How to Create a Successful SEO Strategy
As far as the basics of a solid SEO strategy go, creating high-quality content and a high domain authority link profile is fundamental to the success of any SEO campaign.
Diversity
It is better to receive high domain authority and industry-specific links from a wide range of websites rather than many links from a single website. This promotes better rankings, and therefore traffic and leads.
Let’s take a look at what makes a poor link by these definitions:
A poor link will:
– Come from a spammy website which takes a “quantity over quality” approach
– Be gained simply for the sake of getting a link, not based on relevance to your topic material or industry
– Come from the same domain as another link you gained previously
Furthermore, Google has zero allowance for spam-filled websites. One of the most commonly- made mistakes in creating a strong link profile, is the fact that many SEO professionals adopt the link is a link mindset when their rankings are better served by adding fewer, higher-quality backlinks with direct relevance to the anchor text and industry of their websites.
What does a good link look like?
Let’s take a look at what makes a good link.
When it comes to acquiring high domain authority and industry-specific links, there are several points which most SEO professionals will agree with.
A good link will:
– Come from an authoritative and industry-specific resource
– Have high domain authority, a good amount of existing backlinks and referring domains, high traffic value, and a good AHREFS (my preference, other tools available as well) score.
Improved content
A natural way of gaining links is to create exceptional content for blogs or pages on your website. If you can create content capable of making you an authoritative source online, over time other website owners will approach you for links, which is actually an excellent way to build up your link profile. This is an extremely time-consuming process, but also one of the best ways to rank your website naturally.
Guest Posting
Guest posting is the process of creating content for another website with the potential to gain a link for yourself in return. This requires building a relationship with website owners to the extent that they are willing to let you post original content on their website. You may not earn a link the first time doing this, but as you develop your relationship with the website owner, the chances of you receiving a strong backlink increase. This is well worth the time if you have truly unique content to share with back-linking prospects.
Social Sharing For Links
Social media is a great way to build and retain a following for a brand or product. Social sharing does not directly affect your link profile, but it is an excellent supplemental approach to create followers, hype and brand awareness.
Creating Optimized Content For A Website
High-quality content creation is fundamental to every SEO strategy. When it comes down to the basics, content is what drives traffic to a website. When it comes to content, there is an overriding theme that every SEO company knows:
“Content is King”
Despite being so well-known as a rule of thumb for SEO strategies, there seems to be a wide variety of beliefs when it comes to what makes bad or good content. Here are six general rules that most people will agree on.
On average, good content:
Content Is Relevant Article’s Title
Good content typically holds direct relevance to its title. Think about what your readers will want to gain from reading your article, and give it to them. One question you should ask is, “If a potential client was searching these terms on Google, what would they want to find?” If you think in terms of user intent, before beginning any content, you will succeed more often than not in producing high-quality content.
Meta Descriptions Should Entice Potential Clients To Click-Through To Your Website
While meta descriptions are limited in terms of their ability to influence ranking on their own. In other words, this is the first time a prospective client will be exposed to you, and this short description of your content may determine whether or not they click-through to your website. It is worth putting some time into thinking about your meta descriptions as it is a chance to sell yourself before your readers even begin viewing your article.
Not Duplicate Content
This goes without saying. If you are simply copying content from other websites and placing it on your website, you will not rank well at all. Originality, quality, and uniqueness are key factors for developing powerful and successful content.
Creates Positive Signals For Google
Google crawls websites on a constant basis, and registers user reactions to search results it provides. If your website shows a high bounce rate, Google interprets this as a signal that most users who clicked through to your site did not find what they were looking for. This reflects negatively upon you, and your website will suffer as a result. This is what it is important to be clear about what your content is meant to achieve.
Feature Natural Keywords
Google has provided criteria for the better ranking potential for search results which effectively reward natural, research-based content. Ensure that your keywords are front and center in your title, utilize H1-H6 (mainly H1-H3) and that they are presented in the body of the content. For example, an article titled “The Best SEO Agency In Minneapolis” might be better suited as “Minneapolis SEO Services” for Google search terms. In the end, just use your keywords in your content as if you were holding a normal conversation with someone.
Engages The Reader And Elicits A Response
The point of high-quality content is to get users to perform an action. Whether you want them to comment on a blog post, to purchase a service or product, or to stay on the website as long as possible to help with your rankings. Your goal as the content creator is to create a piece of content that people will naturally want to take action upon once they have completed reading it. Give your prospective readers what you think they would want. Always try to funnel them towards your end-goal.
Conclusion
Use these 6 tips for creating user-friendly, quality content. This high-quality content will be future-proof allowing you to build your domain authority, grow your website traffic and leads, and reach the ultimate goal of growing your business.
