video-based, image-based or in audio format, online marketers should focus their energy on creating, posting and sharing relevant information in the market and ultimately linking the post back to their website. Google algorithms are getting increasingly smarter by penalizing low quality content. So try not to engage in practices that guarantee or promise a certain click through rate and content generation within a short period of time. It will only damage your site credibility and lower your overall ranking.
5. Measuring and Learning Over Time
Seeing results require monitoring search engine analytics and feedback from the market. The organic growth and popularity of a site will become more apparent as different campaigns are put to test and you garner reactions from your followers.
Time to start crafting out a plan!