We all dream of dominating the SERPS. And despite popular opinion, being on page two of the query results doesn't mean you're not interested in publishing great content that solely serves the reader's interest. Sometimes it just means that the industry is highly competitive and it's nearly impossible to outsmart competitors humanly. What to do then? In today's article from Grow Easy Digital Agency, we'll present you with the most comprehensive list of SEO techniques to help you go that extra mile and finally see the ranking results you've always been waiting for.
Tip #1: Use Adwords campaigns to inspire your keyword usage
Since Keyword Planner doesn't always suggest the most innovative keywords, it's always best to look over the fence and see how people in your industry are promoting their products and/or services. It's clear that while they do pay for them, the keywords are very relevant to the targets, so all you need to do is get a fresh perspective on what seems to be performing best in the SERPs.
If you remember semantic associations and the discussion about using synonyms earlier, the reason why these long tail keywords seem to work, even though they aren't necessarily very substantive, is that people are often looking for solutions.
It's enough to define the concept behind the search query to associate it with anything semantically related to it. And if you're short on ideas, AdWords campaigns are always there to lend a hand.
For example, suppose you own a cat food blog, just type "cat food" into Google and you'll find these results:
- Cat food analysis
- Optimizing cat food production
- getting free food
- finding a neighborhood cat food store
All you need to do now is include these newfound long-tail keywords in your further blog posts on your website. Needless to say, this SEO tip is only complementary, so it's probably best not to rely on this method alone for your SEO endeavors.
Tip #2: Use curated content to create in-depth articles that attract
Before any other discussion, publishing duplicate content brings little to no value to readers, which is why not only Matt Cats finds it useless, but so does the search engine and any publisher who's busy creating something better for readers' needs.
Content curation starts with a huge challenge - to write rich information without oversimplifying the facts. Do justice to your audience while offering systematized information that is truly easy to access and actionable.
There are a variety of ways you can curate content. The best way is to elevate the content that currently exists on the web on your specific topic. You can find the best sources with the most documented examples and before you write about all of them in an organized way, perhaps conducting your own analysis would be a great idea.
What's most important when curating content is to try to transform the content you're addressing, as opposed to simply mimicking it.
Tip #3: Get ahead of the game by diversifying your profile with links
Consistent efforts to be memorable in your industry may have provided you with quality links from a few reliable sources. However, while it's not advisable to focus your SEO efforts on search engines, but on being useful to the reader, there is a catch.
The more diverse the (preferably deep) links pointing to your content, the more the search engine will be inclined to believe that you are making an effort to maintain a natural profile for your website.
The sheer volume of links means nothing compared to a robust profile of links coming from authoritative sources and - where possible - a diverse profile. While it's perfectly normal for the majority of links to come from just one type of webpage, it's also recommended that this isn't the only source of your backlinks. Your strategy may focus on getting links from only one source, but exclusivity is a sign of an unnatural profile. The example below shows a natural strategy well implemented.
However, diversifying your backlink profile shows adaptability, especially if it follows a specific strategy and is not done haphazardly.
Tip #4: Diversify your rankings with YouTube descriptions
It's a fact that YouTube videos very often come up on the first page of search results. And the video mammoth isn't going to lose its popularity and influence anytime soon, which leads me to the following question - why not turn this fact to your little advantage?
Video content enjoys great popularity - and you can do it too. Keyword ranking, when it comes down to it, isn't as much of a hassle as it seems. Every time you upload a new tutorial, you can update its content description, which makes a significant contribution to your ranking success.
Shortly after posting the video, with less than 6 thousand views, Brian Dean ranked 4th in a search for "link building" on YouTube. You might think 4th place isn't such a good performance, but considering how mature the SEO niche is and how fierce the competition is, this little SEO tip has gotten him very far with little resources and investment.
Aside from being popular on YouTube, assuming the overall SEO efforts of people in this niche aren't necessarily focused on videos, a well-described YouTube post can get you on the first page of Google results. You can't expect this to work instantly, it's a process - but the investment to results ratio says this strategy is a goldmine.
Tip #5: Publish information-rich content
There's more than one criteria to consider before outlining your content marketing strategy. One of the points we've always found crucial is deciding what amount of information should be specific enough to be relevant, and concise enough to be readable.
It's not enough to think of content as a complex body of information that has to be read in a certain number of minutes. Instead, here are some valid criteria that make an article good:
- Purpose of the content - depending on the information need it satisfies, the content will need to take different forms. For example, something related to news can easily be covered in a short article, while a case study will aim to paint an in-depth picture of an entire situation with its implications;
- the complexity of the subject - it would not be fair to approach something that involves very specific knowledge in a 1,000-word article because it would not be topical enough and would fail to provide all the necessary explanations;
- how knowledgeable your core audience is - tech-oriented and knowledgeable people won't need a whole novel to understand the idea of a particular strategy you are proposing, for example, while beginners in a niche will always benefit from all the explanations you are willing to give;
- the depth of the content - it seems like everything we read is about how everything needs to be in-depth to have a legitimate audience. Actually, this isn't always necessary - depending on the type of audience, the media that enhances the communication process, etc. the content can be on topic and concise. However, in case you have decided to write something substantial with sensitive poignancy and addressing only a particular niche, you should not be expeditious and superficial.
While all of these criteria are valid and should be considered before writing a piece of content, it's also true that - especially on a blog - any article under 1,500 words will be considered too thin for search engines and specialized audiences, with the exception of once-a-year news-related articles, which can sometimes be summed up nicely in 800 words.
Tip #6: Use internal links to spread your page's authority throughout the site
One of the lessons we all learned when we entered the content marketing industry was that internal links can also be a great asset to our site. And while that's true, it's also essential to understand the process by which we can turn them into a tool that helps build hierarchy into our website architecture. Additionally, you'll need to monitor the performance of each page of your website in case changes in strategy are required. For example, if a page is performing better than expected, you might also consider boosting it with meaningful deep internal links to give it a boost in the rankings.
Anchor texts are one of the main characters in this story, and the way we use them sometimes decides whether we've helped our on-page SEO or not. Let's be redundant once again - it's in Google's best interest to provide relevant results. Search engine trickery is something that not only rarely seems to work, but is also short-lived. That's why we're going to suggest a no-tricks policy - use anchor texts naturally to keep them relevant - just like you would if you didn't have Big Brother establishing your rankings.
The second main character in this complex story of internal links is deep links. Typically, the more contextually you connect, the more relevant that internal connection is. And that's good not only for the search engine, but also for readers. Keeping links natural gives readers a positive and meaningful experience. Relate content to other relevant articles on the topic or - when necessary - to a closely complementary topic that adds perspective.
Tip #7: Create an expert summary to promote your blog
The internet age is the context in which influencers have something to say - and they always seem to elicit a high response rate. Bringing them together in the same place can produce extraordinary results. Think of it this way - you organize an event, for example a concert. If the headline act is a great band, your chances of getting more people to the event increase. However, if you turn it into a festival and bring together 7 bands that are as popular as the headline act, you will have many more attendees at your event.
Of course, they won't be exactly 7 times the original number of attendees - because they have some common interests, which means you can only add to the number of readers who represent a specific difference between one expert and another. Even under these conditions, however, the results can be impressive.
The following example is no exception. An article gathered over 40 experts to give their opinion on content marketing, and easily made over 8 thousand shares.
It's a win for the author of the post, who sparked a large number of page views, while at the same time becoming a bit more popular after contacting the experts by reaching out to them via email. And it's also a win for the reader whose interest is honored in this post - it gives specific, concise and valuable information on how to grow your blog.
Tip #8: Create a mobile-friendly site to boost your rankings
The same keyword or topic performs differently on the web and on mobile devices. The fact that the popularity of mobile searches is increasing dramatically because - let's face it - desktops are less dynamic than smartphones, hence the growing preference for the latter category.
While in theory this just means we have adaptive mechanisms to help us cope with the flooding amount of information we encounter every day, for SEO professionals it also means something else. Optimizing a site for mobile is a key factor in ranking on mobile, especially since 72% of smartphone owners think they're more likely to revisit a website if it's mobile-friendly.
User experience is becoming increasingly important as it is one of the deciding factors in your traffic numbers. And since it's equally important for search engines to provide a satisfactory experience as it is for users to have one, the screenshot above was taken on Google's developer mobile compatibility test, especially since it's one of the ranking factors in Google's algorithm.
Tip #9: Use infographics to increase visibility
Brevity often draws audiences in more than anything else. That's why infographics, while visually pleasing, draw people in through their brevity, providing a website with a much higher engagement rate than regular content.
According to the infographic published by Neomam, 99% of sensory information is filtered out of our brains due to overstimulation, meaning that only 1% of what is presented to us actually gets a proper chance, while 90% of the information we come into contact with is processed through visual stimuli.
And if what you're thinking right now is that you might not want to hire a full-time designer to do this work, you don't need to be an Illustrator expert to find free websites that let you create your own infographics. One of these inspiring sources is Canva, which provides great default layouts for infographics.
Another great place to turn to when you need to customize an infographic layout to make it fit your site's design is Easel.
This doesn't mean that all of your information needs to be conveyed in the form of infographics, but this tip should be taken into consideration given the greater memorability of visually conveyed information.
Tip #10: Increase traffic by updating old content and sharing it on social media
It's often not worth spending so much time thoroughly documenting a piece of content, only to see it get lost in the avalanche of content online. The first content writers who decided to update their already documented content instead of working on another piece from scratch were clearly under the same impression as we are today.
And that's useful not just in terms of traffic - though that's the main benefit around this SEO tip - but also in terms of link building. You've already worked to make a piece of content specific enough to be relevant to the niche and get quality backlinks. Start here.
Take Sugarrae's example below. Updating old content to match Google's algorithm changes is a smart move for anyone in the SEO business, especially since it can drive significant traffic using less effort than it takes to write an article from scratch.
The big advantage is that once you've written on the topic, you know how interested people are in reading about it - giving you leverage to update the content that brought in the most traffic when it was first published. Of course, it goes without saying that the content will also need to be relevant and up-to-date, while keeping the user's interests in mind.
Tip #11: Optimize your website for better page indexing
An important part of the SEO process, though few talk about it, is on-page strategy. The reason it is so rarely approached is not due to a lack of importance, but the fact that it is much easier to implement than off-page strategies, in part because it doesn't involve any external factors.
In this situation, use appropriate headings and descriptions. The easier they are to read, the more relevant they become to crawlers. It is essential that the naming process takes into account the topic and structure of the content, as well as the direction of the topic. The structure of URLs should be clear and use a permalink to be both memorable by readers and accessible to crawlers.
Descriptions are what show up in search results - a short 150-word summary of the content. Properly advertising the page dramatically increases the chances of accessing it and reading as much information from it as possible.
Since formatting is sometimes what sells content, it's also crucial that it's structurally clear - everything from quotation marks, underlines, bolding and italics can contribute to readers spending more time on your website - not to mention proper headings and subheadings with H1, H2, H3 attributes, etc.
Images are another important factor and they can be optimized too. From reducing their size to make them load more smoothly, to using ALT tags to describe their content so it's relevant to the crawler - there's nothing to miss.
For example, the file name of an image matters almost as much as the image itself - giving it a descriptive name that helps bots understand what it contains increases its chances of appearing organically in Google's results in the images section.
Tip #12: Use influencer marketing to formulate your content marketing statements
A significant amount of traffic comes from organic searches - that's why we're so careful about our search engine marketing. For example, getting 77 comments on a blog post is a pretty good achievement, backed up by the fact that expert opinions have been shared and included in the article.
However, it would be naïve and counterproductive to ignore the importance of other factors in this very complex formula of success, one of which is influencer marketing.
Micro-celebrities or, as they are called in marketing terms, influencer marketers are very popular people in their own micro-niche who represent a standard of quality and professionalism. Targeting them to spread your content on social media not only brings in new traffic, but also generates an implicit association mechanism through which some of their image capital is transferred to you.
The truth is, starting from the premise that no business can survive online without serious story implication, influencer marketing can be of great help in reinforcing your stories.
There's nothing easy about getting an influencer to want to share the wisdom you're spreading on social media platforms - and that's partly because the moment he shares or retweets something of yours, you automatically get a huge boost in credibility AND he's aware of it.
However, the key to impressing influencers enough to share your stories is to be personal and get them to relate to your experiences - show the human side that you think they would like to relate to.
Tip #13: Engage with influencers who have recently mentioned you online
It's almost physically painful to try to keep in touch with everyone who has mentioned you online - it requires constant monitoring and a huge amount of time. However, there are tools you can use to monitor your brand to immediately see who is talking about you on the web right now.
Type in your brand name and see what's been happening on the web while you've been busy writing great content - get instant feedback on how you're performing and what people in the industry think about you meeting their competitive requirements.
In the last month, there have been 34 mentions of our brand - many of which did not contain a link to our website. Connecting with the authors of the posts in person not only creates a huge networking opportunity, but also presents a great opportunity to build relationships - especially because everyone appreciates a fast professional.
Tip #14: Make multimedia part of your content and increase engagement
There are a variety of statistics to support visual marketing, especially as part of the overall multimedia marketing trend. And while many marketers are still reluctant to give in to these trends, the numbers should at least make us take note:
While only 10% of information is generally remembered after just 3 days of reading it online, accompanying content with an image increases that number to 65%, making a content strategy even more effective, according to this article;
Relevant images increase the number of views of a piece of content by 94%, as we find in this Kissmetrics blog post;
Syndacast predicts that 74% of all web traffic - that's three quarters! - will come from videos in 2017;
Infographic content is shared and tweeted 3 times more on social media compared to classic content, according to this Massplanner blog post;
Facebook posts that have images perform 2.3 times better than those without images, as this Buzzsumo article shows.
Don't be afraid to be bold when it comes to integrating video - it can take you far. When this fake bungee jumping experiment first appeared, just including it in a post could guarantee thousands of reads. The visuals are engaging!
However, given that visuals should be the sidekick to great content, we always suggest high-quality articles before establishing to what extent you'll use this tip!
Tip #15: Link out - Use authoritative opinions to back up your claims and gain credibility
It's not wrong unless you're doing it wrong. Basically, linking to a high authority, even with a "rel=nofollow" tag, tells the crawler that you are mostly interested in providing quality information from credible sources, thus keeping the readers' interest on top of your blogging business.
In this regard, it's very relevant to think of domain ownership as one of the key factors in establishing its authority (assuming you're not using some tool to provide you with information on this) - a .org webpage, for example, will give away from the TLD that it covers a social interest, not just a commercial one.
SEO practitioners often believe that the most important source of ranking success lies in being associated with high performing websites with good authority. However, while this is a place to start, a search engine marketing strategy should always go deeper and take into account all the micro-techniques of SEO. After all, it is the extra mile that makes the difference.
Conclusion
While there are hundreds of criteria on which search engine ranking algorithms are based, the best key to success is to do a little bit of everything, always keeping the reader's best interest in mind.
However, we're not at all implying that this list of SEO techniques is all you can do to boost your website's performance. So, what is it that makes you so creative that you would like to share?
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