If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past few years, you must have heard the term SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the strategy that helps businesses, especially eCommerce, grow and thrive.
How to master the art of SEO is a question that haunts some marketing professionals. It is one of the most relevant marketing techniques when implemented correctly. But it can be a nightmare if keywords research and implementation are weak.
The importance of SEO
Gaining visibility and relevance online is the best way to improve profitability and reputation for the time being. No matter what, we need to accept that the world is digitized and the Internet gets more attention by the passing day.
Companies need to be flexible in order to survive, which includes being competitive to stand in the spotlight. Everything you do online, from writing content to keyword researching and creating meta-descriptions, affects the way your website is displayed on search engines.
It may be scary at first, as it determines whether you get potential visitors and customers or not. But once you learn how to master the art of SEO, you will beat the algorithm and increase online traffic by leaps and bounds.
SEO Techniques that Generate Online Traffic and Revenue
Now that we have established that we must implement Search Engine Optimization into our marketing technique, how do we actually do it? Well, here are some proven techniques to help you with this purpose.
Keyword research
It may very well be the most relevant step, the initial move towards creating the best content. Provided that you work on a determined niche, you will have target visitors and customers you want to attract. What do those visitors search on the web? What are the main keywords in their online activities?
One of the most popular, free tools to do keyword research is SEMrush. The developers even offer a guide to researching keywords and making the most out of their service. According to your business or website popularity and ranking, some queries may be more suitable than others. For instance, if your personal blog attracts about ten people a month, you shouldn’t aim to compete in terms of keywords with large sites like Wikipedia.
Link building
Link building is one crucial step that doesn’t quite often get the recognition it deserves. It is the most important step in determining whether your website ranks high or not. Including links to authoritative websites such as Forbes or Wikipedia makes you rank higher.
Here are some case study examples of link building to understand its importance. If several high-quality links lead to one website, search engines such as Google will consider said website relevant. Using good-quality links means that spamming links all over the Internet will not positively impact your website.
Think of it as an academic paper. People can use said paper as a reference for following research and works. The more citations an academic paper gets, the more relevant it is. However, is an essay written by a professor equal to a 12-year old kid’s homework? The answer is no. The same goes for link building. If websites with a good reputation include links to your article or product, rest assured that search engines will notice.
Content creation
Content is the core of any marketing strategy. When learning how to master the art of SEO, writing relevant, well-structured content is a must. A great way to create content and link-build is through guest blogging. It allows you to report on your topic of interest and introduce links to your website. Here are some tips to make the most out of your writing skills:
- Long-form articles. While longer articles rank higher, make sure to avoid fluff content. No one wants to read irrelevant information, and visitors leaving your website in a matter of seconds won’t do your business any good.
- Headings and subheadings. Using subheadings to structure the text is crucial as it eases the reading experience. It also helps the user allocate useful, interesting information.
- Bullet points. Like subheadings, bullet points ease the reading. Furthermore, they constitute a visual relief from long paragraphs.
- Short paragraphs. Related to the previous point, you want to keep paragraphs short and informative. Don’t include blah content, and don’t write endless sentences.
- Stick to 1-2% keyword density. In this case, more is less. If you exceed a 2% keyword density, chances are search engines classify your content as spam. And you know what happens to spam, right?
- Update old articles. We know you are busy creating new, fresh content. But revising old articles from time to time won’t do any harm. Updating its content can, in fact, get you more traffic. Add new keywords or information related to the topic. Build an internal link in a recent article to the older one.
Keep an eye on competitors
Say you want to write about Finance and personal investments. How do you promote your blog? How do you make it relevant? Well, you should definitely check out what your big competitors are doing. Sure, you can get information and keywords from I-love-finances-dot-com. But do they add up?
Forbes is a highly relevant and authoritative website on finance and marketing, for instance. You should pay more attention to what they are doing than smaller businesses online. Remember what we said before about not trying to compete with large websites? That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t grasp their marketing and SaaS SEO strategy. Get some inspiration and then adjust it to your needs.
Social Media Marketing
As discussed earlier, companies need to stay competitive and flexible. Where do most people get information or promote websites? Online, mostly through social media networks.
Building an online audience can be difficult, but it will pay off. Not only do you get to tell your followers anything you want, directing them towards your new article or product, but you also build a connection with them. We are humans, after all – we are social creatures.
Some tips to achieve success on your social media marketing strategy are as follows:
- Create engaging content.
- Ensure that all profiles are properly set up. No one likes poor, messy social profiles. First impressions count, and they will determine whether you get a new follower or not.
- Be active on Twitter. It’s the preferred social platform to get informed and follow trends.
Facebook is also important. Older generations stick to Facebook like there’s no tomorrow. If you want to promote something related to teenagers, you may want to avoid using this platform. But if your target audience happens to be the elderly, go for it.
