I make no apology that I am older than most in the SEO industry and just don’t have so many catchphrases and initials that supposedly mean something important.
I believe the best strategies are the simplest or if they are complicated breaking them down to become easier to manage and work with. The process of simplifying SEO strategies to make them more workable could be a positive solution for your website.
Well, I like to base things around the 4 or 5 areas, all having a direct influence on rankings. Then within these areas break them down again into workable sections.
For those who know SEO these will not be a secret, let’s start with –
Basic Technical SEO
The technical performance of a website is often referred to as Technical SEO and the basics start with page load speed and mobile usability. Google is obsessed with visitor usability and will reward websites that load faster and are mobile-friendly against those that aren’t. Or maybe it is the other way around, they will punish websites, that load slowly and cannot be viewed on a mobile device, take your pick.
The reasons why a website may load slowly can be technical especially if it is a data-based platform like WordPress, right down to a simple fix, that the images that are being used are too large. Viewport sizes and JavaScript issues can affect mobile usability also.
Whatever the problems, if you are unsure of how to deal with these issues, simplify the problem and get a technical SEO specialist in. Many technical audit specialists only work on web load speeds for example.
I choose to keep things simple right from the word go. When starting a new project, I always test speed, before any real content is added. If it isn’t fast at this point, I doubt when multiple images and various plug-ins are added, it will be faster, so I bin that template and test another until it is fast enough.
I simplify the process by testing and re-using what I know works. I have both proven WordPress templates I choose to use, as well as HTML web templates and a few bespoke developed coded templates, through previous testing.
There are other technical issues to look out for such as 404’s (broken links) and security issues HTTPs etc. Just use something like Screaming Frog a free program to help you here.
This section may seem a bit technical, but getting this part right will help with all other sectors of SEO. A more simplistic view is to make the site as fast as those around and mobile-friendly, where all pages are internally
Write Or Obtain Great Unique Content
The technical performance of a website is often referred to as Technical SEO and the basics start with page load speed and mobile usability. Google is obsessed with visitor usability and will reward websites that load faster and are mobile-friendly against those that aren’t. Or maybe it is the other way around, they will punish websites, that load slowly and cannot be viewed on a mobile device, take your pick.
The reasons why a website may load slowly can be technical especially if it is a data-based platform like WordPress, right down to a simple fix, that the images that are being used are too large. Viewport sizes and JavaScript issues can affect mobile usability also.
Whatever the problems, if you are unsure of how to deal with these issues, simplify the problem and get a technical SEO specialist in. Many technical audit specialists only work on web load speeds for example. I choose to keep things simple right from the word go. When starting a new project, I always test speed, before any real content is added. If it isn’t fast at this point, I doubt when multiple images and various plug-ins are added, it will be faster, so I bin that template and test another until it is fast enough.
Many who start with SEO never really look in depth at the content of other websites, but that does not mean it needs to be complicated. One of the best SEO strategies that any professional can do, is to do a content audit of those websites that are ranking well for the chosen keyword. Try to fully understand not just how good the content is on the landing page as well as how much-supporting content there is.
How detailed is the content is it data-driven and what sort of word count is it? Very often it is all put together within a cluster and understanding how this content is related to each other and the keywords involved can help when creating your unique content.
Then stand back and look at the content in a more simplistic way, do not analyse and analyse. Is this content relevant, of good length and not full of words to make sentences longer, or “mish-mash”?
Remember to have the right title tags, headers and meta descriptions, that relate to what is on each page. Make the URLs as short as you can without watering down the subject matter.
Many great SEO marketers get good results even without backlinks, by focusing on long-tail keywords and publishing content on mass.
Obtain Great Relevant Backlinks
Having the ability to obtain great backlinks that not only deliver authority but are relevant to the topic is a real skill, that can define those who are successful in SEO and those that are not. For many competitive search terms that are shorter in length, backlinks are essential.
A whole book could be written and has been written on this subject alone. But watching videos on real SEO professionals and being brave enough to go out and obtain them yourself should be the solution. I prefer the broken link method for outreach, getting links from existing content which now contains broken links, so I would provide a new link for them. How to do this can easily be googled.
My experience is link building is not hard, it is just very time-consuming. Many professionals just buy backlinks, arguing it is cheaper in the long run. Of course, this simplified process is not allowed by Google, but how would they know if the sites that are chosen are off the grid for selling links? When using outreach do not expect a high return from emails (no matter what the YouTubers say). Keep the outreach emails simple and to the point.
Other methods include creating your own Private Blog Network and creating blog posts from Web 2 sites, such as Blogger, and WordPress.
An even simpler SEO strategy is to use social media and share everything and then share again. Don’t forget that social media is also a link, every time a post is linked to your website, that is a link.
How Your Visitors React, Engagement Signals
Google is becoming more interested in how visitors engage with the website and will reward or punish based on the metrics received. Making sure a website has big buttons, videos, and great content to keep visitors on the website is a great start to improving engagement signals. Some professionals believe in strategies such as CTR manipulation to improve engagement signals as well as creating long content, so the page has to be scrolled a long way down or teasers to get visitors to click on another page.
Of course, this is just the basics of any SEO strategy, but the key is to find the strategy that works and then simplify it, so it is workable within the real world.