Many SEO strategies have changed quite a bit over the years. Usability and the mobile experience have become more significant elements in the last five years. Earlier, they weren’t actually part of the ranking algorithm on Google or other search engines. However, many clients and counterparts in the SEO and web development space treat these metrics as if they are the only ones that matter.
More than anything, content is still king, and always will be. Google has stated that even if a website has a horrible design and a cluttered user experience, it can still rank first if it has far superior content.
Just because these other trends account for only 20 to 30 percent of the ranking factor doesn’t mean you should ignore them. When you compete for highly competitive search terms, these can make a difference that can lead you to page one. This is especially true if your competitors already match your quality with content and links, and you’ve maximized your advantage on those top factors.
Many small businesses still trust or prefer to use more “black hat” SEO tactics for two main reasons: speed and cost. Black hat SEO techniques can be attractive to small and medium-sized businesses because they can provide faster boosts than if the rules are followed. But as fast as the urge came, it will go away.
Six Strategies for Effective Long-Term SEO
Effective Long-Term SEO Strategies may look expensive at first. While considering pay per click, print, TV it is much lower cost per acquisition for getting results. There are a host of viable SEO strategies available to employ in 2021. Here are six steps to successful SEO that are highly effective and my personal favorites.
1. Perform competitive analysis
Keep in mind with SEO that your location is relative; there is no absolute location on search engine results pages. You simply need to analyze what your competitors are doing: Where are they getting the links from? What kind of sites? How long have these links been around? You need to perform it as well or better.
What about your content? How deep is your research on various topics and how large is your semantic web? Your site’s vocabulary on these topics should be a bit more extensive. This applies to all SEO metrics.
2. Start small
Pick the least competitive key phrases, and then work your way up. Many tools, including SEMrush and Wordtracker, can help with long-tail keyword research (and regular keyword research). It may seem counterintuitive, but with SEO, it’s best to target location and traffic for less competitive search terms (usually the longest multi-word phrases, also known as “long tail”) before trying the more competitive ones. The idea is to get users to your site in the short term and get the ball rolling.
3. Make use of structured data
When you Google cookie recipes and see a recipe carousel appear before actual search results, those rich snippets are from websites that provide Google with special markup, in the Schema.org format, called structured data. This is how Google knows that it is a recipe and not just propaganda about the kitchen.
Ten years ago, Google was just a web results list without these carousels and accordion elements. Now most of the first page of a Google search query is snippets, carousels, and accordions (expandable items) that are provided with structured data. It is important to describe everything on your website (products, videos, reviews, etc.) using JavaScript Object Notation or JSON. This is how you can get more visibility when Google knows the intent of the search engine.
4. Get creative
If you have developers, try creating widgets or badges that link to your site and that customers, vendors, or affiliates can put on their websites. This is an excellent and legitimate link building technique that can result in exponential growth in the right situations.
5. Start blogging
Having blog content on your site is especially helpful if you have an e-commerce website. When you’re trying to get other sites to link to you, it’s easier to get them to link to a blog post than to an ecommerce store; seems less “spammy” to them and their users. And please don’t use content rotation, using software to modify your article enough to fool Google into thinking it’s a separate article, or similar tricks to generate content. These tricks are will not helpful for real users and therefore not good for SEO in the long run.
6. Consider guest posting
Another suitable way to increase new visitors is guest posting on other blogs. Then you can post content that links to your website or blog. Just make sure that the content you write is rich, original and authentic and that the site where you post is reputable. Please note that you are creating the content, you need to do the following:
• Provide information that real humans would find helpful. (Would complete strangers link to it from your sites because they found it informative?)
• Be original. (Can everything be found on another website?)
• Be authentic. (Are you giving the pros and cons and being as neutral as possible on the subject?)
Just remember that none of this matters if you don’t track all of your key SEO metrics over time and relative to your competitors. Follow-up is key.
By employing the above white hat techniques, my clients have enjoyed years of consistent SEO growth without suffering the major drops in search results that many complain about when Google makes a major update, and they haven’t suffered a manual penalty either. Writing at the expert level, researched and in depth has yielded considerable benefits, and major websites link to the material. The formula may change a bit, but the road to successful SEO is still paved with solid content.
