The Best Google SEO Strategies for 2024: What You Need to Know – Part 2 of 3

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Welcome back to our comprehensive guide on “The Best Google SEO Strategies for 2024: What You Need to Know”. If you haven't read the first part of this series, I recommend checking it out here to get up to speed on the fundamentals.

The Part 1 : The Best Google SEO Strategies for 2024: What You Need to Know – Part 1 of 3

The Importance of On-Page SEO Proportions and Optimization

For those unfamiliar with On-Page SEO, I'll be writing a dedicated article on the subject later. For now, let's focus on its significance and impact on different types of websites.

For large B2C websites, On-Page SEO accounts for at least 40% of SEO success. For smaller B2B websites, it contributes around 20%. But why is there such a significant difference? How does this disparity manifest?

Difference 1: Keyword Research and Placement

Let’s compare a website with 100 pages versus one with 10,000 pages.

Keyword research is universally recognized as a critical step in SEO. However, for smaller websites with only a handful of products, the impact of detailed keyword placement on individual pages is relatively minor.

Consider a site with around 100 pages, featuring four product categories, each containing 20 products. You might optimize your category page with a high-value keyword, but the weight of this page in Google's algorithm might not be significant.

For example:

• The category page might receive a boost from 20 internal links due to breadcrumb navigation.
• Additional links from other pages might contribute around 10 more links.
• Ultimately, you get keyword weight from only 50 pages.

In contrast, for a website with 10,000 pages, the keyword placement impact would be much greater. But remember, while large sites can more effectively implement keyword strategies, that doesn't guarantee better rankings. Large sites often struggle with “keyword cannibalization,” where multiple pages compete for the same keywords without clear internal linking signals, leading to poor overall SEO performance.

Difference 2: Internal Link Building

If you have a 10,000-page website, internal linking becomes incredibly important and sometimes just as effective as backlinks. For instance, if you define a keyword for one page and then link to that page from 5,000 others using that same keyword, Google will recognize that page as highly relevant to that term.

However, the value of internal links depends on the context, so linking should be done strategically using varied anchor text for maximum impact.

Difference 3: Technical SEO Optimization

Smaller websites often don't need to worry about technical SEO elements like robots.txt or noindex tags, as Google can easily crawl all pages. But for larger sites with deep URL structures, it's crucial to optimize crawl budgets to ensure that Google can index important pages efficiently. Here, strategies like robots.txt management or structured data implementation become essential.

Similarly, for large sites, properly handling 301 redirects after deleting pages can also positively affect SEO performance.

The Role of Content Writing and SEO Proportion

Now, when it comes to content creation, this is often a key traffic driver. I’ve seen websites where one article generates over half of the site's total traffic.

For both B2B and B2C, content is crucial, but the way it functions differs:

For B2B, content often serves as the primary traffic source.        

For B2C, content can be an incremental traffic source.        

For B2C websites, product pages drive significant traffic, and content becomes an additional traffic driver. In contrast, B2B websites heavily rely on content for SEO traffic.

Why? Even if B2B product keywords rank on the first page, their traffic potential is usually low. But content can target a wider range of topics and bring in traffic from various keywords. Sometimes, a page can rank for hundreds of keywords even when they aren’t explicitly mentioned on the page. This is due to Google’s understanding of search intent. If Google determines that a keyword aligns with the search intent of your page, it can rank it for that keyword, even if it's not present in the content.

For B2C, conversions typically rely on product pages, while content plays a supplementary role, providing incremental traffic.

In my recent case studies, I found that B2C brands with well-optimized content outperform those with weaker content strategies, making content a critical piece for SEO, even as an incremental traffic source.

Thus, I believe the importance of content SEO strategies is about 60% for B2B websites, and 30% below for B2C projects.

How to Write a Great Article

Finding Good Topics

Finding the right topic is essential. A good starting point is analyzing your competitors using tools like SEMrush. Look for high-traffic pages on competitor websites and explore their blog or news sections for inspiration. Then, search for these topics on Google and analyze the top five search results to gather more ideas.

Creating High-Quality Content

Once you have a topic, writing great content is your chance to showcase your expertise. Understand your audience—what are their pain points or interests? Once you've identified this, structure your content in a variety of formats: text, images, videos, and tables. Make sure to use H2-H3 headings, strong internal links, and focus keywords in the introduction. Don't forget to include social sharing buttons and, if possible, a table of contents.

Optimizing for SEO

After writing, it’s time to check the SEO elements:

1. Ensure that focus keywords appear naturally, especially at the beginning.
2. Use a clear H2-H3 heading structure.
3. Include internal links to improve site structure.
4. Ensure titles and meta descriptions contain keywords and are engaging.
5. Optimize the URL with short, custom keywords.
6. Use ALT tags for images, especially the featured image.
7. Emphasize key points using bold text.
8. Add tags for each article to boost relevance.
9. Check grammar, originality, and readability scores.

Building Internal Links

Internal linking is vital. Websites like SEMrush and Ahrefs use internal links extensively, and while this may seem extreme, it shows how essential internal links are for strengthening site structure. Here are three principles to remember:

• Link the same keyword to the same page.
• Different keywords can link to the same page.
• Use each keyword once per page.

Monitoring SEO Metrics

For new websites, achieving significant traffic or high rankings for newly produced content can be challenging. During the initial phases, we focus on monitoring keyword ranking volume. This metric represents the number of keywords from your article ranking within Google's top 100 positions.

How to Monitor Keyword Rankings?

• Enter your article's URL into SEMrush or a similar SEO tool (note: full access requires a paid membership).
• Without clicking further, look at the lower right corner of the screen.
• You'll see a curve illustrating keyword growth or decline.
• Hover over the curve to view the specific number of keywords that have increased or decreased in ranking.

This keyword volume metric is our primary focus in the early stages of SEO optimization.

Tracking Growth Over Time

Patience is key in SEO. It often takes several months for an article to experience significant growth. While some content may generate traffic more quickly, this is typically true for more established websites. If you're confident in your strategy, maintain patience and track keyword growth month by month.

Monitoring Key Pages

As your website matures, shift your focus from overall keyword growth to the performance of key pages:

1. Input your site into SEMrush.
2. Navigate to Organic Search Traffic > Pages.
3. Identify your important pages.
4. Review their monthly traffic trends.
5. If you notice articles with declining traffic, consider updating them.

Updating Content Strategically

Content updates should be approached strategically to avoid counterproductive changes:

1. Examine the key ranking keywords for the page in question.
2. Decide whether to add or remove content based on keyword performance.
3. Support underperforming pages by building additional internal and external links to boost their keyword rankings.

Remember, SEO is an ongoing process. Regularly monitoring your metrics and making data-driven decisions will help you continuously improve your website's search engine performance.

Conclusion:

As I conclude this first part of our deep dive into Google SEO strategies for 2024, I've laid a solid foundation by exploring the crucial differences between B2B and B2C SEO approaches. But our journey through the evolving landscape of SEO is just beginning.

In the upcoming parts of this series, I'll delve into critical aspects that can make or break your SEO efforts:

• The importance of on-page SEO and its proportion in overall strategy
• The significance of content creation and its impact on SEO
• The role of backlinks and their contribution to SEO success
• How to calculate the ROI of your SEO marketing projects
• Strategies for addressing sudden drops in website traffic

Your engagement with this content is invaluable. I encourage you to share your thoughts, experiences, and questions in the comments below. How have the B2B vs. B2C distinctions affected your SEO strategy? What challenges are you most eager to learn about in the upcoming parts?

Let's continue this journey together and unlock the full potential of SEO in the coming year!

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