What to Include in Your SEO Strategy

Nowadays, search engines are where consumers and businesses are introduced to one another. When you have a spot claimed on the first page of the SERPs, you will start to see an influx of traffic, which will then generate more sales and revenue for your business.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial to the success of modern businesses, regardless of industry and size. To help you develop a better understanding of SEO and how you can implement proper growth tactics, here’s a brief guide on what to include in your strategy:

An Overview of SEO Basics

Before we jump into the details, let’s review a few key points about SEO. If you have yet to optimize for search engines, you may assume a similar approach can be taken for each one. This is an incorrect assumption. There are no identical sites, which means that each site will require a customized SEO strategy for the best results.

Any SEO professional will tell you that it’s necessary to observe competitors with similar business models, as will we. However, we also believe in adapting your strategy to your own business rather than replicating that of the competition. There is no one-size-fits-all SEO strategy, and even your competitor will be selling something slightly different to someone slightly different.

A fine-tuned SEO strategy that’s constantly tweaked when needed will ensure that your efforts yield a favorable return. It’s important to be adamant about tracking the progress of your strategy. After all, the SEO landscape is always changing and you need to adjust accordingly. Tools such as Google Analytics and comprehensive services like Ranked can ensure you’re always on the cutting edge.

Now that we’ve gone over a few key SEO points to remember, let’s move on to the actual list of things you need to include in your SEO strategy:

1 - Content Management

A good SEO strategy starts and ends with clear, concise content. If what you put on your site isn’t providing value to readers, why include it at all? Low-quality content is irrelevant, disorganized, or plagiarized from another site. Search engine algorithms will eventually find it and penalize you, which could result in a rank drop. It’s possible to recover, but you’ll be fighting an uphill battle. We always recommend that you play it safe by only publishing valuable, meaningful, and original content.

2 - Website Optimization

If your site is slow and unresponsive, any visitors you get will quickly leave without taking any action. This is referred to as a “bounce.” If your site has a high bounce rate, Google will quickly understand that users don’t like your site. And whatever the users don’t like, Google will take down from the first page.

3 - Content Marketing

Knowing how to produce content is one thing, and marketing that content is quite another. You need to know who your content is created for and how best to promote it so that your site can consistently generate organic traffic.

4 - Local SEO

You can’t expect your business to grow internationally if your local communities don’t know you exist. From the first stage of your search engine optimization efforts, give local SEO the attention it’s due. This makes it easier for your business to scale up from a solid foundation.

5 - Authority Building

Site trustworthiness is a critical factor for Google, and it can be built using a network of backlinks from authoritative sites. Just as a verbal endorsement from a trusted friend will entice you to check out a brand, so will a citation from a well-known site. Put enough effort into backlinks building and watch your rankings rise!

Conclusion

And there you have it—a short SEO checklist that will help you set a solid foundation to ranking success. Now, all you have to do is actually bring these elements into your SEO strategy. It’ll require consistency and quite a bit of attention, but you’ll be able to slowly scale the ranks!

To expedite growth, we recommend working with an experienced SEO service provider like Ranked. As a trusted partner to over a thousand other small businesses, we succeed when you succeed! Activate your account today!

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