It is widely acknowledged that an efficient, well-executed SEO strategy is one of the most important aspects of any business in the modern world. Investing in SEO is no longer viewed as a luxury. It has become essential if you want to flourish in today’s competitive marketplace. There are many reasons why your business should invest in SEO, but SEO is a constantly ever-changing beast.
There will always be many thousands of different strategies and options within SEO, which is part of the reason it is such a fascinating subject. However, as with all approaches, it is essential that you focus your time and resources on those strategies that will give you the biggest benefits. At the start of 2018, the following methods will be the essential SEO strategies you should be focusing all of your efforts on.
Content has and always will be central to the success of any website. Content is, after all, the reason people visit your site in the first instance. Users want to gather information, to solve a problem, or to expand their knowledge. Always consider the keywords you are focusing on, and aim to write each piece of content with your reader in mind. Provide lots of opportunities and reasons for other sites to link to you. This is done by including infographics, How-to posts, and informative videos.
The more interesting and informative your content, the more likely people are to recommend it. This not only generates you more links, which are critical to your success but also establishes your company as experts in your field. This will ensure that your visitors return to your site on a regular basis, increasing your reach and influence within your chosen industry. Always remember that every piece of content you write has the potential to generate traffic, backlinks and ultimately sales, so ensure that every article you place on your site is of the highest quality and provides value to the reader.
While it is important to create content on a regular basis, never publish an article that is substandard, solely to keep to a publishing schedule.
Although writing excellent content, as mentioned above, will encourage other sites to link to you. To be successful you need to be proactive in generating as many high-quality, powerful backlinks as possible. This can be quite challenging, but there are many different strategies you can employ to achieve your goals.
Consider writing guest posts for high-quality websites and make yourself available for industry interviews. This will help you establish your credibility as an expert within the industry. A leading SEO company or public relations company will also be able to assist with this process.
A little piece of detective work, using SEO tools such as Majestic SEO, can help you spy on your competitors. Which links have they managed to get? and how did they obtain those links? If you can investigate and find the answers to those questions, you can then implement a similar strategy. This, when coupled with your superior content, should help you to rise within the search engine results.
If you have kept abreast of computer sales figures in recent years, you will be aware that sales of laptops and desktops are plummeting. For many years, it has been increasingly evident that websites are viewed more via tablet or cellphone than via desktop. In fact, statistics now show that the tipping point has been reached. Google has been rolling out updates to their algorithms that are punishing websites that are not optimized for mobile. It should be your number one priority to ensure your website works well on a mobile device. It will enhance your site´s visibility in terms of ranking, and also from your visitor’s point of view.
Remember that reading a web page on a cell phone is an entirely different proposition to that of a desktop, dental marketing experts have been using this to their advantage for years now. Consequently, you need to factor that into your design strategy. Ensure that your site is easy to read and loads quickly without being too data intensive for mobile devices (heard about AMP yet?). With the changes Google is making, it could be argued that this should be on top of the list of essential SEO strategies for early 2018.
The world is made up of people who like to consume content in many ways. Research shows that video is now the preferred method of content consumption and the future of content marketing. Watching someone solve a problem is much more informative and educational than trying to explain the same process through text.
Google acquired YouTube a few years ago and they are trying to create a synergy among its products. It means that the presence of videos on your site could factor in your site’s ranking.
You are also likely to benefit from other sites linking to your videos. Make sure they are high quality and help users solve problems.
At the start of 2018, SEO is more competitive than ever. By following some or ideally all of the above essential SEO strategies you should start to see a boost in your rankings. If done right, your traffic and exposure will grow over time. SEO can be quite technical and time-consuming. So, depending on your personal requirements, it may be more beneficial to speak to real experts and make sure get it right on the first try.
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