Actionable SEO Tips that work like Magic

SEO is an area that many specialise in as marketing professionals and as an organisation, but the grasping of the logic of doing a good SEO and implementing it is the rather difficult part for most marketers, and organisations adopting SEO as part of their marketing plans.

In this article I share some useful and concrete SEO tips that can be implemented to boost marketing efforts on all fronts via site’s search engine rankings.

(i) Keyword Research

      Keyword research is usually and should be the starting point for any SEO campaign. 

       Keyword research is relevant for the main reason that if as a marketer and or as a company you don’t know exactly what customers and clients are actually searching for in your industry, then you’ll solely rely on luck rather than quality data to guide your decisions.

     Another relevant point to make is to ensure as marketers and as companies adopting SEO, you’re targeting and optimizing the right keyword relevant for your company and or key products and services.

    SIDENOTE: It is also important to try to avoid targeting similar keyword on multiple pages. This is so because Google will regularly only choose to rank one of these pages, and it may turn out not to be the one you want them to rank!

(ii)  Avoid “Keyword Unicorns” by considering search Intent

       At times it’s possible to think identifying a specifically ripe keyword when conducting your keyword research. However, it’s important to know that because a keyword has high volume, doesn’t mean it’s going to be a good one to rank for on Google.

   It is imperative to consider “intent” behind the search.

    Essentially as marketers and organisations adopting SEO as part of the marketing efforts, ultimately you will be looking to rank for keywords that will generate value to the organisation (i.e.: those bringing traffic that will result into leads and customers). So, therefore, you have to target keywords with relevant intent.

(iii) Find Low Competition Keywords for the Best Shot at Ranking Quickly

      Running a new website with low authority?

       If that’s the case, then it is possible to find it harder to rank for competitive keywords.

      For what it’s worth, it can be done, but it won’t be straightforward.

      It will require a lot more effort and going that extra mile and creating something extremely quality. Then put insane promotion efforts behind it.

     Essentially, it therefore, makes logical and economical sense to first target less competitive keywords. This is the quickest way to grow a company’s search traffic as a marketer.

     Tools such as Google Keyword Explorer is one example that makes it easy to figure out how difficult a keyword is to rank.

(iv) Check the Traffic Potential for you target keyword by looking at the ranking page

      Most web pages will rank many long-tail terms alongside their primary keyword.

      So, because of this looking at the search volume for the primary keyword won’t inform anyone about the “true traffic potential” for the page.

      So, in order to be able to judge the traffic potential of a keyword, simply check how much traffic the #1 ranking page gets. This can be done via Google Keyword Explorer which gives you the overview report and enables you to see the organic visits per month or per week for every keyword.

(v) Find proven content ideas for any topic or keyword

     If as a marketer and or company adopting SEO as part of the marketing plan, but yet you find yourself looking to rank for a keyword and are stuck for content ideas.

    It is probably a good idea to start looking at the most popular content out there for starters.

    Google explorer could serve as a good supplement for good content ideas.

    Once you are able to know what’s popular, the action is to take those ideas, adapt them, and make something even more quality and engaging out of it.

(vi) Make Your Content Very Easy To Read (And Digest)

      There is no other thing worse than clicking on a result search and then facing a big, scary wall of text that is incomprehensible.

    This should be avoided at all costs.

    Here are a few points to keep your writing informative, clear, and easy to read:

    -Divide your content into logical sections (which is good for SEO).

   -Write in short, simple sentences (note: readers nowadays have short attention span, so in order to keep the focus intact it’s better to follow this principle).

  -Include storytelling throughout your content.

  -Break up your content with images, it adds a different dimension to your content and helps maintain the attention of the reader.

(vii) On-Page SEO

       Great content is good but doesn’t do all the job.

       It also needs to be optimised for both humans and Google combined.

       Without a sound on-page optimisation, even the really good content will fail.

       For a basic implementation of SEO, a recommendation from this article is to install Yoast’s free SEO plugin (if your ideal choice for a website is WordPress). 

(viii) Include Your Main Keyword In Your Page’s Title Tag (And Other Important Places)

        There are a few cases where pages will rank without the keyword appearing in the title tag (links trump practically everything else).

        But there is still a significant correlation between keywords in the title tag and rankings.

       So be sure every page on your site has a unique title tag and that your main keyword is included once.

   To conclude; when considering and doing any type of online activities in form blogging, building a website and or any other general ecommerce activity, it will be useful to consider the points above. However, there are a lot of other very useful points that can be considered, but the ones discussed above can serve as a foundation to build on.

   I hope it's a good read.