Knowing Your Audience

One of the best things about SEO? It’s laser-focused. Instead of blasting your message to anyone and everyone, you zero in on the exact words and phrases your target audience is searching for. This means your content reaches the people who actually care about what you’re offering. No one wants to be that annoying company spamming the internet trying to reach everyone. Focus on the right people, and you’ll avoid that cringe-worthy reputation.

To nail keyword research, start by understanding what your audience actually wants. Think about the phrases they’d type to find products or services like yours. Then, fire up tools like Google Ads Keyword Planner to see which ones are actually getting the most action.

Next, stalk your competitors. Find out which keywords are driving their traffic and figure out how to one-up them. Tools like SEMrush and Screaming Frog are gold for this – they’ll help you spot gaps and key phrases you can steal. Don’t forget to check their Similarweb rankings too; it’s a solid way to measure their popularity and, ultimately, how you stack up.

Keyword Ranking? Difficulty? What’s the difference?

Keyword ranking and keyword difficulty are two key SEO concepts that, while related, focus on different things. Here’s the breakdown:

Keyword Ranking:
This is where your website stands in search engine results when someone types in a specific keyword. For example, “ranking #3 for keyword X” means your page is in the third spot on Google. The higher you rank, the more traffic you get. SEO’s goal? Get your pages to the top positions, where the clicks are.

Keyword Difficulty:
This measures how difficult it is to rank for a particular keyword. A high difficulty score means stiff competition, while a low score suggests an easier win. Difficulty is influenced by factors like the number of competitors in the game, their content quality, and their backlinks.

To sum it up: Keyword ranking tells you where you stand, while keyword difficulty tells you how hard it’ll be to get there. Both matter when choosing which keywords to target and optimizing your strategy to climb the ranks.

Time to E-E-A-T!

Mastering E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) will remain a cornerstone of SEO success. This framework, which Google uses to evaluate content quality, is designed to assess how well a site or page demonstrates credibility, expertise, and trust. 

Let’s break down each component of E-E-A-T:

Experience (E)

This pertains to the level of knowledge and skill demonstrated by the content creator or website. Google wants to see content produced by individuals or organizations with genuine experience in their respective fields.

Expertise (E)

While outwardly seemingly quite simile to the ‘Experience’ part of the equation, ‘Expertise’ is gauged by the level of qualification the creator has on a particular subject area. For example, do they have accreditations or a significant body of work in the sector?

Authoritativeness (A)

Authoritativeness focuses on the perceived authority or influence of the content creator or website. It considers factors like reputation, industry recognition, and the overall standing in the online community. High-quality backlinks from reputable sources can contribute to establishing authority.

Trustworthiness (T)

Trustworthiness assesses the reliability and credibility of the information provided. It’s about ensuring that the content is accurate, transparent, and sourced from reliable, verifiable origins.

While all four elements are important, Trust  is the most crucial factor. Google’s algorithms prioritize content that shows strong E-E-A-T, especially when it comes to sensitive topics that can affect user safety, such as Health or Finance – referred to as  YMYL  (Your Money or Your Life) topics. To ensure these standards are met, Google also relies on  search quality raters  who evaluate whether content aligns with these E-E-A-T principles. Content that excels in these areas is more likely to rank higher, making E-E-A-T a vital focus for content creators aiming to thrive in Google Search.

Your on-page SEO optimization strategy checklist

While creating high-quality content is elusive, you can follow a few simple rules to boost your SEO score.

These include:

1. Page titles
   Your page title should be unique for every site page and must be different from its heading.
2. Use unique meta descriptions
   Using unique meta descriptions for every site page will improve your SEO score. Both Page titles and meta descriptions are in the <head> section of your website.
3. Headings
   You should have one heading per page, each incorporating the </h1> HTML tag. Also, if you want to learn more about using HTML to boost your SEO score and increase traffic, check out this helpful article.
4. Use unique keywords
   Try to use unique and carefully selected keywords for every site page, ensuring not to overstuff them with popular words and phrases.
5. Incorporate keywords in headings, URLs, page titles, and meta descriptions
   Search engine algorithms favor this approach as it helps them to find the most relevant sites for users. Thus, use keywords you think your target audience will commonly search for.
6. Optimize your images
   This involves several techniques, including formatting your images correctly, making them a decent size, and naming them with concise and relevant descriptions. You should also try to incorporate keyword-rich image names. For more information on optimizing your images for SEO purposes, look at this helpful guide.
7. Consider using emojis
   It is quite wild and also easy to forget that web users can use emojis in search engine bars. However, if your target demographic is young and tech-literate, it may be worth incorporating emojis in your content to boost SEO efforts. For more help on emoji use, head to Search Engine Journal.

Your technical SEO checklist

SEO isn’t just about cramming in keywords and posting high-quality content. Search engines also reward websites that offer a great user experience, and that’s where technical SEO comes in. Want to boost traffic with the technical side of SEO? Here are the key factors to focus on:

1. Site speed
   If your website is slow to load, it will drop down the SERP rankings. To address this issue, try removing everything on your site that slows it down. This could include high-resolution images, for example, or large video files. You can test your site speed for free on sites such as Pingdom.
2. Install an SSL certificate
   Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology creates encrypted links between web servers and browsers, improving security for web users. SSL sites can be easily spotted as their URLs start with ‘https://’ rather than the standard ‘http://’. Therefore, installing an SSL certificate is particularly important if you own an e-commerce site.
3. Look out for broken links and redirections
   Your site will move down the SERP rankings if it includes broken links or redirections. In this way, it is important to check that your web links are working regularly. You can check whether your site contains redirections with this tool.
4. Mobile responsiveness
   Ensuring that your website works on various devices, including mobiles and tablets, is an important aspect of Search Engine Optimization. Especially because people are increasingly using these devices in favor of PCs and laptops.
5. Avoid duplicate content
   Search engines penalize websites that duplicate content either from elsewhere on the site or from other websites. In other words, avoid this at all costs.
6. Create a sitemap
   Sitemaps help web users find their way around your websites and are loved by search engine algorithms. That’s because they help users find their way around websites quickly and easily. Find out more about creating a sitemap here.
7. Make the most of robot.txt files

Robot.txt files are smart text files that tell web robots, such as search engines, which of your web pages they should be crawling. Undoubtedly, this is great for SEO purposes. Find out more here.

Incorporating a link-building strategy

Link-building is a crucial part of SEO that you can’t ignore. It’s all about getting other reputable sites to link back to yours, plus adding outbound links to authoritative pages on your own site. Here’s how to make it happen:

How to Get Backlinks
Start by building relationships with other sites and brands. Engage in online conversations, show up on social media, and create top-notch content. Use tools like Google Search Console to track who’s linking to you, and dig deeper with Majestic, MOZ, or Ahrefs to see what your competitors are doing.

Repurpose Old Content
Let’s face it – constantly churning out fresh content can be overwhelming. But don’t toss out your old posts just yet. Repurposing is a smart SEO tactic. Here’s how:

1. Repost on Social Media
   Sharing old content again is a solid way to attract new eyeballs, especially from people who missed it the first time.
2. Rewrite Old Content
   Stuck for new ideas? Rewording old content lets you keep it fresh without worrying about duplicate content penalties.
3. Create Infographics
   Turn old posts into eye-catching infographics. Not only does it make the content more engaging, but it’s also more likely to get shared.

Repurposing old content is a simple and effective way to keep your SEO strong without burning out.

To wrap it all up…

Mastering the basics of SEO is crucial if you want to boost your online presence and climb those search engine rankings. But here’s the catch: SEO is always changing. Stay on top of trends and algorithm shifts to keep your momentum going. Stick to these fundamentals, keep improving, and watch your visibility (and traffic) soar.

Enough talk. Ready to break the internet (in a good way)? Let’s make it happen.