When it comes to building and maintaining an up-to-date Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy, many companies and marketing professionals prioritize staying up to date with constantly evolving Google recommendations and core updates. This can be detrimental long term, however. While Google releases new updates almost weekly, algorithm changes don’t have major impacts on all facets of SEO.
So what is the key to the present and future success and great rankings long-term?
Working with an experienced SEO agency to build a timeless SEO strategy that incorporates the building blocks of optimization.
In this article, we’ll tell you what you need to know about building an SEO strategy and the benefits of doing so.
For those who are unfamiliar, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and refers to the process of making improvements to your website, so that certain pages appear in search engine results and drive organic traffic to your site.
We’re not saying that staying on top of the latest updates isn’t important. Rather, if you want to succeed long-term and rank on the coveted first page of Google’s search engine results page (SERP), it’s important to focus on the building blocks of SEO.
When your SEO efforts pay off, and you end up on that first page of search results, new customers will be driven to your website instead of your competitors.
When consumers turn to Google or any other search engine to find information about a specific product, service, etc., they almost always click on the first few results. Why? Not only does the average consumer have a short attention span (approximately 8.25 seconds to be exact), but typically, a search user can find what they are looking for within the first page of search results.
Around 90% of all search engine traffic comes from the first page of Google search results. This is because Google is highly selective when it comes to ranking web pages, and only chooses pages that follow its guidelines which are usually clicked on by users searching.
Compared to Pay-Per-Click (PPC) techniques like Google ads and Facebook ads, which require a healthy advertising budget, an organic strategy like SEO is incredibly cost-effective. Plus, it delivers excellent results. Consider the fact that leads that come from search engine results are around 12-14% higher than other marketing methods.
With SEO, the main focus is on optimizing your website for search. With the help of an experienced SEO agency, the main areas to focus on are:
Now that we’ve explained why a timeless SEO strategy is so important, let’s get into the how.
Here are our agency’s top tips for building an SEO strategy that will help your brand improve and maintain its search rankings long into the future.
Link-building – getting other websites to link to your website – is an essential component of any successful off-page SEO strategy. To break it down, if SEO were a game of basketball, every backlink would be counted by Google as a point for your team. The catch is that to be effective, the backlinks you generate must be high quality and relevant to your industry. Just having any random website that has no authority and nothing to do with your industry link to your site won’t generate the same impact. In fact, Google often penalizes sites for having low-quality backlinks.
Determining which keywords to target should be a top priority. The key is to target niche keywords that are highly specific to your business and industry. By targeting broad keywords, you’ll be competing against thousands of other businesses in different industries, making it extremely difficult to obtain solid rankings.
One of the most significant components of an on-page SEO strategy is content. Whether it’s product pages, blog articles, or whitepapers, good copywriting is king when it comes to SEO, but only if it’s consistent. New content must be posted frequently – ideally once a week – with a set publishing schedule. Google and readers like consistency rather than sporadic posting and old, outdated content appearing on page one of your blog.
User experience (UX) is an important part of SEO that’s often overlooked. The reason for this is that many people don’t realize that SEO and UX are linked and directly impact one another.
By improving your users’ experience when visiting your website, Google will reward you with better rankings.
Here are some of our Toronto SEO agency’s top UX tips for improving SEO:
Once you’ve begun implementing the tips mentioned above, it’s essential to track and analyze your results to see if your efforts are working. This way, you can make any necessary adjustments depending on performance.
Things to look for include:
As previously mentioned, the core components of SEO should be your main focus when building a future-proof strategy. However, it’s important to adapt and keep up with any new trends or recommendations and algorithm updates from Google. This will help keep you ahead of the competition and ensure you are always one step ahead.
If this all seems confusing, don’t stress. When it comes to SEO, practice makes perfect. The key is to stay flexible and continue to make adjustments as you go until you reach your target goals.
For those who still aren’t sure how to begin planning and implementing a successful SEO strategy, Consultus Digital — the leading Toronto SEO can help.
Our team of professionals has the track record and expertise in all areas of SEO that will help your business achieve amazing rankings and long-term success.
Get in touch with us today to learn more about how our team can help you get significant, lasting results.
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