Search engine optimization or SEO is a unique topic in the marketing field and, when done right, is one area of practice that can generate some of the greatest ROI for a business’ overall marketing strategy.
But since SEO requires you to make both technical and intuitive decisions about your online content in a way that’s unlike other marketing disciplines like advertising, branding, or social media, your best chance at being successful with SEO is by making thoughtful, informed choices.
Here are 4 simple steps to success with search engine optimization:
1. Focus on quality content
There are countless steps toward creating a perfectly SEO-friendly website, but the first and best thing to do is just keep it simple. Focusing on what’s really important, quality content, is what will help your website perform well in the short and long-term.
2. Write for humans, not for search engines
While Google and other search engines rely pretty heavily on complicated algorithms to rank websites including yours, you should never forget about the human element of online search. You can try all the SEO tricks in the world, but none of it will replace having great content that real people can benefit from.
3. Stay relevant
Relevancy in SEO is important in two ways. First, is relevancy to your core topic niche. If you’re in the tech industry, you’re best served by providing mainly technology related content on your website. Straying from that topic won’t just confuse your visitors, but search engines as well. And second, relevancy in time. Search engines value new pages from websites that are consistently updated, so you should strive to achieve this with your website.
4. Inbound and Outbound Links
The rules of SEO has a tendency to change over time, since the web itself is such an ever-changing, volatile thing. However, one rule that remains constant is that search engines take notice of the links pointing to your site (inbound links) and the links on your site that are pointing to other reputable sites (outbound links). If you want to make a big impact on your website with SEO, the best way to go about it is to dedicate time to building high-quality links.
If you’re looking for ways to bring your business’ marketing to the next level, contact us to learn how our inbound marketing, branding, web design and web development services can work for you.
