SEO has never been more important if you want to put your business in front of a global audience, but how do you do it? Well, for starters you need to familiarize yourself with the basics.
Then you need to understand the specifics of your industry and niche. And lastly, you need a plan that pulls it all together. It may sound easier said than done, but we’ve pulled together everything you need to know to get started.
If you want to avoid common mistakes like these, then you’re going to want to pay attention to the following wise words
1. Localize your keywords every step of the way
Keywords are the backbone of any SEO campaign, but it’s all too easy to get obsessed with them. Before we talk about how to localize them, here’s a few common mistakes you need to avoid:
- Going for highly competitive words like ‘Christmas present’ or ‘Free home delivery’ — the competition have been targeting these phrases for a decade
- Mistaking words you want in your copy for effective keywords. Plenty of people will think that if they add in words like ‘value,’ ‘quality,’ and ‘discount’ that this will make a difference to their ranking. It won’t
- Using outdated keywords that have fallen out of fashion
Now that we’ve covered that we can turn our attention back to localization. Imagine if you’re a plumber looking to advertise your services. It’s no good to you if you generate leads with people on the other side of the country. By simply adding your town or region to the keyword you can become highly targeted when it comes to your web copy.
2. Find an expert you can trust who will give you guidance
This one may sound a little surprising given that we want you to stay to the end and read our article, but we need to say it nonetheless. If you want to really get your SEO campaign up and running, an expert will be worth their weight in gold. By all means, familiarize yourself with the basics, but don’t think that you can have the same impact as a professional.
3. Use CSS to optimize your HTML page code
This is where things start to get technical, and that expert we highlighted the need for would come into their own. SEO is about so much more than your keywords. In essence, all it really comes down to is a ranking of how relevant your material is. If your pages are slow to load and buggy then they’re going to be of less interest to a browser than a website with identical content that loads instantly.
4.Text links make it easy for everyone to navigate
Image links and other fancy techniques might look great to you, but they don’t do the best job of signposting browsers and search engines. 99 times out of a 100 the best thing to do is keep it simple at all costs. That way you’ll have an easy-to-navigate webpage that ranks highly, informs the browser, and ultimately generates leads and conversions.
5. Introduce a sitemap so Google can see everything nice and clearly
If the best writing companies or best law firms told you how to do something in their respective fields you would sit up and take notice, and so the same goes for SEO. Any expert who knows what they’re talking about will be confused as to why so few sites have accessible sitemaps. They’re a quick and easy way to show your users and browsers around, and they’re also a great way to improve your website’s overall footprint when it comes to Google’s crawlers. Give it a little thought, come up with a simple and intuitive layout, and then get it up there live as quickly as you can.
6. Only use relevant, high-quality links on your pages
Linking to irrelevant or outdated material is a surefire way to make your website less useful to people who find it. The less useful it is the lower it will rank, and no injection of fresh keywords or images is going to reverse the trend. Compiling a database of links you connect to on external sites is a great way to ensure they get checked and reviewed periodically. It’s all about being proactive, so if you can, appoint someone to take ownership of this aspect of your site.
7. Make sure you don’t cut corners on your web hosting
If you opt for a cheap hosting service, then you’re not going to have much say about the other sites that are on the same server. They could well turn out to be sites that Google doesn’t look favorably on, which will leave a black mark against your site in terms of how relevant Google will think it is to a large volume of searches. There’s no definitive way to characterize this aspect of your SEO efforts, but it’s certainly worth some close attention.
8. Create content people actually care about
This is a point we think should be on every SEO article, and it’s probably the most important one on the list. Don’t chase rankings for the sake of it: have something to say when people eventually find you. If you rank really well but only offer a keyword-stuffed page of slogans and jargon, no one is going to stay and read it.
9. Submit your site details to the search engines
This is such a simple thing to do that the subheading says it all really. If you can signpost your site to the search engines then they’re a little more likely to find you. It’s not going to change your fortunes in a day, but it is worth doing when you consider that everyone else has probably already done it.
10. Use analytics to home in on a winning strategy
Last but not least, you need to be leveraging the power of analytics if you really want to get to grips with things. It’s no use changing things and then crossing your fingers. You need to be using your analytics to get an insight into the changes you’re really able to drive.
Final Thoughts
Now that you’ve heard all about how to optimize content for your SEO campaign it’s over to you to put our wise words into action. Take your time, be patient, and don’t expect instant results. Everyone is online these days, which means competition in the search engine rankings has never been more fierce. By avoiding common mistakes, adopting a proven approach, and not expecting instant results you’ll be able to home in on a winning strategy that works wonders in your niche.
About the Author: Daniela McVicker
Daniela is a passionate digital marketer. Daniela is interested in everything related to SEO and blogging. She collaborates with many websites where she shares her experience and helps marketers make their name in the online world.