1: Content is King
Don’t underestimate this piece of the puzzle. Not only is content critical to explaining the objectives of each web page, but it gives you the opportunity to focus on primary keywords and keyword phrases. Another important aspect of content? Backlinks. If content is king, backlinks are queen. How do you get quality backlinks? By sharing quality content. Create a blog and publish unique and “share-worthy” content on a regular basis, and similar sites will share links to your content on their website.
2: Backlink Audits
While backlinks are a key piece of the SEO puzzle, it is important to remember that not all backlinks are valuable. Running a monthly backlink audit is the quickest and simplest way to ensure you avoid Google penalties. Click here to learn more about performing backlink audits.
3: Text vs. Images
Using a flawlessly designed header image to list your phone number, address, and contact information might look great, however, this is anything but SEO friendly. To ensure you’re showing up in local search results, skip the images. Instead, list your phone numbers, address, and contact information in text format. For even greater success, keep your listing information consistent across your Google Local, Yahoo! Local, Bing Local, and social media pages.
4: Choose Quality Over Quantity
When link building, it may seem natural to stuff as many links as possible into your content to boost search results and rankings. However, it is important to realize that one single high-quality link can do much more for your SEO strategy than 10 low-quality links ever could. Plus, as you can see below, link stuffing is not very reader-friendly.too-many-links-on-page-image-top-10-seo-tips
5: Go All-Natural
Search engines (and your customers) favor natural web content over content that has been stuffed with keywords and links. In addition to sounding robotic and forced, search engines keep track of the amount of search terms on your page, and how many times each term is repeated – if the count is too high, prepare to be knocked down a few pegs on search engine results pages. Rather than focusing on specific words, target phrases that sound natural and feel conversational.
6: One & Done
Don’t attempt to optimize your page for every search term you’re tracking; each page on your site should focus on only one keyword phrase. Keeping your web content dedicated to one topic will provide a much better reader experience and will also keep your search engine rankings high.
7: Integrate Social
Social media is everything right now, and this “trend” is here to stay. If you don’t have an established social media presence, build one by creating an account for your brand on all applicable social channels. On your website, link to your social channels by including easy-to-find social media buttons at the top of your web pages. social-media-buttons-image-top-10-seo-tips
Encourage your followers to visit your website, share special offers via social media, and use UTM parameters to measure leads. With social media, the possibilities are endless.
8: Refresh Regularly
Once you’ve developed the perfect page of web content, make a note of the date it was implemented. Every six-months, set a reminder to refresh the content. Study your analytics to see which terms have been most successful and which terms could use some work, then revamp your content based on your findings. Keeping your content fresh helps to improve search engine rankings by adding relevancy, setting your site apart from competing sites.
9: Share the Love
Just wrote a great piece of content based on an incredible blog you stumbled upon? Give credit! When it comes to linking to other sites, don’t be stingy. Sharing the link love makes it that much easier to get backlinks, and keeps your content credible. Another great way to share the link love is to email the website/blog author you’ve linked to; let them know that you enjoyed the content, that you’ve referenced them on your page and invite them to check it out.
10: Determine Your CTA
This may be the 10th tip, but it is the most important part of your SEO strategy. As you’re building your new site, writing content, etc. keep your call-to-action top of mind. Every page on your website should strongly communicate your CTA. For example, if your objective is to get visitors to call, make the phone number easily accessible, enable click-to-call, etc. Reinforcing your CTA doesn’t have to feel pushy or unnatural either – just think like your visitors. After all, they came to your site for a reason.
