What is the secret to good SEO? Most of the business tycoons will yell “money” without missing a beat. To the extent that is true, but not always. How do account for the new ventures that are mushrooming up on the first page of Google SERPs? They do not have much money to throw at reputed SEO agencies. They do not have money for hiring a team of in-house managed IT guys either! So how are they making it? Is it black magic? Is it gambling? Alternatively, is it simply luck?
We say it is nothing of those. It is smart, calculated strategies from a good Search Engine Optimization Firm, which approach search engine optimization in a rather wholesome manner.
Here’s something the companies successfully leveraging SEO do not do –
Falling for the “flavor of the month”
Come on guys, its Google SEO, not Baskin Robbins! We know there are hundreds of agencies out there who think they are great at reverse engineering Google algorithm and acing at the SEO game. However, that is definitely not how it works.
You want Google to send you all the traffic, make sure your website is interesting enough for both Google and your readers. Before thinking about SEO keywords, think about the quality of your content. Create long-form content that is unique, grammatically correct and not a rewritten piece from the early 2000s. If you have no fresh ideas, check what your competitors are doing. Conduct more studies, ask experts and share your insights.
The keyword game
Once you have a 1400-1700 word content, you have a strong theme. Now look for the keywords and incorporate them naturally into the content. Do not make it look artificial and stuffed. Google bots dislike nothing more than keyword stuffing. Avoid “Stop Words” as much as possible in the title, URL, alt tags and meta tags.
Ranking formulas from the house of Google are top secret. There is no way one agency can guarantee you the #1 place within a fortnight. There is no string any new SEO company can pull to get you in the “good books” of Google.
Here’s a concise guide to SEO marketing for almost all startups and small businesses –
Start with a good SEO plugin
Any website that has an excellent SEO plugin automatically has the edge over its competitors who do not. Now, if you are already working with WordPress, that is great. These open source website builders have scores of SEO plugins that can help you out. This reminds us of Yoast SEO plugin from WordPress. Not only does it help you optimize website content, but it also helps you with it’s up to date blogs about Google’s recent trends, keyword selection and a myriad of other topics. Plugins will help you keep your blog and your site neat, clean, easy to crawl and free of buggy codes.
Carve out a niche for yourself
Most blogs try to stay trendy, and they end up losing their vision of what they want to convey. You should start with your theme and find out relevant keywords on your theme. Do not randomly start looking for high performing keywords and then build around them. You will end up with content that is irrelevant. This will draw in the wrong crowd, who have no interest in what you do, what you are offering and what’s on sale.
Integrate social media
Social media and social network are two very different things. The social network does not have a direct contribution to your search rankings. However, social media has quite a bit of say in it. For example – Google“Beyoncé” or “Chris Patt” along with news and Wikipedia pages, you will see their Twitter and Instagram pages pop up within the top 10 search results.
Always have a social media-sharing plan. Share your recent posts, blogs, and products via your authorized business profile. You will get a dedicated followership who will find your website, and this will contribute to organic traffic. This is how social media contributes to SEO.
Perform analytics on a regular basis
If you are thinking of surviving online, you are already spending quite the lion’s share of that budget on SEO. Wouldn’t you like to know, how your website is performing after you make the changes?
Google Analytics is the best tool to start off the analytical and reporting stages. Use Page Insights to find out which page is contributing to more traffic and how some pages may be slowing you down. Invest more on pages that are already contributing to a significant chunk of your organic traffic.
Once you can get a grip on your website performance, the rest of your SEO will automatically fall in place. SEO is not only for the wealthy. Even startups can have their share of fame by following these easy steps.
Author bio: James Hutton is an SEO analyst. He has been working with the leading Search Engine Optimization Firm in the city for the last six years.
