Part 1: Eight back to basics for SEO
The fundamentals of most marketing strategies continue to stay the same throughout the duration of their life, and while some changes will happen and new trends take over the traditional methods, it is imperative that everyone understands the basics of their current marketing task.
A simple Google search of, “SEO trends 2021” will populate millions of different results from YouTube videos, paid advertisements, FAQs to organic ranking content. There is always a new trend, and while they could change everything for the better, this is only if there is a basic understanding first.
Think back to when you learned how to ride a bike, while electric bikes are all the rage anymore, the bike at its core is still there and pedaling is still needed if the battery dies.
This analogy can be used for SEO transformation and trends over the last decade. The basics of SEO should be understood before taking off the training wheels.
Our Denver SEO firm explains the top eight SEO basics that everyone should understand first and foremost before moving on to the latest trend.
1. Understanding users search intentions
A common introduction question that our SEO marketing experts in Colorado ask all new or potential clients is, “What would your target audience search for when looking for your products or services?”
Silence follows this, or the common phrase, “Not sure, that is what we will be hiring you for.”
The reason behind any SEO agency asking this question is to dive deeper into the industry while speaking with the experts themselves. A website can’t be optimized without a comprehensive knowledge of who the target audience is and their search intentions.
This is because search intention is part of the overall understanding! There is a difference between finding a local dog food shop versus ordering off Chewy. There is a difference between their brand awareness stage of the funnel and the final purchase stage.
All of it has its own intentions, meaning, strategy and understanding behind it, and when our experts can get a broad or narrow undefined list, it only provides the beginning research of search intention to broaden as the research progresses.
Once this has been established, the next step in all of this is selecting and understanding the keywords that are being searched.
2. Keyword research
As Search Engine Journal states, “In the olden days, all we had were keywords.” Keywords have always been the backbone of SEO strategies, just like user intention, keywords are those users are searching for in search engines.
It is not enough to find keywords, put them on the site, and let them go, there are plenty of keywords to consider during the research process.
Our Denver SEO firm’s SEO experts always suggest that companies and SEOs alike check out an SEO software, like Semrush to conduct any keyword research.
There are two reasons behind this.
The first reason is that keywords are not always what they appear to be. This means that it might make sense that consumers would use that term to find the company’s products and services, in Google and other search engines, the results can be drastically different.
When the results are drastically different, and websites rank for those keywords without any relevance to said keywords, this affects the website’s ranking, and overtime a company will notice they will fall off Google or other search engines for that keyword.
It happens with the wrong keywords in place.
The second reason is that keywords have different volumes to them. These are known as two different types of categories in our industry - long-tail and short-tail keywords.
Short tail keywords are higher volume, broader keywords utilized in the search query to produce more results. A great example of this is simply typing in, “search engine optimization”.
Image from Semrush
Image from Semrush
As one can see from the screenshot above, this keyword is highly competitive. The search volume is massive, but will take some time to rank and outperform the largest competitors in the industry!
On the other hand, let’s take a look at some long-tail keywords.
Images from Semrush
Images from Semrush
As you can see above, these keywords have less volume with all of their results and overall smaller volume that is more narrowed down in the search query.
The shocking part is, everyone wants short-tail keywords and they bring in plenty of traffic, but long-tail keywords are oftentimes the keywords that bring in the more targeted traffic!
From there, once keywords are solidified and market research has been completed, it is time to get a link building strategy in place.
3. Link building
Link building, which has many names in the industry, refers to one website linking back to another website. There are millions of websites out there, and there are millions of links to utilize in the link building process, but there are some regulations that companies want to follow.
Only link back to relevant websites in the industry or that pertain specifically to that content, and never link back to spammy, black hat links or websites.
Check out this awesome infographic from Orbit Media Studios that perfectly explains how authority, quality backlinks and a considerable amount of said links help with website ranking.
Links, more links, and continuously making sure to have the best links possible and having the best websites link back to your content is imperative. If you need so many links and they are so important, how do you get them?
Quality, original content.
4. Original content
Content, the vain of most SEO strategies, this is because content takes time to produce and publish, and quality content takes even longer.
Not only that, but it needs to be original content as well. There are several steps in the content marketing process that many companies are unaware of when it comes to the entire strategy.
Content marketing takes form in several different ways from blogging content, to case studies, e-books, short-form content, press releases, guest blogging and so many other strategies, it can be difficult to understand which to pick.
The thing is, as long as it is quality content that consumers and other companies alike find interesting, unique and answers their questions, then it doesn’t matter what type of content exactly.
All of the content above can be optimized with the strategies listed above, and because of this, it is best to start with the basics.
These are four of the top SEO basics that should be nailed down before moving on to more complex strategies. Check out this blog for the second four basics!
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