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The 6 Basics of a Successful SEO Strategy

From keywords to image tagging, here’s a helpful rundown of the six most valuable areas of focus for a successful SEO strategy.

We’re zeroing in on the basics, folks. The fundamental ducks any website needs to get in line to stand a chance of making it in the competitive world of page ranking.

While this list won’t guarantee a steady rise up the search engine results page—if only it was that simple—it’s a great place to start and will give you the solid foundations on which to build an SEO strategy on.

Keywords

Keywords are a vital component of any successful SEO strategy. It’s crucial for businesses to understand what users are searching for in order to drive traffic towards their products and services.

Put simply, a keyword is a word that best describes the content on your page. It’s the search term that you’re aiming to rank for with a certain page—so when people search for that keyword or phrase, they should be guided towards your website or specific product page.

Gone are the days when stuffing your content with relevant keywords would rank high with search engines. Google is now wise to this slapdash approach and you won’t be rewarded with an ascent up the page ranking. You should be aiming to weave keywords into your pages naturally with writing-focused content.

Content

Well-written content should be the beating heart of your website and is vital in the quest for a successful SEO strategy. Not only is it the best way to rank for keywords, it’s the most effective way of creating a positive organic experience for the user.

It’s also a surefire way of presenting yourself as a voice of authority in your market; letting customers, and Google, know that you’re a trusted source of expertise and information. This will ultimately lead to a higher page ranking

Backlinks

Backlinks are links that form the all-important bridge between an external website and yours. These links are vital as they inform search engines that your website is of value.

Remember, it's not about which site has the most links—literally anyone could do that—but who has the most quality links pointing back to their website. A smart way to build backlinks is to contact popular blogs and micro-influencers within your niche and collaborate to get a backlink from their website.

Social Media

While social media does not directly contribute towards your SEO ranking, the links you share across the various platforms will certainly increase your brand exposure—which, in the long run, will result in improved search engine optimization.

When more people share your content across the hyper-connected world of social media, it generates signals that indicate your posts are of benefit to your target market. All the shares, likes, and comments your posts receive are prime indicators that search engines use to rank your website.

It’s crucial, then, for any online business or e-commerce store to establish a strong social media presence to inform the likes of Google that you’re a voice of authority and trust.

Images

It’s perhaps an understandable oversight to think that images and their relevant tagging isn’t important for SEO. The simple formula is that when consumers are looking for a product or service in a search engine, they’re not always looking for web results, they’re often searching for image results.

If your website is teeming with high-quality images, tagged with relevant keywords, they will rank high in search engines. This is another useful avenue down which to drive traffic. Potential customers might click on an original image from your website, even if they’ve never heard of your company. It could be a product image or an engaging action shot of what your business does; anything that will catch the eye of search engine users.

A picture paints a thousand words, and a striking high-resolution image could attract a thousand new visitors to your website.

Technical SEO and Site Speed

Technical SEO is another often overlooked but mightily important concern for any website looking to achieve a higher page ranking. It’s the process that makes sure that sites meet the technical demands of modern search engines—with an overall intention of improved organic ranking. Key features of technical SEO include crawling, rendering, indexing and website architecture.

It doesn’t matter how good your content is, or how appealing your business might seem to potential customers, if the bones of your technical SEO are brittle, your page simply isn’t going to rank. Essentially, if search engines aren’t able to locate, crawl, render and index the pages on your website, the SEO party’s over.

Meanwhile, Google has long-since indicated that site speed is one of the key signals employed by its algorithm to rank pages. For your website, a slow page speed means that search engines can crawl fewer pages within their allocated crawl budget, and this could have a catastrophic effect on your ranking.

How can we help?

SEO can be tricky, and knowing exactly where to focus your efforts and budget isn’t always a straightforward task.

Luckily, here at Sonder Digital, our crack SEO strategists have the answers you’re looking for. Feel free to drop us a line if you’d like some help formulating the perfect SEO plan for you and your business!

Other Relevant Resources

There's always more to learn, we recommend these blogs:

I've launched my website but no-one is coming to it. Why?

The Value of Outreach and Collaborations with Micro-Influencers

‘SEO is not tough…it’s just poorly taught!’

What is SEO and why is it important for my online business?

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Posted on July 1st 2022

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